Monday, February 22, 2016

inflatable world - rainy morning fun

he
He spent the first half of the morning sitting at the cafeteria tables with his friends' Granny, the two of them quietly reading while the rest of us jumped. Eventually he decided to have a try and was hooked the moment his socks touched the colourful vinyl squishyness.

she
She started chanting "Castle! Castle! Castle!" as soon as we neared the entrance and jumped, rolled, pranced, slid and explored excitedly for the entire 2-hour session.

me
Oh my goodness, it was so much fun!

Saturday, February 20, 2016

let them stay

he
At the "Let Them Stay" gathering outside the hospital yesterday evening, he decided to make signs on his post-it notes.

she
She danced and played in the centre of it all.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

empathy?

It's something I desperately want to help my kids develop. But it's so personal. And so complex! And so simple.

he
Earlier this week, I asked him to remind me to grab the lunch bag out of the fridge before we left the house. He said "I will write you a note to remind you!" Which was a lovely idea, except he got distracted and didn't do it. Luckily I remembered the lunch anyway and no one had to survive a morning without crackers and bananas. 
Then, yesterday, I was particularly exhausted. He came out of his room during rest time and found me looking pretty wrecked. He stared at me for a few moments, deep in thought, and said, "I will write a reminder!" I didn't know what he was talking about but nodded. Later, we found this reminder note on the computer desk! He could see I needed some support and came up with his own idea about how to help. 
For years I've been watching him, hoping for tiny hints of evolving empathy. Sometimes I have to look really, really, really hard. Other times, I get a reminder note.

she
After kindy drop-off this morning, she and I wandered down to the vigil outside the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital, to show our support for the Doctors and Nurses who are refusing to discharge baby Asha (who's just a few months younger than Little She) to be deported to unsafe conditions in Nauru. We arrived during a beautiful gathering of 'Mums 4 Refugees' and spent the morning with them. Obviously, She was just interested in playing with everyone else's toys, eating their crackers and pulling her hat off but I hope to continue exposing her to gatherings of compassionate, informed people so that she may be inspired by what she sees/hears/learns!