Things of miniature importance

With only six more weeks of this adventure remaining, the MOTH and I have begun to think there are alterative ways of approaching our days... perhaps that should read, after spending close to three months travelling with three small people, the MOTH and I have come to the conclusion there could be better ways of doing things...

It's no huge revelation that small people have ways of telling you things are not working for them. When you are travelling, or visiting amazing tourist attractions, some of their ways of telling you aren't always ideal. Miss K has had a few major meltdowns when crowds and tiredness get the better of her. Master A's meltdowns can be loud and furious when staying in small-spaces with other people. Master T generally seems to spit the dummy when we're driving long distances.


Spain seems to have been a bit of a turning point so far. This may be for a number of reasons (mainly to do with the MOTH and myself).

1. Having lived in Spain for about a year and a half in total, there's a sense of familiarity for me. The supermarket shelves are crammed with good stuff to eat, the language is beautiful and I can understand the signs.
2. The MOTH and I both speak the language with relative ease.
3. I've mentioned food, but loving Spanish food and knowing what stuff to cook and how to cook it makes for happy tummies and happy family.
4. The house we're in is enormous and we feel like we are on holiday (even though I'm still working).
5. It's just us (and not just us in a small hotel room) - while we loved being with other people, we love having some space to just be ourselves too.
6. We have reverted to our NZ time routines (in general) - no 9 pm dinners for us (yet).
7. It's sunny and warm.

This bodes well for reflecting on why some things might not be going so well and what we could do better. We realised a few things:

What do you mean another attraction?

• Miss K pointed out that we do too much 'stuff' in a day. The MOTH and I thought we were doing one thing a day (with down days scheduled in where possible)... but the last six days involved eating out (often at three different locations), different beds, sight seeing of some monument or attraction and a long drive, not to mention different language, different scenery and different food. Lots of stuff. We need to slow down.

• Quite often the small people were taken to see sights that they didn't really know or understand because we (the MOTH and I) had some peculiar sense of urgency that since we were somewhere (London, Paris), we had to see something (Big Ben, the Eifel Tower). We've spent some time talking about this - who says we have to do X just because we are in Y? We can do something completely different and it's ok, because then it's our adventure in Y.

• We needed to help give our small people context for what they were doing and create some familiarity about it. This is why we think Zunda Mochi is significant to our children - they went twice to the Sendai Castle where they experienced this. It was familiar and had meaning. This is not to say we have to do everything twice, but to prepare/think about/ engage and involve our wee people more for activities (like the Dali Museum).

•   This is our family's trip and all members should be involved in discussing and choosing what we do with our time while somewhere.

SO....

Yesterday I provided the children with ideas for different things that we could do in Barcelona (if they were older they could look up things themselves). Some of them were famous sites (Gaudi's Sagrada Familia for example) and some were less known. We read the information online and saw some short clips. We had four days left in Barcelona; I booked the Saturday for a nearby market, the rest were open.

One of the attractions I had stumbled across was Catalunya in Miniature - dozens of attractions of the region in one space in miniature, complete with model trains - the children elected this as their first choice because they could see lots of the stuff in one place and think about maybe going to see some of them for real. I put Tarragona on the table - that got pushed off in favour of Guell Park - maybe on Thursday or Friday, depending on how we feel. Or maybe La Rambla...

And the MOTH and I - we're all ok with that.

So here's our adventure of Catalunya in Miniature in photos - a little pricey (cheaper to buy online), and having a car to get to it is an advantage, but our three enjoyed three hours here... and I have to say, I liked it too!

WOW it's in miniature and there's a train!

We didn't even have to queue to see this!
 

The boys love the train

And it's Zunda Mochi from us in Barcelona!

 Akira's question of the week:  Why didn't Dali make or paint any trains? :-)

The Toad Road: Travelling South through France

One of the challenges we've faced on this adventure is sometimes having to sacrifice budget for convenience. When deciding between an extra hour (or more) in the car to save the cost of a toll road between France and Spain, we always opted for the toll option. There are only so many squabbles parents can survive, and then there's the fighting amongst the kids.

