A Mudjimba Getaway - Exploring The Maroochy River

We just got back from what will probably be our last little getaway of the summer. Things have been frantic around here this term. Which I am sure you could already tell as my blogging time has definitely been affected.

All of us needed some sun, fresh air and some time to just be together so off to Mudjimba, on the Sunshine Coast (10 minutes north of Maroochydore) we headed.

Mudjimba is still relatively untouched (although that seems to be changing) from the fast paced development that seems to happen with most beach side towns. There's not a great deal of 'commercialisation'  in walking distance and that's nice.

We need to make our own fun, with the help of the sun, the pool and the beach it really isn't hard.

On this particular day we decided to go hunting for the 'lagoon' that a local hairdresser had told us about earlier. In all the years we've been coming here, we've never heard of a 'lagoon'.

I only knew of the vicinity (head down North Shore Rd), but it's not a huge area  so was confident we would find what we went looking for. After asking some fishermen in the car park one of them suggested we take the track on the far right, as there were 3 tracks to choose from we weren't sure which way to go.

New adventures are always exciting! For a few metres we were enclosed in the bush of this track and all of us had a little doubt about the way we were heading.

A few seconds later we saw it, the glimmer of water, that had to be the 'lagoon'.

We were greeted with a massive body of water, that definitely had the feel of a lagoon and I can see why the locals call it such. Really it is simply a massive bend in the Maroochy River, not far from it's mouth where it meets the ocean.

Surrounded my mangroves this was a fabulous place to explore. What hidden treasures would we find today.

Within a few minutes we noticed a structure of some sort a few hundred metres down the beach. No one had to think twice about heading off to explore it.

And what a place to explore it was. Climbing several stairs, that once the tide comes in would be over the water, we were presented with a jetty like structure, stretching far back into the mangroves.  After meandering along for some time the interest of getting to the end dwindled, we decided that it obviously came out near all of the huge beach side homes that we could just see in the distance.

 

I took the opportunity to try and grab some sibling shots, I think I took close to 30 in a matter of a few minutes but didn't have a much luck. This one is completely in the wrong position,

And by this stage Little Surfer Dude had had enough and wasn't up for co operating.

We took our time heading back around the 'lagoon', inspecting the mangroves more closely along the way. We did spot a brilliant orange crab hiding within the roots, waiting for the tide to come back in, but he retreated rather quickly as soon as I got close with the camera.

Lego Lover tried desperately to jump up and swing on this rope, that appears to have seen better days, but he simply wasn't tall enough. Probably a good thing I think as I'm not sure it would have held his weight anyway.

Little Surfer Dude carried seed pods along his walk and used them as boats and other vessels, in the end he wanted to see how far he could throw them out into the water.

Whilst I sat and rested the kids decided to head in the other direction to see what they could find. Red Ochre, or at least a clay like substance so like red ochre that we were happy to call it that was dug up from the ground.

We've read and experienced a considerable amount of Aboriginal Culture over the past couple of years, so they were pretty excited to find their own ochre to adorn their bodies with.

Aside from the fact that the Midgies were quite bad during our time here, this was a great place to hang out exploring. The children could head off in various directions, whilst I was still able to keep in them in sight.

We will definitely put this on our must visit places when next at Mudjimba, it's a great spot to connect with nature for both kids and adults alike.

Is There Anything You Can't Do With Lego?

Ok so we all know that Lego is just about one of the coolest things ever invented, but seriously is there anything that we can't do with it?

Well, ok, I'm sure there a lot of things but, Lego, really is so very versatile. 

With all of our talk about Australia, Lego Lover was inspired to create his own map of our country, including state divisions and markers for Capital Cities.

I took this before he made some minor improvements, as he wasn't 100% happy with the proportions on Western Australia.

Mapping with Lego! Truly this product is a gem.

Monthly Memories February 2012

A Monthly Reflection style post is something that I have been thinking about for awhile now. I did this for a little bit a year or so ago. With 3 kids I think I made it harder than it needs to be.

