With strings attached

Being based in one place for an extended length of time means that after the 'must dos' there is time to explore the unusual and out of the way gems a region holds. The last week in Cantabria has been one of finding the magic in small pueblos (towns), particularly in the Basque country. Here's a wee update on our adventure to Tolosa and the more famous city of San Sebastian.

TOPIC is located in a main plaza in Tolosa

Tolosa is probably not somewhere we would have driven off the beaten (tourist) path to, but with children, who loved the idea of visiting a puppet museum, we made a combined a day's outting to San Sebastian with a visit to Tolosa  International Puppet Centre (TOPIC). This is a world class museum with a decent entry price of €3 for adults and €2 for children five and over. (We've found sights in small towns are really reasonable).

This is the puppet who greets you at TOPIC

Going into the Museum (once tickets have been purchased) requires the pressing of a button (and indication of which language you require), before a door slides open and a puppet talks you through the rules of 'co-existing' in their puppet house. This includes being able to touch and play with some puppets if you are 'very, very careful' and other normal things like no eating and turning off your cell phones, although photos are permitted. As the puppet waves you goodbye, a curtain is drawn up and you go into a magical room where there is a short presentation on the world of puppets...then you pass through another mysteriously opened curtained to meet hundreds of the many international puppets the museum houses (and not all are on display). There is also a special exhibition room, where the region of focus changes every few months. We were lucky enough to see floating water puppets from Vietnam. Meet some of the puppet friends we met:

Puppets come in all sizes, like this Mexican one behind us.

Master A tries his hand at puppetry with the MOTH

These photos don't do justice to the beauty of the displays

Floating Vietnamese puppets 

 A short wander through Tolosa reflects some of the aspects of smaller towns, typical of the area.

Colourful apartments and narrow streets

 

You cover your laundry not for rain, but for stuff those in the apartments above might toss out!

A shop window proudly displaying locally made/themed goods.

After our 'morning session' at TOPIC (morning means opens at 10:30am and closes at 1:30 or 2pm, usually reopening around 4 or 5pm), we headed to San Sebastian for lunch near the famous La Concha (beach area). With overcast weather, and being late in the afternoon (by NZ time, not the Spanish), we mainly wandered the marina, enjoying the ambiance and tossing coins to some young boys who dived for them.

Master A admires La Concha as the clouds roll in.

Two more magical journeys through Eskadi (the Basque Country) followed (posts to come) - tonight we enjoy our last night in Cantabria before heading to Galicia for the last three weeks of our adventure... amazing to think we'll be home in just over twenty days. Let me know if there are any reflections, thoughts, top tips or must dos you might like me to cover off... we have limited internet access over the next few weeks, but will post when I can.

Gracias (thank you) for enjoying this journey with us...

Postscript... two days after visiting TOPIC, on one of our 'down days', the boys produced this:

Master A with his puppet show: Kokako and Snowman - a New Zealand Oddity

 

Master T and his puppet show: Chicken and Train: A Tragedy

 

Not doing much

Sometimes I think, when I look over this blog, that we've squashed a lot into our travels...but there are days when we do lots of 'normal' stuff - like we'd do at home, only we're doing it in Spain. The Man of the House (MOTH) and I have, by the last leg of our journey, recognised the importance of breathing and reflection time and if you're travelling with small people for a substantial length of time, this is something we'd recommend.

At home, we aim for an un-aptly termed 'project based homeschooling' (PBHS)  approach (inspired by the philosophy of Lori Pickett), which encourages reflection and extension of experiences and ideas through long, concentrated sessions of play and creative exploration. This was something I had optimistically hoped to continue while on our journey.

It has been somewhat challenging.

But, in the past few weeks, where we've tried for a more 'day on - day off' approach, bought some paints, more paper and other crafty things, and the concept of PBHS, and all the creativity that comes with it, has emerged a little. There isn't so much concentrated focus on one particular area (aside from Master A's life-time project of trains and now planes/rockets and Master T's 'big boats' and 'Gala' (Dali's muse)), but lots of processing is definitely evident.

So what do we do all day, in Spain, when not out and about?

• We go to the supermarket and look at (and try) food, books, and household items that Spain offers.
• We do the everyday stuff of cleaning, laundry etc, sampling Spanish detergents and tools.
• The MOTH works on his next project.
• We work with play dough, draw, paint and model.

Master T presents his turtle, the other two have been making bowls and food 'for winter' - perhaps inspired by a visit to the archaeology museum?

• We talk about stuff we've done and what we want to do. Meals can easily stretch out for more than an hour with discussions.
• We reminisce about home, our friends and family.
• We reminisce about this adventure.
• We build - boats, trains, planes, houses that incorporate all sorts of aspects of things we've seen, heard and experienced.

Tama and his 'big boat'

All the children have disappeared into a tent

• We watch a little bit of children's television in Spanish.
• We watch the Soccer World Cup with Daddy.

Nail biting stuff!

• We kick a ball around outside our apartment.

• We read and look at books.
• We craft and create bringing in all sorts of elements (kiwi, origami, rockets)

Master A and his kiwi burrow on a plane that can be a rocket ship in an emergency.

• Sometimes we go for walks.

A Sunday morning stroll around Castro-Urdiales

• We rest...

Master T, took creativity and rest to a whole new level...

