Earlier this week the Blue Eyed Boy went on school camp. Hubby and the Green Eyed Girl were there to wave him off on the bus while I was at work. I collected the Green Eyed Girl from school at the end of the day and home we went.
On returning home from school there is a flurry of activity, daily chores to be done, afternoon tea to be devoured, homework, screen time. Apart from the natter of how was your day and newsletter reading, permission form filling in, and some homework checking, I have been made redundant in this. Over the past year there has been quite a shift in our home dynamic. The kids have done a lot of growing up. Suddenly the independence and autonomy I had been working towards and sometimes yearning for is here… and as much as I like it, with one child away there was a definite lack of clatter and chat.
The Green Eyed Girl was happily cocooned in head phones and email messaging to a school friend. Tea was sorted. Hubby was working in the cupboard office. As I walked through the kitchen, I had a sudden thought… which I could almost hear pinging off the walls in the oh so quiet house. This is what it’s going to be like when the kids leave home… this rattle and quiet and jobs done…I stopped. I shoved the thought back. I wasn’t ready for it to be a real thought.
Oh, I have plenty of days when I mutter away about please for the love of Pete when will they leave home? But when given a taste (and I know it was a very tiny taste) I am just not sure I’ll be as pleased as I joke I will be. For the first time in eleven years I am aware of a new stage in mothering. The stage where mother bird doesn’t need to be there… the stage when the baby birds have left the nest.
I know this is the way it’s meant to be. I have carefully lengthened and loosened the ties. I know I want independent children who challenge and problem solve and make their own way, even if it is not my way. And I know for sure that the empty nest is still a long, long way off. But this week I have had a glimmer of what that may be like. Perhaps when the time comes I will be a little more prepared.
But I’ll tell you one thing… I sure was happy when the house was full again.
Tags: blue eyed boy, children, green eyed girl, parenting, wrapped in love
Posted by Naomi on Jun 15, 2010 in
Motherhood,
Teaching 
© The Green Eyed Girl 2006
I was asked to write this for Carly at Early Childhood Resources. She was very patient with me… I took a while to do it. Carly asked me to write about my teaching… so without further ado…
People often ask me why I became a teacher, but really I don’t think you become one, I think you just are one. Yes it takes training, study and a lot of hard work to become qualified to be one… and then more work, study and training to keep being one, but to me it’s a calling.
I often joke that I only applied for a Bachelor of Education because my boyfriend at the time was studying it. But really, it’s what I wanted to do… and the boyfriend was gone by the time I filled out uni applications.
Teaching is a joy. It is also hard, tiring, stressful, demanding. Yes, we get our fair share of holidays, but really, I wont insult readers by justifying them. It’s obvious that work does not stop when the classroom door is locked and the lights turned off.
Over the years I have worked as a class teacher and as a reading recovery teacher. I have taught Kinder through to Grade Two on a regular basis and worked with children up to Grade 6. I have been in small rural schools with a total of 96 students from Kinder to grade 6, large children’s services, and city schools.
Most days I love what I do. Seeing children learn to read, write, draw… knowing in some small way I helped… it’s a great feeling. Teaching is a partnership with the child and their family. It would be an arrogant and ignorant assumption if I thought I alone taught a child to write their name or read or count.
I have many, many stories, names and faces that have stayed with me over the years. Some so funny I still cry with laughter, some so sad I still cry at the loss. I have had piglets for show and tell, a puppy that came to stay for the day because it was pining for it’s young owner. I have watched a sea of parents faces as their children line danced on stage… and had to explain to Miss Australia that the little one crawling under the mat at her feet was still getting used to the whole sitting still concept. I have had to hold tight to hands and explain that the bad man with the gun will not come and get us after Port Arthur in 1996. I have locked doors and hoped the police get to the parent in the midst of a custody battle heading our way with a firearm. Which they thankfully did. I have been given gifts, had meals cooked… and there are I don’t know how many photos of me sent to children’s relatives in far off countries.
As the years passed I had my own children. Did this change how I taught? Perhaps, just a little. It may have made me a little softer, but it also made me much more aware of just how capable children are given the chance, and the expectation that they can do it!
But to me, really the greatest thing of all has been the lessons I have been taught. They held me in good stead for when my own children came along. I learnt that children have their own agenda, and their own voice, and their very own time frame for doing things… and that really, we are there to nurture them as they travel their own path… it’s a rambling, winding path, it has hidey holes, and wide open spaces, bumps and detours. But it’s a path I love to be on, sometimes leading the way, sometimes being the follower and sometimes walking hand in hand.