On our second day of travel, Master A asked if we were going on the Toad Road. It's become one of those 'family things' that happen on a trip. A bit like the 'zunda mochi' pose you see the kids striking in many of our photographs. Zunda Mochi is a Sendai delicacy of green bean paste and sticky rice cakes. Sendai has adopted this phrase as the new 'cheese' for when you take a photograph, and our children, fascinated with the ninja pose they learnt at the same time, have incorporated it into pretty much every photo... but I digress...

The road from Paris to Barcelona can be driven in around nine hours (according to Google Maps and if you are able to whizz along toad roads without a dozen toilet stops). We decided to break up the trip, travelling on average two hours a day and stopping at little villages along the way. The Man of the House (MOTH) was in charge of sleeping sites, which he arranged via booking.com, with varying outcomes.

Day one - we departed Paris and visited Versailles on what had to be the wettest and windiest day we'd encountered in France. Having started out a bit later than intended (packing for five who have spread out over an apartment is time consuming), we opted to visit only the gardens of the Palace of Versailles. The queue for the palace was LONG. Usually, visits to the garden are free (except for Sundays and Tuesdays) and as it was Tuesday we had to pay (kids 5 and under are free) and we were also treated to displays of the water fountains.

Weathering the wind and fountain in Versailles

The gardens are massive and excellent for small people to run around and let of steam. We'd packed a picnic lunch (must be eaten in designated areas) and admired the beauty of the site. Miss K enjoyed the history of the palace, particularly a diluted account of the French Revolution, being in Versailles made history come to life. If doing Versailles without small people, I imagine taking the two day passport to see garden, palace and other buildings option would be well worth it. Miss K suggested in 10 years she and I come back and do so - here's hoping!

From Versailles, via the toad road, we headed to Jargeau. A small quaint town near Orleans, where we stayed in a small, quaint, but clean hotel (Cheval Blanc), ate ok Pizza at a local restaurant and discovered that Joan of Arc had a historical moment here.

Statue of Joan of Arc in Jargeau

Day two -We missed breakfast at the hotel (overslept) and wandered hungrily around the village, searching for a wee café. Found a boulangerie and it was croissants for breakfast. Having embarked on discussions about St Joan we decided to visit the city of Orleans.

Miss K and I on a fountain in the plaza near the Cathedral of Orleans

This township is beautiful. Its cathedral inspired questions about different biblical stories, we saw a peaceful protest march and lunched at a local creperie. There is also a Louis Pasteur Park here, which Master A was thrilled about: "I know him," he announced (we'd read about him last year), although it was too wet to go to the park. A short stop here and we pressed onto a little hotel on the outskirts of Bourges. Our hotel (ACE) was new and clean. A family friendly restaurant was located nearby and breakfast was relatively cheap and plentiful.

Travelling France reminded me to be grateful for my (and my children's) love of history and stories, my high-school French and the MOTH's fearless driving skills.

Day three- We pressed onto Clermont-Ferraund where I suggested that our two star hotel room reminded me of a hospital. The MOTH's response was that that was an insult to hospitals! Inspired to escape our dreary accommodation, we headed out to explore the volcanic region, taking a train from the base of Puy de Dome to its gusty top, buffering ourselves against the wind and cold. It was thrilling.

A Zunda Mochi pose in front of the train for the Puy de Dome

It's cold up here Dad!

Day four - Most hotels have a stand with brochures enticing you to local visitor attractions and Vulcania in Clermont looked amazing. Touting itself almost as a  volcanic Disneyland, we joined throngs of locals to visit this attraction that draws on the natural landscape for its theme. We 'rode' two rides, queued for lunch and watched an ecological film. Unfortunately Vulcania didn't live up to our expectations with very long queues, inefficiency and too many people for two few attractions. Over priced, while we mostly enjoyed ourselves, we wouldn't recommend a special visit.

Zunda Mochi at Volcania

Leaving Vulcania around 3pm meant we arrived at our next destination of Le Caylar (a remote village in the mountains) a little late for our tired and hungry children. The hotel proprietor was a warm and welcoming lady and directed us to a nearby quirky restaurant for a home-cooked meal. This was probably the best meal we had paid for in France, aside from the reasonably priced breakfasts we'd enjoyed at the hotels (this one included).





