Fairfield Boathouse

Yesterday the weather was too beautiful to stay inside. I packed our reading activity in a backpack along with a snack and some books. We were going down to the river to learn instead!

The walk to the river is about 1km which the boys can walk easily. As we walked we passed many flowers in front gardens and we looked at their pretty colours. We noticed one flower had curly petals like ringlets! I'd never seen them before. It was the first time I remember using the word 'dead' in reference to the dead flowers fallen on the floor.

The boys got to watch a crane and digger in operation on a worksite (what a treat!) and we stood and watched for a few minutes. It's great how there's so much to talk about and learn even when you go for a simple walk with children!

While the weather was beautifully warm, we're actually a good way into Autumn. I asked the boys to tell me the colour of the leaves on the trees. Some were still green, but many were yellow and red. We talked about how leaves turned colour when it was Autumn, and that they fall to the ground.

We made our way down the steep path to the river, and the boys were so excited they wanted to run!

It's a really beautiful spot down at Fairfield Boathouse. The river makes a bend among pretty parkland and trees, and on the banks of the river in front of the old Boathouse are beautiful wooden rowboats tied up along the jetty.

It's a pretty spot for a picnic or lunch, and this was where we settled down at a table and bench to do our morning work.

The night before I recreated the story of 'The Three Little Pigs' in a Word document using some free pictures I found on the internet. I typed up the story alongside the pictures, and purposely omitted words from each paragraph. I wrote the missing words on stickers and put them in a little resealable bag for the boys to take from.

Three Little Pigs activity

SamSam was too distracted by being outdoors, and after a very good effort on the first page, went and did his own thing. JJ however was very keen to complete the task, and went through the whole book without stopping. They both love the story of 'The Three Little Pigs'.

SamSam sticking words onto his book

JJ getting into the task

SamSam soaking up the views

Satisfied that our morning learning was done, we had cupcakes as a treat then went down by the river bank to feed the ducks. The boys enjoyed this immensely!

 We went for a lovely walk over the bridge and before I knew it, it was almost lunchtime!

Boys running over the bridge

Talking about the signs along the walking track

I decided we should have a treat, and eat lunch at the boathouse. We'd had some really sad news the day before - I had miscarried my unborn baby at 8 weeks. So it was really lovely to be outside in such glorious weather with my precious boys. I wanted to make the most of the time we had together.

We got a fantastic spot right on the water with brilliant views. While we waited for lunch we read our books, and the boys made quick work of a strawberry milkshake (first ever non-homemade milkshake).

Making quick work of the strawberry shake at Fairfield Boathouse

Reading in the sun

Lunch over, the boys rode on the coin operated horse and we then we made our way home. A very satisfying and happy day that I will cherish for a long time.

Fairfield Boathorse coin horse: Giddyup!

Boats, Shoes, Books and a Cake

Every morning since we've been in Bright, SamSam is the first to wake up and get out of bed. He is so excited to go into the living room to play with a huge duplo train set we've found in our friend's cupboard!

I've never seen Duplo train tracks before, but this one absolutely rockksss. It's way better than the IKEA tracks or the Thomas tracks. The tracks can be stuck on Lego, which means that you can make the tracks go up onto different heights. Awesome! All the Duplo cars can fit on them, yess!

After eggs and toast, we're off to the shops to find some toy boats to sail down at our favourite river spot. While we're there I take the boys into the camping store, and we pick up some good 'river shoes' that are grippy and they can wear in the water. The river has lots of slippery pebbles and sometimes sharp rocks, so I feel much better knowing that their feet are protected.

Hurrah, we find some $2 boats at the discount shop! The boys cradle their boats as they walk around, and we check out a couple of Op shops before we head to the stream.

The temperature is oven hot by the time we get down to the water. However the water is almost icy cold, and my feet are almost aching to walk in it! But it doesn't worry the boys, they are having oodles of fun sailing their boats down the current of the river.

We have to block up the holes in our man-made waterfall as the boats sometimes escape between cracks and we watch Daddy madly chase them down the stream.

