More Friends

My friend Nicole commented on my previous post that i have friends all over Australia and she is correct. I am very lucky to have so many friends. But I guess i am so excited to be settling in to Canberra because i think this is going to be our permanent home. Which is kind of sad. Because in our hearts, Brisbane is our home. We have some family there, it is where Nathan and I met and fell in love and it has some wonderful memories. I always thought my sister Jackie and I would raise our children together but our nomadic army upbringing has left us in different states and not having the cousins growing up together is what i miss the most. But our life is now in Canberra. There aren't many career options for Nath in Qld (he could work for Boeing in aircraft structures but he hates structures apparently!) And Nath is a very ambitious person so will will stay in Canberra to further his career. But our hearts will always belong to Qld. And we will settle in to Canberra and make it our home. Who know maybe when our children are older we may feel like we are Canberrites!

Friends

We are obviously well and truly settled here in Canberra. I have friends. Lovely, lovely friends. Cid a lady from playgroup came over today so we could do some paperwork for the committee and I must have mentioned that I didn't have the car today and I was thinking of riding to the shops to get a coke. Anyway the day turned dark and stormy so no ride. However Cid returned later in the day to get her phone which she had left behind and she came baring gifts. She brought me some Coke! Thanks you so much Cid. You have made my day!

And now a post NOT about bodily functions!

This is my beautiful family. The preschool had a family portrait fundraiser and this was the result as well as $800 for the preschool to spend on resources!

Toilet Training

We have commenced toilet training Benny! And we got off to a racing start yesterday. I took Ben's nappy off in the morning and no less than a minute after I had dressed him a poo came out. Well he shit (literally) himself! He thought he was falling apart! I told him that was a poo the exact thing that he had been yelling "Get it off me, get it off me!" Every time i have changed his nappy for the last few weeks. So anyway, it fell out and i popped him on the potty and explained to him what he needed to do and...... he had success! So far (and we are only 30 seconds into the whole shebang!) Ben looks like he is going to be my easiest to train. And i think I deserve it! Can anyone remember the infamous Rye Rye poo train of 06? Well here is a photo to jog your memory!

Oh Shit!

I was making breakfast and a loud noise came from the microwave. The noise that came from behind me was Ben going "Shit!" He didn't think he had the pronunciation quite right so he repeated "Shit!" this time enunciated perfectly! What did i do..... ignored it and made a mental note not to say THAT word the next time something goes wrong!

Thank you!

Thank you to everyone for your kind words after my last post. I do know that I'm NOT a pushy parent and that i do have my children's best interest at heart. And I am sure Matty's teacher didn't mean to offend me and I don't think she REALLY thinks I am a pushy parent. Probably just more involved than most that she experiences! I do worry about my children's education, mostly because they are all brighter than I ever was! I mean Ben can count to 12, Ryan can build anything out of lego (he figured out if you made a large square it made a picture frame and he is always trying to frame me!) and Matthew can differentiate between an airbus and a Boeing aircraft! (Well between the red jets and the ones with red tails and kangaroos that Uncle Chad drives and he can tell you that Uncle Chad drives a Dash 8 and that that is a twin prop plane!) Poor Uncle Chad is the busiest pilot in all of Qantas link because he is control of every Dash 8 that we see!
Anyway! Thank you all for your advice! We have already been doing everything already! My kids love books and pretending to read so we will just keep doing what we are doing.

Pushy Parents!

I think Matthew's teacher thinks I am a pushy parent! Earlier this year some parents and i were talking about a new learn to read program. The teacher had never head of it so yesterday when i received my package of readers from this program I took them in for her to have a look at and I received a 45 minute lecture on not pushing your child to read! (We weren't planning on using them now but we wanted to have some books at his level to read next year as he is learning. Matthew is so looking forward to reading his reader when Nathan reads the night time stories, so that is why we got them) Any way back to lecture! Sweden don't teach their children to read until they are 7! She left me quite flabbergasted! Matthew is champing at the bit to read. He spends hour reciting the books that we have, he isn't reading them but he has memorised the story lines from us reading them to him so often. As Nathan said the teacher hasn't seen the hours of reading that we have done to our children. The preschool program is purely play based so Debbie has no idea how academically minded Matthew innately is.
When I rang Nath to tell him I was a pushy parent it started a huge discussion in his office and it turns out one of the fathers has been attending seminars to assist him in teaching his child to read because at 8 his child is having huge difficulties. He advised Nathan to watch and teach Matthew when he was showing enthusiasm for reading. Which he is showing signs of exhibiting now! So we are expecting that we will have no problems when it comes to learning to read in Kindy next year despite the whole lecture from the teacher. It was very interesting to note though, the teacher is highly regarded, the school is highly regarded and they are the reason we chose the school. However, the teacher obviously specialises in special needs children and i can see those that have the special needs are flourishing where those not so needy aren't flourishing in the same proportions. (But still flourishing and having a great time. They think the sun rises and sets in her!) Which I don't think is such a problem but I do hope that as Matthew goes through the school he will be encouraged to learn at his pace and not held back with the lowest common denominator. (how is that for a pushy parent comment!)
It is a daunting journey sending your children off to school. We have decisions to make that our parents didn't have. I don't think they put alot of thought into it. I went to the local school, it never occured to them that they could send me to another school out of area that might satisfy my needs. The options are huge these days. Our school is next door to the catholic school. The catholic school is a little more expensive but not out of our financial reach. We plan on giving our children a private high school education so Nathan and I have spent hours looking into which school we would send our kids to. It was not an easy decision. But we chose Miles Franklin for the things that it offered (I hope they deliver!), the fact they have smaller class sizes than catholic schools and the program that they use to teach reading (more intense than others but with better outcomes).
So now we have to work hard at getting our children safely through their education with positive outcomes that satisfy us (the pushy parents!) and Matthew. Wish us luck!