Thursday, 4 October 2018

Listening to our children


We think we know our children until they write reports for school. Fathers Day cards that say things like what I like best about my father is that he takes me to the park or what I like best about my family is when we have movie night (we have had maybe two of these). Who knew that Tovas favourite game was chess? Certainly not me until I read it on a school project. In fact, I wonder if Tova even knew before she wrote it down. 

Now that it is school holidays we have some fun things planned. Numerous camping and beach trips with friends. The kids are very excited about going camping so I was surprised, as usual, to see Sophia’s essay on what she would be doing over the break.  Not a single word about beaches or camping. What she choose to write about are things we hadn’t even planned. Things she hoped for. Playdates with friends and a visit to the science museum. I am a quick adapter and got the message pretty clearly once I saw it In Writing and organised play dates for Sophia. She was overjoyed and counted down the hours until these events. It was a very effective wake up call about how simple it is to please children and how easy it is completely miss the message. And now I am eagerly awaiting the next essay from Sophia. What things will I learn about my daughter?

On a similar note I took the girls to a holiday park by the beach for a night. Generally, our plans involve lots of frolicking in the outdoors. This time though, because we were at a resort holiday park and because I was alone with five kids and because Tova didn't bring any shoes, I told the girls we could do whatever they wanted. We did go to the beach to collect shells for an hour. But aside from that things we did (in order) included playground, jumping castle, swimming pool, dinner, ice cream outing, card games and the next day card games, swimming pool, and playground. Maybe we try too hard to entertain our children and should just leave them in a playground with a deck of cards and a mob of kangaroos only showing up intermittently with containers of plain pasta and fruit. 

Wishes for the holidays

What kids and roos do for fun 

One big happy family

This Joey was my favorite

Here he is again

At one with nature



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