Toy room change-up…

 

The move to have the kids share a bedroom has been a great decision. Both Megan and Alex have loved being close to the other.

But changing the now-spare bedroom into a playroom hasn’t been as successful. Having all the toys in one room with a close-able door has been great, but the kids don’t use it. They rarely go in the to play…and that was the whole idea!

It could be because their days are so busy during the week, that we allow them chill-out time in front of the TV in the afternoon. But that doesn’t explain why they don’t play in there on the weekends.

It could also be because there isn’t much floor space to actually play. We have plans to get the kids into bunk beds soonish, which means their chests of drawers can move into the bedroom also. This will free up more space in the toy room for playing.

I’m hoping that it isn’t because they don’t know how to play. I’m hoping that I don’t need to set up activities for them, or even have to sit down with them to play. (See my earlier post for my thoughts on that!!)

I’ve gone through some of the kids’ toys and bagged up what I never see them playing with, ready to pass onto the Salvos. Perhaps this clean out will prompt them to start using the room, or at least start a discussions that allows us to find out why they don’t play in there.

Time will tell!

Metablogging

When I was at uni, we often had to read lengthy journal articles that were very jargon-y. Lots of incredibly complex sentences that needed to be deciphered before you could begin to understand them. When I have to read that sort of stuff now, my brain curls into the foetal position and starts to rock!

They often threw around ‘meta’ words. metacognition meant thinking about your own thinking, metalinguistics was something like the language of language. I assume the word meta means about itself, so I am about to create my own word…..

metablogging the act of blogging about blogging. (patent pending!!)

Most of my posts here at M&AsWorld are about the kids, our family and our lives. But occasionally I want to acknowledge the beautiful blogging community who have welcomed me openly, respond to my posts and invite me into their own bloggy-worlds. I like to let everyone know that I appreciate your presence in this part of my life, that has taken off and been much more rewarding than I ever thought possible. Essentially this blog is a record of my kids, for my kids one day. But the fact that I can share it along the way is a blessing I never expected.

So this will be my new category, a new tag…METABLOGGING. When you see it, you’ll know there is either some introspection or heartfelt blogosphere love coming your way!

Not uncommon in M&As World…

It’s the end of my working week…

Choosing schools…

We went to our first Prep information session tonight and I’m not sure what I thought of it.

Not because I didn’t like the school. On the contrary, it seemed really good. But I think this is a situation where too much information isn’t helpful.

Coming from the school environment, Mike and I already knew lots of the information they spoke about and I sort of tuned out. Not good on my part. But I don’t know what exactly I was looking for or expecting, since I already do know things like curriculum, routines etc. because all of that is pretty standard across Victorian government schools, with slight variations along the way.

So seeing as none of that stuff is new to us, what do we base our decision on?

Facilities? Play spaces? positives and negatives with facilities tonight. A small gym but they had a swimming pool which got me excited! There didn’t seem to be many large play spaces for the kids and the principal said they were a growing school with new classrooms being delivered as needed. Did that mean play space would be chewed up to make room for classes? Kids need space to run and burn off energy so they can sit still in class.

Approachability of staff? The feel we get in the school? The session was very informal and the staff were happily chatting to everyone. The school captains even took us on a tour and spoke confidently about their school. It was a very friendly and relaxed vibe, I thought.

Availability of before and after school care? Yep, all good there.

Is it the right fit for us? Will they make Megan comfortable and nurture her and her learning? And Alex too? He is a totally different kettle of fish! They both loved playing with all the activities tonight, but in a real classroom setting things could be different.

Oh, I don’t know

Maybe we need to visit more schools to start a good comparison. But again I still don’t know what I’m looking for. Maybe once we’ve looked around a bit more, we’ll just know

A Family of Photographers…

A little while ago in internet-land, I saw an post about getting kids to take photos, getting them behind the camera instead of always in front of it. It was directed towards older kids but I starting thinking….

Maybe Megan and I could take some photos together and see what happens. We did this and I have inlcuded the results below. (Alex even joined in with my iPhone).

A family of photographers??

My intention was to do it together; we could talk about composition, lighting, focus, etc, even in the very basic of methods. Instead, Megan just took off and starting snapping everything and anything! I love her enthusiasm, and I think because she has had a camera shoved in her face all her life, she believes cameras and photos are special.

snapping away

But, without sounding arrogant, I thought Megans’ would not turn out that well and mine would be much better. OK, I thought mine would be AWESOME in comparrison! Well, she showed me up! She had her simple point-and-shoot camera that she got for her birthday last year and most of her photos were great! I rarely had to dig through blurry ones, most were totally in focus, centered and with a good amount of subject/background (for a 5 yr old anyway!)

Mine are on the left, hers on the right.

bird bath

This was really the only blurry one, but she wanted it included!

So what does this mean? Is my daughter a child prodigy? Are point-and-shoot cameras just as good as better quality cameras? Has she got the knack for this brand of technology that most kids seem to just KNOW? Or a mixture of all of the above?

We will definately venture out further afield to test the theory!