• We probably annoy our neighbours with our loud shouting and noisy toys/games.
• We think about and plan out things to do when we get home. (And I anticipate/hope that the things we've seen and done will creep out over the next five years...stay tuned)

To this extent, Miss K has been talking about collecting fabric, while on our trip, to make a quilt. It's to be our first quilt project but we haven't been able to get to fabric/craft stores (that is we can't seem to find any).

So... we're asking friends both at home and abroad to search their fabric stashes and see if they have an 'international' bit of cotton cloth, about 20 x 20cm that they could send our way. Embellish it if you like; sew your name or country or add some lace to it -hopefully our 'World Piece Blanket' will come to life!

Leave a comment if you're able to contribute and I'll email you our home address.

Buenos noches from us lot and muchos besos!

From museums to madness and the mundane in between

Tired. But still wanting to share. Resorting to lists today.

Things we've done this week that we've loved

• Disneyland
• Ueno Koen (park)
• For it's fun outdoor play ground

• For the somewhat tired and dated slot machine rides

• Natural History Museum (Ueno)
• Incredible interactive displays over 5 floors, and an informative Japanese section
• Friendly and engaging volunteers who were wonderful with the children
• 360 degree theatre show of dinosaurs and the deep sea
• Required two days to visit (with the children's enthusiastic consent!)

• Shopping at Uniqlo
• Updating our tired travelling clothes and replacing lost items
• So shopping there again, clothes that actually fit me!
• Japanese in public so stylish. Kiwi travelling family of 5 somewhat shabby, but not now!
• 8th story restaurant in Shinjuku next to Uniqlo
• Fantastic food

• Awesome view of trains (kept Master T and Master A 100% amused)

• Y2500 discount from free vouchers from Uniqlo for our big spend up!

• Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi (near Harajuku)
• Well, the MOTH and I loved this. So serene. Children not so serene.

• Commemoration of 100 years since the Empress' passing - amazing displays of Japanese History (Miss K enjoyed this).
• Dancing with Earthday group (Miss K and I)

• Kiddyland in Harajuku
• Five stories of everything kawaii (cute) you can imagine.
• Despite being absolutely crowded, the children were intrigued with all the characters and want to go back!

Things we've learnt:

• Catch trains between 9:30am and 4pm (before 5pm) in Tokyo
• Eat dinner in (so little people aren't exhausted on crowded trains post 6pm)
• Get early nights
• Say yes more and go slow
• Crowds make everyone tired
• Changeable weather (we've gone from short sleeves to merinos over one week) can make people temperamental
• Paper and pens are fantastic entertainment
• Work as a team
• Even when being together as a family, each child needs their own time and attention with Mum and Dad.
• Children are incredibly resourceful when it comes to play. Kids have been using giant bags of nappies as 'trains' and rearranging our meagre furniture for other games.
• Takeshita street in Harajuku is very crowded on Sunday!(Not my photo, but this is pretty much what it looked like. I was too overwhelmed to dare let go of a child's hand and photograph anything down this road!)

Japan reminds me to be grateful for:

• Space
• Our own rooms, gardens and a ground level washing line back home

Our washing line outside Miss K and Master A's room. That's an air-conditioning unit to the left.

• We think so many people go out in the weekends because it's too cramped to stay home
• My own kitchen
• There are certain challenges to cooking with minimal utensils, not to mention bench space (behind the boys, you can see how much bench space I have to work with - that includes a two element gas stove (of which only one works), and an oversized sink.

Our kitchen. The boys made a train!

• Having visited Japan on my own
• Travelling on your own in Japan, there is so much more freedom and ease to access stores, tourist sights and transport.
• Travelling with children is much harder. But it's wonderful to share my memories and joys with them and to see them respond to the newness, strangeness and excitement that is Japan.

More stuff we've lost

• Miss K's polar fleece
• Master A's polar fleece
• My sunglasses
• Am also sure some elements of sanity starting to erode...

But we're still smiling!

Monday musings

It took an entire weekend, but I managed to re-set my attitude to "positive"! And in some serendipitous manner, the module I'm doing on my 'homeschooling' course, hammered home the important point that what makes homeschooling successful is:

...not your academic ability. It's not your children's academic ability. It's not the attitude of your children. It's actually your attitude... Stephanie Whalmsley

It seems pretty logical, and I apologise to seasoned home educators if my epiphanies seem infantile, but sometimes you gotta experience it to actually get it.

I think we're progressing towards unschooling (I'm currently engrossed in The Unschooling Handbook and  How Children Learn  (by John Holt), but it's going to take a while for me to get my confidence up. In the interim we're nibbling from the smorgasbord of homeschooling/education approaches. The journey sure is fun as we work it out!

So what we did we do all day?

Morning session started out with what we call 'circle time' - as much of a circle as you can make with 3 to 5 people! This morning there were songs about trees and autumn. The MOTH led an amazing session of Te Reo stories and songs that captivated the three children. The glint in his eye showed just how much he enjoyed himself too!

This is kind of the 'official' start session, but before breakfast the kids had been playing Kiwi, rockets and tracing writing lines and letters in a write and wipe book!

Pre-lunch Keilani and Akira got out the paints and painted up the salt dough creations of last week. Keilani finished up first and went to wash her crab she found on Sunday to start on her 'nature tray', collecting all sorts of materials from around the house. She may finish that tomorrow.

Lunch was soft boiled eggs. The shells were saved to grow watercress seeds we got at the Sustainable Home and Garden Show in the weekend. Lots of water, cotton wool and interest. Letters were written and flat travellers' documents, then off for a playdate where a sandpit became a volcano construction site!

I can see so much learning... can you?