Tags: children, it takes a village
Posted by Naomi on May 11, 2010 in
Motherhood 
So, a few days ago it was Mothers Day. I like Mothers Day. I do. Really, it’s just that… well… sometimes I wonder what it’s all about. Each year it seems to become more and more commercial. Each year it seems to get bigger and I can’t help but wonder if this is what it’s really all about. Because here’s the thing… to me Mothers Day is about family, and saying “Hey, thanks Mum, for being Mum…” To me it’s not about expensive gifts, elaborate gestures… and really, are we as mums putting extra pressure on our own children to be, on this day, perfect? Are we???
No one is perfect. No one. Not me, not my Mum, not my kids… I stuff up… a lot. I can be a right impatient, stroppy cow of a mother. I love my Mum more than I can say, and as I get older, I love her with more appreciation and respect, I’m a mum now too, and I am beginning to understand just what it was like for her with three young children to bring up, and let me just say she did an amazing job. Amazing.
But should Mothers Day be any different to any other day? Really, should it? I just don’t know. I said in yesterdays post, what a perfect Mothers Day I had, and I did. Why? Because there was no pretence, there was no pressure. The house was a mess, there was (and still is) a huge pile of washing to fold that spills from not one but two baskets. I went with the Green Eyed Girl to run in the Mothers Day Classic. When we came home I cooked my girl and me bacon and eggs. Then I went to finish a uni assignment. In the afternoon Hubby and kids went for a walk and watched a movie while I typed away at the computer. And it was the best Mothers Day I have ever had.
There was no expectation that the day was going to be wonderful and full of happy family picture perfect moments. There was no pressure on any one to make the house tidy for me… we all live here, we all contribute to the mess, and to the cleaning up. My Hubby and kids had not been off to the nearest shopping centre to get me the latest thing I wanted (and believe me there are plenty of things I want.) This is not an anti consumerist rant, I’m as consumerist as the next person. It’s just that I think somewhere along the way the true meaning of Mothers Day has been lost.
Surely the simple things in life are what the day should be all about. And really, my kids don’t get enough pocket money to buy me the perfume I really want, or the new GHD I crave. But, what they do have, is the thought, the creativity and the love to make me their own cards, their own poems, and choose from the school fund raising stall items they really think I want. Chosen with all the love and care two children can muster… enough to fill me with love for them over and over.
Perhaps, for me, that’s what Mothers Day is… to remind me of the unconditional love my children have for me, and that I have for them.
So, my Green Eyed Girl and my Blue Eyed Boy, thank you for reminding me that really, (in the words of a favourite movie) Love actually is all around.
Image source
Tags: blue eyed boy, children, green eyed girl, parenting, wrapped in love
Recently on a Friday afternoon after lunch and a play and a story and a chat and a drink and a rest and putting on shoes, the class, The Lovely Assistant, any parents willing to hang around and help, and myself have headed outside the kinder confines to THE TENNIS COURTS. Yes, that’s how we like to say it, in loud, excited tones.
THE TENNIS COURTS are a magical place for the class. They are HUGE. The have NETS. They have (thankfully) a very high fence on all sides. We have started playing Fruit Salad on the courts.
Fruit Salad is a running game. Just the thing for a Friday afternoon. There are rules. There are apples, there are pears, there are bananas, there are oranges. I have tried other fruits… but other fruits can cause Friday afternoon tears. Mangoes are not always wanted. Strawberries are wanted by everyone, even the bananas. Kiwi fruit, well, apparently no one wants them.
The rules are simple. When the fruit you have been named is called you RRRRRRRRRRRRRUN across the court from one yellow line to another yellow line – wait, that’s a white line Sweetie, here is the yellow line, keep running over here…. yes, that’s right, here is the yellow line… what’s that? You need a wee, OK in you go with The Lovely Assistant… oh, you need a wee as well? Ok go catch up, Oh, you don’t need a wee, your shoelace is undone, will I can fix that… but you will need to now come off that yellow line I was so keen for you to run to so I can tie the lace. Now, where was I… OK, APPLES! No one runs. BANANAS! Everyone runs, even the apples.
This is where the next stage of the game comes in. When I call FRUIT SALAD everyone is supposed to run, because, you know it’s a fruit salad. Sometimes everyone does run, almost.