Day five - Across the border on the Toad Road to Bascara (Hotel de Les Roques) where the food rocked and the host rocked and the price was pretty rock bottom too for two rooms, plus a playground for the children! The sun was shining - bliss!

Amazingly good food - 'pica pica' in Catalyuna

Tama discovers 'planking' in a play ground in Bascara.

Day six - Before heading to Barcelona for the week, we stopped at Figueres to fulfil the MOTH's dream of seeing Dali's Museum. While not overly recommended for children (particularly on a Sunday and the place is full of people), our small people enjoyed looking at the various installations and creations for a few hours before becoming tired. Wee Master T (nearly 2yrs) points out his favourite display in his Dali book he chose from the gift store and talk continues about Dali's art and life.

Dali would have loved the eclectic Zunda Mochi in his Museum!

 Plans for Barcelona include visiting Gaudi's famous works, but today, we supermarket shop and rest in our lovely casa. Buenos noches amigos!

Thomas Edison and Picasso

I assume that the activities that go on in our house are not new to the converted and are probably carried out by the curious about homeschooling, but that's kind of  the point...you don't have to a home educator to channel Thomas Edison or Picasso and get nice and messy! So what did we do today?

The Science Bit...

Akira manipulates gloop

GLOOP!

We recently acquired (by this I mean bought as a result of my bag-a-book bargain addiction) an early 'chapter book' about Thomas Edison as a young boy. This has sparked discussion about history (in particular steam trains and transport) and a healthy interest in experiments, laboratories and science in general. Pulling out one of our 'things to make' books I found a recipe for 'gloop'. Keilani perused the same book and discovered a 'volcano', so this morning became a bit of a 'science' morning, although our kids called it 'making stuff'.

If you haven't tried making gloop, it's fascinating. It involves measuring and mixing (maths - tick) and discovering what happens with 'collodials' (that's the science bit).

To Make: Mix together -1 cup of cornflour 1/2 cup of water and a drop of food colouring, then experiment stirring it fast, running it through your fingers and banging it. It's not too hard to clean up and diluting it with water means it does wash away OK. Lots of messy fun.

We are currently building our volcano with salt dough pushed around a plastic bottle. Just waiting for the dough to dry, which might take a wee while given current weather conditions! We'll keep you posted as this develops.

Building the volcano

The Arty Bit

Since homeschooling Keilani had been expressing a real reluctance to draw. After some discussion, it emerged that she didn't like drawing because she 'couldn't draw real' and other people's drawings were better than hers. She had been quite an avid painter (painting her face and entire body at kindergarten once in khaki green - she was being a dinosaur) and I was curious if talking about and looking at other styles of painting and art might encourage that creativity again. We came across a book in the library called The boy who bit Picasso.  After thoroughly enjoying the account, we've found some other books about Picasso and Keilani is fascinated by him and his work.

I also read somewhere that homeschooling parents should worry less about buying books for their children, and invest in books for themselves that inspire them. By exploring what you are interested in will encourage children to see and learn from that enthusiasm for your interest/passion (a thinly veiled justification for book acquiring). They might not want to do the same thing, but as a 'tour guide' you make the offering. I love art and creating. I borrowed the Usborne Complete Book of Art Ideas from the library (added it to my wish list on book depository). Keilani has pointed out several things she wants to try (hurrah) and I think it might be fun to try at least one new art medium a week, or fortnight, or month... maybe...

Artists at work

This week we tried blow painting. Wet watercolour paper with water (available really cheaply at the 'Gold Store' or the 1-2-3 dollar shop), drop food colouring onto paper (highly recommend pouring the colouring into small containers and using an eye-dropper after several near messy accidents), and using straw, blow colour about. We're also going to try with diluted water colours.

Keilani likened her efforts today to that of Picasso - YAY :-)

After being arty and scientific, we had a play date and went to ballet - tick boxes for 'socialisation' and 'culture and physical education'.

By the way... we just got to the bit in the book where we learn... Thomas Edison was homeschooled!