April learning in pictures

CampFest

We (me and the kids) attended a homeschool camp in March in Albury, not far from the NSW Victorian border.

What was meant to be a 9.5hr drive quickly became an 11 hr drive on the way there and a 12 hour drive over sand (not just dirt) roads on the way home due to the flood waters.

It was certainly a trip to remember what with having to drive through flood waters (fish jumping about in front of my car in the outback was a truly sureal experience) and over raods I’m sure where only for 4 wheel drives and certainly not Tarago’s (the desperation to JUST GET HOME had kicked in by then!) and I would not recommend the place we stayed in…….but the kids had a blast and are counting down the months till next year’s CampFest so I expect we’ll be heading back.

March learning in pictures

February learning in pictures

Breastfeeding… of course!

I finished reading Ann Sinnott’s fantastic book on extended breastfeeding a while ago, Breastfeeding Older Children.  She calls it sustained breastfeeding. A better term I think as it’s only “extended” from the point of view of our stressed modern lives where children are typically breastfed for a few months if at all.

Sinnott interviewed hundreds of women all over the world about their experiences breastfeeding their children, and has assembled their survey responses into a complex, detailed look at what women do when they breastfeed, and what the benefits are for their children.

There’s a lot of research here. I found the book kind of rough on my tired old brain….. it’s probably better suited to academics, health professionals and activists than it is to tired mum’s who’ve been breastfeeding continuously for over nine years!

My two older children weaned sometime between their 5^th & 6^th birthday’s, for the most part!  Which means if they are anything to go by and we don’t have any more children then when Spencer eventually weans I’ll have breastfeed for about thirteen years – yay for my extra protection I‘ve gained against cancer’s.

Weaning for me is whenever they are ready really, though I’d guess I probably don’t want to go on much past six*.

Breastfeeding has been such a big part of my life for the last nine or so years that it has become the norm in our house….. two children want milk?  Well goodness I’ve got two boobs haven’t I?  So tandem feeding has been a staple around here for a while.  I’ve had my own issues with it but we managed.  There are the battles of the boob episodes, one does tend to tire of their chest being a battleground with kids slugging it out over who got first crack at the right breast. That one’s full of chocolate milk, you know.

This book is, as I mentioned, an academic text. It’s not a collection of essays on the humorous joys of nursing a toddler or preschooler.  The voices of women come through the text though, and are the highlight of the book for me. Dry as it is in places, I found myself smiling and laughing at the stories respondents share, and the memories it brought up about my own breastfeeding.

If I were just starting on the path of breastfeeding, this book would be an invaluable support for continuing through to a healthy, child-led conclusion.

Breastfeeding Older Children bravely explores the challenges and pitfalls of long-term breastfeeding as well as the delights and health benefits. There are chapters on the role father’s play, how breastfeeding affects couples lives and breastfeeding as a working mum.

A good read in my opinion and well worth the effort from this tired old brain! lol

*It is no coincidence that a child’s immune system is fully matured around 6 years of age.  This is the time when the milk (baby) teeth are lost and a child given the opportunity to nurse on demand up to this point, will most likely wean himself.  Source:Parham, P. The Imunne System. New York: Garland Publishing, 2004.

 

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,100 times in 2010. That’s about 5 full 747s.

 

In 2010, there were 117 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 682 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 1gb. That’s about 2 pictures per day.

The busiest day of the year was January 28th with 105 views. The most popular post that day was A day in the life – lol.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were Google Reader, facebook.com, mail.live.com & 5orangepotatoes.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for “boycott nestle”, bourke show 2010, bloody mozzies, and korina.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

A day in the life – lol January 2010
8 comments

2

Learning September 2010
3 comments

3

About me… January 2010

4

Career change April 2010
7 comments

5

Today… February 2010
11 comments

Random Christmas photos…

Boat trip around Bourke

Some friends of ours took Hieden, Olivia & Zachary out on their boat this morning to have a look at all the flooding… watch out for the top of their fence in the photo to get an idea of how high the flooding is!

More photos…

learning

As you may of noticed I didn’t do an entry for the last couple of weeks of the school year… things just got away from me and I decided it was not essential to run myself into the ground getting it online when I had a paper copy if I ever need it.

My friend over at Kez’s Blog has kindly reminded me (Thanks Kez :-/) that I need to start planning for next year – oops! So my brain is whirring with what Olivia will do and also the fact I have to prepare & lodge registration for Zachary too…. but we are off on holiday in a couple of days so in reality it is going to have to wait!

Of course we are always learning really so their experienves over these summer holidays will be great for them and the more formal learning we will save for school terms!