When it’s fruit salad I am meant to try and catch fruit… then put them in the jam pot. Then I can also call out JAM POT and the jam pot runs screaming (I didn’t specify the screaming, it just seems to come with the jam pot.) So, now we have apples, pears, bananas and oranges running. We also have fruit salad running as well as the jam pot screaming like baby banshees running.
Are you following so far? Simple really, isn’t it. So, here we go… FRUIT SALAD… run… run… I’m going to catch you…. yes Darling, I know you are an orange… but when it’s fruit salad everyone runs, even the oranges… Um, Petal, aren’t you in the jam pot? You are? Well, wait until I say jam pot then you can run OK? Hmmmm, what’s that? You don’t want to be a pear, you want to be the goose? Well, perhaps when we play duck, duck, goose… Oh, Lovely-ness, if you run screaming into my legs and climb up them hug them it makes it very easy for me to catch you, so if you don’t want to be in the jam pot run away from me next time.
By now I am out of breath. I am hoarse from saying fruit salad, and Jam pot, and various other fruits. I am sweating from trying to catch all the little fruit salad pieces. Really, who knew four year olds could run with such gazelle like ability? There are, after a time, only a few pieces of fruit children left waiting to be put in the Jam Pot, where the rest of the class wait with The Lovely Assistant, who, being much fitter than me seems to be barley raising a sweat from all that running with the jam.
It’s at this point I declare game over, so we can start playing Duck, Duck Goose… have you ever tried to get 25 or so children in a circle, sitting down and then get one to chase another AROUND the circle?
Friday, I’m in love with you.
Image Source
Tags: children, Friday I'm in love with you, running, school
Posted by Naomi on May 4, 2010 in
Meme,
random sweet nothings... 
A lovely blogging friend Jade tagged me in this. (Jade is also the one who sourced the image I have used in this post. I did look for others, but this was the best image! Call it a little but of envy & sloth mixed together… well, it is a post about the seven deadly sins after all.)
All I have to do is share with you all my seven deadly sin temptations. So here then is a little insight into me!
Gluttony. What can’t you get enough of, even though it’s bad for you?
Chips, plain chips. Really I could eat them all. the. time. Put a bowlful near me and look out. Munch, munch, munch.
Lust. What does it for you?
Forearms. Seriously underrated body part. Also, a well dressed suit man… or a scruffy dreadlocked guy. But, if I’m being really honest the thing that does it for me? A really good flirt.
Wrath. What makes you cranky?
Down right rudeness. Blatant line pushing, ignoring merging traffic, shoving past people… seriously, are you so much more important than the rest of us?
Envy. What makes you green?
People with on tap child minders.
Sloth. How do you relax?
Sitting on my bed with a good book for a whole day, ignoring everyone and everything.
Pride. What are you inordinately proud of?
My Blue Eyed Boy and my Green Eyed Girl.
Greed. What do you get greedy for?
Clothes, clothes, clothes… and shoes, shoes, shoes… and some accessories.
Now it’s my turn to tag three people.
Megan from Writing out Loud
Emily from emlykd the strange
Lucy from Diminishing Lucy
Image Source
Tags: children, Clothes, green eyed girl, Meme, shoes
Posted by Naomi on Apr 11, 2010 in
Family,
friends Well, we have returned from our holiday, unpacked the suitcases, washed the clothes, made the house all messy & lived in again… I feel relaxed, refreshed, and ready to take on the world again… and here are some of the reasons why…
A full moon at the family shack in the Tassie Central Highlands
Being here, and not seeing a single soul apart from Hubby & the kids.
...all is love...
The privilege of being in the World Heritage Pencil Pine Lagoon area and standing next to this...
and this...
...and this....
Eating out with Hubby on Hobart's waterfront
Time with BestPam, my sisters, kids, family... and enjoying a good Tassie Sparkling or two!
Tags: Best Pam, children, Drinking, freindship, wrapped in love
Posted by Naomi on Mar 3, 2010 in
Family,
Motherhood 
Today my girl turns nine… nine. She is my baby, how did this happen? I remember the day(s) she was born. Yes, it took 26 hours for her to finally make an appearance. I remember too, that she was born at exactly 2am. Her big brother, sleeping at home with his Granny, fell out of bed at exactly 2am. Her Daddy and I fell asleep sometime around 3am, snuggled in the birth centre bed together, him, her, me.
