Around the World, Around the World

I think I just had one of those "teachable moments" the Montessori books are always talking about.

Earlier this evening, GG and I were enjoying some quiet, wind-down time listening to classical music after a gourmet dinner. Oh okay, you got me - we were watching T.V. after eating cereal for dinner (in my defence, we did have a lovely, healthy cauliflower soup for lunch)!

An ad came on the telly, advertising a European cruise company and showing iconic shots of castles, mountains, etc. Hannah noticed a particular scene looked pretty, and said she would like to visit that castle.

"Mmmm, it looks pretty, doesn't it honey?" I murmured non-commitally.

"You take me there one day Mummy?"

"Well, I'd love to honey, but it's a veeeeery long way, way away."

A discussion followed about how far it was, and I used a comparison of when we flew to Melbourne it took two hours in the plane, but to fly to Europe would take a whole day in a plane. I could see the concept didn't really take, and was ready to just change to subject and leave it, but GG kept asking questions relating to it, and I tried to think of ways to explain the scope of the world to a 3-year old.

In a burst of inspiration, I grabbed the (always handy) laptop, and pulled up a nice, colourful world map.

We then spent an amazing hour, exploring the world via Google images. I started off by showing her the Gold Coast, where we live, and tracked the mouse up to Brisbane, where we drove recently. I then showed her where Melbourne was, and reminded her how we travelled there by plane a year ago, and how long it took.

Then I showed her where various friends and family live or have sent her postcards from: Canada, Croatia, Italy, Bermuda, India, New Zealand, Germany. Her expression was priceless as she sat there on the couch, wide-eyed and contemplating the size of the world, and all the different countries. I explained that she would learn all this in school, but I could show her a bit for now and see what she thought. I've never seen her pay such rapt attention. She was fascinated, and asking questions about everything. She then herself started pointing at countries and asking about them: Russia, China, Indonesia, Africa, Brazil. Once I showed her each place on the map, I pulled up some images of iconic landmarks, the people, whatever came up. We saw carnivale outfits from Brazil, German castles, African kids tending their goats, Indian women in saris, the Canadian Rockies, Italian churches. I loved it, and I loved watching GG love it.

I'm not sure how much of it she absorbed, if any, but she was truly interested, and talking about the buildings and people she saw. Especially when she noticed that the African kids all had dark skin. She asked me why and I told her.

"Well, everybody has different coloured skin, see how mine is darker than yours? I bet you couldn't find one person with skin the exact same colour as yours. Well, people who live in Africa, their skin is all different shades too, but it tends to be darker, quite dark."

"But why is it dark?"

"Umm, well Africa is a very hot country, with lots of strong sun, and their dark skin protects them from getting burned by the sun."

What she definitely did absorb was that it's fascinating to learn new things, and that there is a whole, massive world of information out there, and it's at our fingertips.

I want to instill a love of learning in GG, a curiosity about why, what, how and a thirst for knowledge. It seems we're on the right track, her natural curiosity is only getting stronger and I need to be mindful of that, and make myself available to answer her questions, incessant as they may be!

I don't think we can just wait until our kids hit school age, then just turn them over to the teachers and hope everything goes well. We have been teaching them from the day they were born, and I think we should continue to do so, all the rest of their lives. Yes, schooling is important, and I'm certainly not the person to go to with your algebra equations, but parents need to encourage a desire to learn, and show how enriching it can be. I can still remember my Mum replying to me questioning the importance and relevance of a particular subject (it may or may not have been algebra), "The important part of school isn't exactly what you learn; it's that you learn how to learn."

We also need to remind them to be questioning, and examine the motivations behind the messages they receive. This is especially important as they get older and are hit by media and advertising more and more. Is that ad for Coke showing because they care about your happiness this summer, or because they want to sell more product?

These will definitely be the lessons I'll be teaching GG.

Dory Time

I've been watching Finding Nemo with my Gorgeous Gal, and thinking about Dory. You know, the scatter-brained blue fish with the three second memory.

Years ago, way before I had GG, my Mum and sister saw Finding Nemo with another young family member, and promptly started calling me Dory. I, having no idea what the hell they were on about, rolled my eyes and ignored them. Then, I watched the movie and realised that Dory was umm.. Dory. I would've been a bit miffed, and taken the issue up with them, but I got distracted by something shiny and then forgot all about it.

Watching the movie again though (actually, for about the millionth time), I have decided that being Dory is a good thing. I think she has a lot to teach us.

Like staying in the moment. Forget the bad stuff that's happened, heck, forget the good stuff in the past too. It's the past, gone. Just concentrate on here, and now.

Just keep swimming. Sometimes, that's all we can do. When life gets tough, and things have got you down, what can you do? Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. Keep going, and have faith that something better is just around the corner.

Take your joy where you can get it. Whether it's making a game out of escaping a jellyfish cloud, or riding the waves in a whale's mouth while waiting to find out of you're going to be eaten or not, grab every opportunity for fun. It just might be your last.

Dory also teaches us that it's good to be open to life's adventures. When Nemo's Dad tells her that he promised he'd "never let anything happen" to Nemo, Dory reminds him that "if you never let anything happen to him, then nothing will ever happen to him. Not much fun for little Nemo". Well, she gets his name wrong, but you get the idea. It's a fine line between giving your children protection and independence, but we need to remember that we can't keep our children in bubble wrap forever. Mainly because they couldn't breathe!

And of course, a second language is always handy. Even if it's whale.

Thhhaaaaaaaaaaaank yooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!

Things I've Learned in Life

1. No matter how loud you yell at it, laundry does not put itself away.

2. You can please some of the people all the time, and even all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all the people all the time.

3. You need to make very clear to husbands that the ‘no metal in the microwave’ rule also applies to alfoil.

4. You cannot control what people do, even the things that make you crazy, but you can control how you react to them.

5. Everyone you feel envious of has things in their life you would never wish for.

6. Be DAMNED careful what you wish for.

7. Money won’t make you happy, but a lack of money sure as hell doesn’t either.

8. You will always, always, always run into ex-boyfriends, high school crushes and potential employers when you look like crap. I’ve done all three, and I think I was wearing the same pair of sweats for all three!

9. Ironically, shampoo stains carpet, and doesn’t clean it. It will also foam to roughly the size of Uluru if you try and clean it up using a wet cloth.

10. Some days are just shitty.

11. Some days, just smelling your daughter’s hair, damp from the bath as she snuggles up for a cuddle, can make a shitty day disappear and your heart smile.