The boys have fun putting pebbles on the boat, then sticks, then sail them into the 'harbour'. They also play with our plastic drinking cups and bottles filling them with leaves, pebbles and water. This is such great explorative play for them. After a few hours it's time to take the boys back for their afternoon nap, and I feel sad to leave!

After their nap we have a cake for Daddy as it's his birthday today :) We sing Happy Birthday and the boys help to blow out the candles. They want extra serves of the chocolate cake, but we hold firm!

I give the boys some books that I bought at the Op shop this morning. They turn out to be really good ones (only 50 cents!). SamSam's is 'My S Book', and JJ's is called 'My K Book' - both by Jane Belk Moncure.

SamSam sits on the rug to look at his, while JJ sits next to me at the table and I get him to read it out loud. He learns some new words - Kaleidoscope, Koala (I can't believe I have somehow not taught him what a koala is!), Keg and Kid (as in a young goat).

These books are at the perfect reading level for JJ, and I want to go back and get the rest of the alphabet! They have such gorgeous illustrations too!

Afterwards they play outside blowing bubbles, and with a bucket of water and some cups. It's so hot that JJ is soon sitting in the bucket of water! They eventually take off all their clothes and are having a great time splashing water and playing with the garden stones and some old toy trucks and cars.

Before I know it, it's dinner time, then bath, and then books before bed. We read 'My K Book' once again, and then a section about water in 'Richard Scarry's Best Bumper Book Ever' - such a great book.

Today's devotion is about practice. The boys learn that they need to practice if they want to learn to do things, and that God can help them when they try.

How to Teach Kids to Read

We leave for 4 weeks holiday tomorrow, and I haven't even started packing!! (and I'm writing on this entry, ha!).

We've read a few books this morning: 'Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy', 'Winnie the Pooh' mini board book, 'Hippo Goes Swimming', and 'The Tiny Baby'. We also did our devotions.

Today's devotion is about doing things you're told not to. There's a drawing of a little girl who's dipping strawberries into chocolate for a present, but she looks like she's considering eating it herself!

There's a little prayer we pray together "Help me Lord, when it's hard to obey. Help me to do what my parents say."

I hang the washing and the boys ride their bikes. We come inside and they play their trainset, and then watch some DVDs.

It's one of those things that when we have to get things done and can't have too much distraction, we turn on the TV - or more accurately DVDs.

We prefer the boys watching DVDs as we have already vetted the content. We also have educational DVDs within our collection. It's been shown that children benefit from repetition, and watching educational DVDs over and over definitely work. Both our boys can actually read! Our 3 year old can read around 700+ words - although now he can sound out new words phonetically - and SamSam perhaps about a hundred. If you're wondering how to teach kids to read - they've learned this just from watching a couple of DVDs.

How To Teach Kids to Read

The DVDs we used to teach them are called "Your Baby Can Read". You start them from about four months of age (yes four!), although we only started JJ at 6 months because I didn't read the instructions properly (how ironic).

You just show the same DVD - about 20 minutes long - a few times a day, every day, in a situation without distraction. We didn't show JJ any other TV except for the DVDs. When the intro music would come on he would get really excited!!

We knew that he could read when at 12 months he put his arms up in the air when the words 'Arms up' appeared on the screen. Within a week or two, he could read words like mouth, fingers, toes - we knew because he'd point to them when the words appeared on the screen.

So JJ could read before he could talk! It's incredible, and it was so easy8 (painless!) to do. I couldn't recommend it highly enough :)  I'll find a video of JJ reading when he was little and put it on here, soon. Keep posted!

While I'm packing away and completing four loads of washing, the boys are watching DVDs, but after lunch, it's straight to bed for a nap. When they wake up, they decide to pull out all their books from the bookshelf in their room, and empty all the stuffed toys onto the floor. Look at the mess!

But in doing this, they discovered books they hadn't read in a long time, and they are content for a quite a while to read amongst the rubble on the floor.

Thank goodness DH has decided that we should leave the day after tomorrow, there's so much to do!