She had hair, lots and lots of hair. She still does, thick, thick waves of light brown hair. We took her home that day in the same babygro suit her brother had worn home less then two years before. One of my favourite photos of that day is of the green eyed girl, still with her hospital issue knotted surgical stocking hat on, snuggled in our bed with her blue eyed, golden haired brother. Safe and warm under the Indian peacock blue cover.
From the get go our Green Eyed Girl looked passed today and into tomorrow. Just yesterday she started talking about her tenth birthday. One foot in today, the other aways stepping out into the great unknown… seeking tomorrow and it’s promises of things yet to come. Even as a babe she felt it too hard to sleep, sleep may mean things are missed… so no, no sleep thanks.
Her names mean life, radiance, brightness and pearl. Our Green Eyed Girl is true to these names. She is a Pisces princess… a dreamer, sensitive, intuitive… an escapist, idealistic, emotional. She is full of love, laughter and dreams. She loves to cook, and imagines herself as a chef… A dessert chef, in her own sweet cafe paradise. She is learning to stay true to herself, to listen to what her own voice says. She loves clothes, and likes to plan what to wear as soon as an invite is received, a date set… I see her thinking, and planning… that she gets from me.
The Green Eyed Girl, with the infectious laugh, the always looking, always seeking eyes, with a wish for tomorrow to come, happy, happy, happy birthday. Hold tight darling girl, sit tight, for your tomorrow is coming faster than I am ready for…
You may also like Where did the time go?
Tags: birthday, children, green eyed girl, parenting
Posted by Naomi on Jan 31, 2010 in
random sweet nothings... 
Last week the Australian Government launched their new My School site. The Government stated it will give parents and carers information on their child’s school, as well as help parents and carers make decisions about which school to choose. The results that have been published on this site for each public school are linked to NAPLAN testing. This testing is carried out in grades 3, 5, 7 and 9 looking at the areas of literacy and maths.
My eldest child has taken part in this testing. My youngest will do so this year. Before I continue I need to point out I am a teacher. I have taught from Kinder to grade 2, as well as taking on a role as a reading recovery teacher, and a role working with children on social skills. My children attend a local government school. They have previously attended a private school.
While I understand parents want to arm themselves with as much information as possible when choosing schools for their children, I have a number of concerns about the way the information has been presented on the My School site.
The site shows each schools NAPLAN test results – so in essence the information in the site relates to literacy and numeracy. In both primary and high school it relates to only two grade groups. The results are from tests. Tests in themselves hold a range of problems. Testing is not always the best way to determine a child’s ability.
Tests are done in an artificial environment – some children work well to a test, others do not. Some children cope well with the stress of the relatively unknown situation, others do not. Testing like this does not take into account factors such as (for example) whether or not a child has had a late night, is feeling unwell, has had a change in home circumstances that may be adding to anxiety levels. Tests such as this do not cater well for children that learn best through seeing and hearing someone explain a topic, or for children that will understand a question best through a hands on approach. Tests such as this do not take into consideration multiple intelligences – that is the different ways people work to demonstrate their knowledge. For example, some people do well with a written explanation, others do best visually, with diagrams or maps, others do best using concrete materials to solve a problem.
Testing such as this is only a small part of each child’s make up. It is only a small part of each schools make up. NAPLAN testing, and therefore the My School site take into consideration these literacy and numeracy results only. Schools, however, are so much more than this. Where in this comparison is any reference to The Arts? To Sports? To the way children with additional needs are catered for? Where is the reference to the way the school involves the community through shared partnerships, through the way families are (or are not) welcomed into the school. Where is the reference to how staff work together? Where does this site show the way a range of cultures, including our own Indigenous cultures are catered for in a real, ongoing rather than tokenistic manner? The site does not reference how much professional development staff at the school participate in each year. Nor does it make reference to whether staff are aware of current policy, research and practice methods. It does not indicate how behaviour problems are managed. There is no reference to a change in school leadership, as new senior staff and principals can change the way a school operates.
All these factors, and more, go into making a school. While literacy and numeracy are vital, so is knowing your child is respected, and that your child’s voice will be heard with in the school.
So, what am I saying in all this? It would seem to me that the My School site smacks of tokenism. It has simplified each school to a test score. It does not give a holistic picture of a school – no website ever could. Schools by their very nature are complex, dynamic, ever changing places. Some schools have a wealth of resources at their fingertips. Others do not. Schools are not the sum result of a national testing scheme, and that is what bothers me about this site.
