On our last two visits, Silverstrand has been covered in jellyfish.
Such ethereal, otherworldly looking creatures.
They didn’t stop this kiddo from racing around the place – so impressed at his ability to dodge them at speed!
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Rescuing a starfish
Today we got to be real-life Octonauts! Ari was splashing around in a tide pool and we spotted a large starfish slowly moving around on the sand. The pool was already dozens of meters from the receding tide, so we sounded the Octo-alert and in the absence of a sweet Tweak-designed GUP, we managed to rustle up a watertight bin from the car and relocate the starfish to somewhere safer.
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Photowalk Scavenger Hunt: Signs of Spring
Ari, Ada and I went for a walk today in Barna Woods. When we got out of the car and I got Ada settled into her sling, I handed Ari his camera and told him we were going to have a little scavenger hunt: he had to take photos of as many signs of spring as possible!
A quick note about image quality – we prioritised usability over image quality for Ari's camera. We bought it for him when he was three years old, and that made sense at the time. Seeing these shots and watching how carefully he took them, I think it's clear that he's struggling against the limitations of the camera.
This is what he grabbed (captions by Ari):
It’s a thornbush! 
Flowers! 
A lake! 
Berries! 
Buds! 
More buds! 
…more buds… 
DAFFODIL BUDS! -
Question: Stations
Ari does “stations” at school, which is how academic learning is handled for junior infants. My question for him today was: What was an interesting thing you learned today during stations?
Not all shapes can roll.
Ari, 5Pretty good takeaway tbh.
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Question: The Hobbit
Ari and I finished The Hobbit today! We’ve been reading parts of it nearly every night for a few months and he’s really been loving it. I asked him today: Which part of The Hobbit do you wish you had been there for in real life? Spoilers (!) for The Hobbit up ahead.
The bit where Bilbo Baggins has to buy all his furniture back, I would love to be there and see him have to buy it all off the people who took it.
Ari, 5Kid knows a good gag when he sees one.
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Winter photowalk
Ari and I regularly bundle up for what we call “a lap and nap”, whereby we do a lap of our estate and Ada gets in her last nap of the day.
Today we decided to turn it into a photowalk, as it was such a crisp and gorgeous winter afternoon.
Things we photographed: the stark outline of trees against the sky, cool shadows on the wall, some colourful graffiti, frosted moss and at least one dog.
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Question: What do you want to remember about today?
Today was Ari’s first day back after the Christmas break. I asked him “What do you want most to remember about your first day back at school today?”.
I used to have a teacher called Neela but I don’t anymore.
Ari, 5I also asked him if he was sad about it but he said no, that he and the other kids had worked together on drawing pictures for her on a big piece of paper before the break to say goodbye.
I didn’t even know she was finishing up!