West Coast Wildlife Centre in Franz Josef

We were flicking through Timo's book where he keeps articles of interest and he added one today about a boy who went missing in the bush and using Bear Grylls wit, got himself out safely and he also received a message from Bear Grylls after seeing it in the media, and we re-read an article about a kiwi hatchling which talked about the new WC Wildlife Centre in Franz Josef. Very timely as Jeremy is taking Timo and Caoimhe down there tomorrow and they will be paying a visit for sure. The centre has discounted annual passes for locals (anyone who lives on the West Coast) at $39, well worth it as we plan more trips down that way in the coming year. The centre currently has 13 of the rare West Coast kiwi eggs incubating which is great news as they have been found in the last month. For the next 10 days they are having special backstage tours... more here

Linsey Pollak show

We all went to a great show last night, 'Passing wind' with Linsey Pollak. He was really great! and the most interesting and inspiring show we have been to for a long time.

Jeremy liked the rubber glove bagpipe:



Timo especially liked the carrot clarinet and asked "how do you get such an amazing sound from a carrot?":



Caoimhe liked the watering can clarinet and asked "how do you make that noise from a watering can?":



Lennox clapped at every opportunity.
We all really liked Mr Curly made from some hose pipe:



Linsey Pollak is now one of Timo's favourite musicians he says. The plan is to make some of the instruments when he gets back from the ski trip.

Found some little creatures about the place...

and here

and here


and then a farm on the wall of the bedroom!

Good news

It's about time we posted the news that we will be welcoming another little person into our family in about 6 months and a bit time. We are all very happy about it and we really did think a fourth was missing from our family :).
I have to recall something Timo asked immediately upon finding out, "Jeremy, when did you fertilise Ruth?"... ummm...
This new baby has sparked a huge interest in Caoimhe especially about baby development. She wants to know the literal truth about everything. She is very interested and has put in specific orders that it be a girl.

The trio coming back from visiting and feeding the chickens and checking for eggs.


Curiously, just one tiny egg today.
"How can this be?"
"Where did it come from?"
"Why would the chicken lay such a tiny egg?"
"Maybe the chickens didn't eat enough and that's why it's so small".


Caoimhe just wanted her photo taken and posed accordingly.


Playing with the water tray from the toy library.

Timo's ant colony he made from Tomasina's (cat) food feeder (she doesn't currently need it). Has searched in various locations and soils for ants, but hasn't found any yet. Instead the enclosure has one worm, three slaters and a "hopper" which is basically an insect he found that hops. Have yet to classify what is actually is.
One expedition for ants coincided with a couple from the Regional Council who were just parked at the foot of the driveway, in order to do some tests in the adjacent creek. Science in action! as the guy said. We gave (actually we shouted at) him plenty of questions as he was at work standing in the river with his measuring gear, and found out they do the tests mainly to monitor water quality (basically the amount of cow poo in the river), and what kinds of bacteria that consists of (forget but definitely the coli's) and other physical, biological and chemical characteristics... he assures us it's perfectly safe for swimming where we are - good news! Results on their website.

Before they were dressed and ready for the day, they were keen to play cooking for customers. Turned into quite a lengthy process and some number problem solving for example, Timo says he has 20 customers, then suddenly 49 more people turn up, he has already cooked 7 pancakes, so how many more pancakes does he have to cook? As soon as he realised the answer, he figured he would have to go and get dressed and make some more playdough in order to make the 62 pancakes. He said the pancakes were $10 each but his customers liked them so much they wanted to pay him $15 per pancake, how much money did he make altogether?
Caoimhe had 8 customers and 8 pancakes so her customers were sorted, she gave away hers for free.

Making crowns

Making crowns. They have moved themselves up in rank and now proclaim to be a King and Queen these days.

It happens at all times and at all places. Enjoying a spot of early morning sun. They are both playing 'school' with the backpack.

Making things:

Somehow breakfast morphed into making things simultaneously...

Timo constructed a fighter plane.

'The Creature From Pretty Butterfly Chicken Horse Snake Monkey-Head Land'. Written and illustrated by Timo, Caoimhe and Ruth.


Timo's helicopter made from his imagination. He has been keen on buying a plastic remote control helicopter he saw at the toy shop and telling every visiting person about it. Finally a good friend backed us up and surprisingly responded with a frank "oh Timo, that sounds like rubbish, you would be much better off to make one yourself". Said friend's father was a pilot so Timo thinks she should know. He hasn't said a word about the helicopter since and was so happy and pleased with himself when he engaged in the process of making his own helicopter with moving roters and everything he wanted it to be.
Now, how to make and attach motor so it can fly...