So, while I have looked at the site, and at the results of the school my children attend, I will be looking at these results in the broader picture of the school as a whole. Taking into consideration local factors, and local knowledge. I would urge everyone else to do the same. Because it takes a village to raise a child, not a test result, or a web site.
Tags: children, it takes a village, my school website, NAPLAN, parenting, school
The lovely Thea over at Do I Really Wanna Blog? and the equally lovely Jodie over at Mummy Mayhem both tagged me in their favourite photo posts. Thanks guys! I love photos, and choosing just one will be tough. I have been thinking about this while on my forced blogging break, due to study and work commitments (yes, even though technically I’m on holidays.)
The task of choosing a photo has been made easier for two reasons, the first being my old lap top died, and although most photos were retrieved, they are not easy to access for someone as impatient as me. Most other photos have been burnt to disc and are packed away awaiting the end of the fire season.
I also find it hard, because for me, photos fall into a number of categories, kids, kids and friends, friends and me, family… Each photo hold special memories of a moment in time. I have, while trying to choose one for this post looked over many photos… and have smiled a lot. Photos of the family that was made, at music festivals, selling wine, with friends at the beach, beautiful photos of my kids, my family, how can I choose just one?
Well, when it came down to it, I chose the following two… you may have noticed I don’t work well with limits. Boundaries are meant to be pushed right?
Both these photos were taken in Tasmania a stones throw from my parents shack. Now, the thing you need to know about the shack is this – in Tassie every holiday house is called ‘the shack.’ It could be a tin shed with a pot belly stove, it could be an architectural wonder on the edge of a cliff overlooking the beautiful East Coast, or anything in between. On a Friday, the start of a long weekend, or school holidays, when collecting children from school the excited cries of ’I'm going to the shack’ can often be heard.
Mum and Dad’s Shack is situated in The middle of Tasmania, Dad is a fly fisherman. It’s an art more than a sport.
These photos are at the river a short stroll form the shack. I have seen the river covered in a sheet of ice, raging after rain, slowly meandering on a hazy Autumn day. I’ve seen small brown trout wind their way along it, and watched our dogs dive for rocks in it. These photos show Master10 and Miss8 at different ages. The first Miss8 is about 3, her brother 5. The next photo they are 4 and 6. The dog is our dear old boy Solo, who died last year, a gentle old soul who we still miss. In the second photo Miss8 is wearing one of my hats, Master10 has on one of his grandfathers old akubra hats, complete with old hand tied flies hooked in it. Master10 was given this hat when we moved to Melbourne.
I love these photos for a number of reasons. They capture my kids at a moment in time when their whole world was family, shack, water, sun, and snow. They are full of joy, wonder and infinite possibilities….
So now I can tag people to share their favourite photos – and here they are
Emily from Emlykd the strange
Megan from Writing Out Loud
Tags: children, parenting
Posted by Naomi on Jan 2, 2010 in
Motherhood 
As I sat in the shade feeling the warm air dry my swimming body I watched the blue eyed boy and the green eyed girl in the pool. They had that self assuredness and total unawareness that anyone other than their mother may be watching them. Self contained. A total lack of self consciousness, completely engrossed in their own activities together.
Every now and then the green eyed girl would raise her goggled head and give me the thumbs up. I’d return the favour, then she’d be gone again. Their voices would sometimes catch the breeze and snippets of their conversation would wing its way to me…a ‘watch this’ … or a ‘I’ll go first this time.’
Blue eyed boy smiled, lost in his new found water bravery, jumping in from the side, bobbing up under a boogie board…. slowly surfacing, wild hair covering a creamy skinned face.
They traversed the pool in a haphazard way, together in a sibling bubble. The blue eyed and the green eyed – the fair haired and the dark. Around them others swam and splashed, laughed and dove… but it was these two I looked upon, these two that held my gaze.
Then the breeze changed direction. The sun slid behind a cloud and a dripping, colt legged girl bolted across the lawn with a treasure in her hand, glee on her face. ’Mum!’ she called as she dripped on my towel… ‘Look what he did! He found it!’ She opened her hand and showed her prize – her hair band, loosened and slipped from her thick, thick hair to the pool floor. Returned by the treasure hunter… the blue eyed boy – and I looked, and I smiled, and I loved.
Tags: children