When I saw Gabby's Looking Back posts I was again inspired. I love how she breaks down her categories, makes thinking about the month past so easy.

However I didn't move on the idea, until I got a little nudge. Whilst the NBTS hop was happening I had a suggestion for a wrap up style post meme. I knew I could never commit to a weekly meme, but monthly, I could try for.

So without further ado here is our first installment of Monthly Memories.

Considering how busy we've been this month I'm pretty happy with the amount of intentional learning that took place. Both kids are motoring through their maths and language arts.

Fairy Princess had fun measuring the house and her little brother with her cat measuring tool.

We've been rowing an Australian book and have spent quite a bit of time learning from that, spelling, vocab, list making, geography and art.

There is always an abundance of play. The nanoblocks were a definite hit this month.

The boys spent a considerable amount of time creating 'Australia Zoos'. Love seeing my big boy and little boy playing together.

This month we began our co-op style classes with our homeschool network. The children are participating in Art classes, Science classes and Little Surfer Dude has begun his first intro into structured activities, with Junior Soccer and a Junior Physi kids program.

We've been enjoying art classes with the same teacher for over two years now, both of the children are gaining so much from these. Fairy Princess has an animal focus this term, cats, owls, giraffe's and mixed up creatures.

Lego Lover's age group is looking at Artist's from around the world, Picasso, Rizzi, Dali.

In science they have been covering topics such as sound, water pressure, friction and completing simple experiments each week.

Little Surfer Dude loves his soccer classes, they are all so cute running around after their balls.

Lego Lover has instigated several learning opportunities for Little Surfer Dude of late. This particular morning they were working in a small counting book.

Yay, I actually have a pile of books to share that Lego Lover has read, in fact I am pretty sure there were more, but these I'm certain of. Gone are the days of worrying about reading!

Fairy Princess is working her way through a stack of early readers also. We have a ways to go, but these monthly posts will be a great opportunity to watch her growth in this area.

Without a doubt this month's greatest achievement has been for Lego Lover. He is writing phobic! This year we have talked a lot about how important it is be able to write and write well.

Earlier this month I suggested he start with a Journal. He has written daily at least 4 times a week every week this month. This simple exercise is helping him in so many ways, he is achieving so much........we are on the writing road!!!!

This month we started back with our Extra Curricular activity days, which are organised by our Distance Ed School. These are a much anticipated part of our week. Little Surfer Dude gets to spend the day playing on the playground with a myriad of other 2,3 & 4 year olds, plus we have a small area of activities set up for them.

The bigger two are off enjoying classes of all sorts, dance, drama, music, ukelele, sports, AUSLAN, science, public speaking, art, technology and we are about to trial in the new Show Choir, just to name a few. 

We are so blessed to have this opportunity. We really have the best of both worlds - school, without school and for our family, it works.

We took a visit to the Art Gallery this month to see the fabulous installation - We Miss You Magic Land. This was an amazing piece of art (several pieces actually) constructed using coloured sugar and other bits and pieces. Very inspiring.

Whilst we've experienced the 'dot room' concept before it is still so much fun. The room started out completely white. The children were given coloured dots to stick anywhere in the room they wanted.

Of course there's no visit to the art gallery without heading over to the museum as well.

Our first excursion with our school this year was to White Water World, loads of water slide fun!!
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I'd like to thank Gabby for the inspiration to break the post into categories. I borrowed a few of hers and also to Ingi for adding in a couple more ideas for category topics and Kendra for the nudge in getting me to move forward on this.

Whilst this meme has been designed for Australian Home School Bloggers it is open to any home schooling family wishing to participate.

Please feel free to use the category headers in your own posts if you wish. (just right click and save as) Have ideas for other categories? Let me know and I can make up some matching images for them.

The aim is that my post will be up on either the last day of the month or very early in the month following, depending on when the month end falls and how organised or disorganised I am.

Please spread the word about this meme, let's encourage as many as possible to start reflecting and recording the memories.

Now it's time for you to add your Monthly Memories post below.