A gift of lillies from a friend.


Organised chaos. Timo is making something else with lego, Caoimhe is making a hospital and Lennox is tending to the teddy patients.


Timo explains his plans and what he has constructed accordingly in the sandpit.


Caoimhe's pin wheel scones and person.


Timo and Caoimhe made a soup, took all afternoon with everything involved including



picking delicious greens from the garden. They were soo good they were being eaten raw, especially the purple sprouting broccoli.


Ray Mears inspired bush craft and fire starting.

Made a dress for Caoimhe.


Mincing ? and very interested children in the process.

the feather that fell from the sky

We saw the fluffiest little feather fall from the sky


We thought it might have drifted down from one of the birds tweeting in the oak tree


Or from the heron that had just flown overhead



Wherever it came from, it was a lot of fun to play with. We find the most interesting toys in nature.

You are what you eat

From the Daily Mail.co.uk

Saturday so far...

After breakfast, Timo writes and illustrates a poem and letter for Sophie. Poem goes
vat
hat mat
pat
cat fat
Yat Gat the cat sat on
the hery mat


Meanwhile Lennox and Caoimhe help with the dishes.


Some rapt children notice the first crocus bulbs in flower. Spring is here!


Timo creates an extinct volcano landscape with vegetation, various animal habitats featuring Aslan the lion and a bat colony that has inhabited the crater, caves for animals to shelter etc,etc. This is in the building mound of dirt that he and Jeremy are piling up from digging out tunnels under the house in order to replace the piles. Big job.


Caoimhe draws a picture of a new baby girl being born. The baby girl is Caoimhe.

And later paints a scene from a fairy tale about Snow White.

Music and performance

Timo playing the recorder as a tui bird in a story called Louis the Tui with children from North School and members of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra at th NBS theatre. Timo is standing behind the music stand at the front:



Singing in the performance they created together to this whakatauki 'He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata! He tangata! He tangata! ...'
What is the most important thing in the world? The people, the people, the people!...

Catch up

The audience for Timo's spectacular performance he set up and charged $3 per head for! He had set up the space with spotlight (torch) and all. It was hilarious to say the least.


Spider girl got to perform at intermission.



Help! Help! I'm late for the cheetah princess ball!


A ride with the babies that Lennox is very sweet at looking after.


Butterfly project.


Just a small catch up since the last post. We were all pretty much bed ridden sick that lasted for about 10 days in which time we took it pretty slow and had a lovely time mooching around the fire doing various things (Timo beat me at draughts on one occasion! And Caoimhe at a later date and I still don't know how it happened, I was 2 counters down to start with though...). Timo and Jeremy starting motoring through the Narnia series and are now up to the 3rd book The Horse and His Boy. Had time to peruse some other lovely book such as these I bought from the book depository (thank you Grandma Prue for funding these purchases) that are just lovely for this time with Spring just around the corner and the very first leaves of the Oak tree have appeared and we managed to spot them this year.



Lots of projects going on of various kinds from digging tunnels under the house to constructing butterflies, catching up with friends coming back and going overseas. About 40 packets of seeds are about to turn up in the post so it'll be all action stations for seed propogation to create our lovely lush garden we are going to have this year and in the process of re-shaping etc. Timo and I had a trip to the local museum in response to some questioning about how old the town is, how old are the buildings? etc, didn't actually find a lot at the museum unfortunately, we will probably get in touch with the Buller history and genealogy group. The Christchurch Symphony Orchestra are stationed at Westport North School this week so Timo's going to join their junior orchestra today and there will be a public performance tomorrow straight after work at Granity Playcentre, it's going to be a busy day! Preparations for change going on in general and of course there is implicit learning across all of our curriculum areas all the time. There's also hockey which Timo is getting more and more skilled at each game, have heard the coach describe one of his games as "AWESOME!" which I'm sure is local lingo for he played with skill and a kind of passion, and he got a write up in the local newspaper. Also had another random member of the public, a grandmother, tap me on the shoulder to tell me a lovely story about a holiday programme day that Timo went to in the school holidays and when talking about what her grand daughter's highlight of the day was, she said it was having Timo there and that "he's so lovely". A similar story from another mum who works at REAP who have been in touch with to organise visiting groups or people of interest. Have requested Ruud Kleinplaste, aka, The Bug Man.
J and I also had time to revisit a favourite and humourous TED talk and person talking about education... Sir Ken Robinson:



and in this one it is drawn by a creative friend of a creative friend, an example of the 6 degrees of separation theory.

Does it get much better than this for a little dog? Caoimhe is the one not in pink.