SPACE- The Final Frontier
Tuesday
saw us attending our last SPACE session, and since we're leaving a week earlier then everyone else, it was Francis' graduation day.
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| Photo Credit: Anna Bird |
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| Photo Credit : Anna Bird |
It was really sad for us to be at our
last day, although there are three more special sessions we hope to attend next
year. When asked to share what had been the highlights of our SPACE experience
a couple of things stood out for us.
We’ve
really like the old fashioned sense of community that SPACE has given us. It
really is a meeting of parents and babies/toddlers all going through the same
stages at about the same time. It’s been about openly sharing our woes, and our
triumphs, and supporting each other and being supported. It’s about learning
how to interact with your child and with other children too, and to realize
that some days the things that were really getting you down or worried pale
into insignificance when compared with some of the issues other parents are
having. It’s been about meeting and making new friends and being open to
different ways of parenting and different philosophies of life with a total lack
of judgment. I think that lack of judgment really bred the air of complete
openness amongst the group. It’s been
about finding surrogate families to share with since our own are so many miles
away. It’s been about the communal spirit and the idea that it takes a village
to raise a child. It’s about letting the kids be kids and observing them in a
safe place without too much adult interference, letting them discover their own
boundaries and occasionally learn what happens when they push them too far (F
had at least one fat lip from falling over). It’s also about parents learning
that their kids are pretty robust and it’s okay for them to test their limits. It’s
about learning together and from each other. It’s about great facilitators who
bring great ideas week after week and who are also willing to leave their own
agendas at the door and let the parents decide what they want to do.
And
it’s also been about lots and lots of fun! Here’s some photo highlights from
recent weeks :
Matchy-
Match Day :
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| Photo Credit : Anna Bird |
One
of the mums suggested the kids and parents dress the same. An easy one for us!
Play
Centre Day:
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| Photo credit: Joanne Gaylor and Dianne Newman |
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| Photo credit : Joanne Gaylor and Dianne Newman |
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| Photo credit : Joanne Gaylor and Dianne Newman |
We played with puzzles, made some gingerbread biscuits (cookies) and then cleaned up after ourselves!
Sand
Play day:
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| Photo credit: Joanne Gaylor and Dianne Newman |
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| Photo credit: Joanne Gaylor and Dianne Newman |
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| Photo credit : Joanne Gaylor and Dianne Newman |
Great weather for messing about in the sand pit! I also discovered Factor 60 sun lotion is great substitute for hair ge.
The Laws of Distraction
I’ve
found the secret to getting food into Francis is to give him something to
concentrate on and have his hands fully occupied. For example, he likes to put
the lid on tubs now, so whilst he is concentrating on that you can offer food
to his mouth, and like some amazing reflex his mouth just opens up and you can
pop the tasty morsels in. The puzzles do
need to become more complex though. Anyone got a rubix cube they’re not using?
Learning Fast
Francis
has become obsessed with lids this last week and putting them on and taking
them off. We started with just push on lids but then he really amazed me with
screw top lids!
For
lunch on Tuesday I assembled a few things on the table and wanted to try one of
the food pouches to see if he liked them. If he did I would buy some more for
our plane trip later this week. I put a bunch of stuff on the table and then
cursed at myself for not having hidden the shiny silver foil pouch as he became
quite obsessed with it. I could not get food into him and he rejected
everything “nutritious: i.e. not shop bought, that I had for him. Finally I
gave in and got the pouch out.
F-bomb
waved his hands up and down in glee, but when I offered the food end of the pouch
to him he was not interested. “Ah the lid” thought I, so I gave him it. He then
proceeded to put it back on the pouch…. And then screw the thing on! WTF? He
repeated this several times. Once the shock had died down I then used this to
my advantage – see "The Laws of Distraction” above - and managed to get him to eat
his nutritious food i.e. salmon! He of course had some of the pouch at the
end.
Following
that he demonstrated to me how he can now push down on the recessed button that
makes his dumper truck makes various noises. He’s learning too fast, and I must
now keep the cars keys out of reach.
I
wonder if we could equate that speed of learning to an adult equivalent? Maybe
learning to do a Fast Fourier Transform AND how to tile your bathroom in the
same day perhaps?
Now Get Out Of That
Within
a minute of these photo’s a four point harness for his chair was ordered! Hooray for the internet!
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| Harnessed! |
The Bottom Line:
2 –
resignations of world Prime Ministers this week. One in Italy and our very own
John Keys. Something smells fishy about the JK one.
148,500
– US dollars that my old house in California is still under water by, seven
years after I sent the keys back to the bank! Housing bubbles are very scary.
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