There are probably very few parents of children in the early years of school who are not familiar with sight words coming home for revision and review each night. The challenge for us all is to make this a fun time for your child – and believe it or not, sight words CAN be fun! There are so many games and activities that you can play, and it’s an exciting time to see your child’s literary skills grow and expand every week.

Today I want to show you how one inexpensive shower curtain can provide you with the perfect backdrop for lots of activities which will appeal to little learners who love to learn by moving, touching and having fun.

I picked up this plain white shower curtain for $7 at IKEA. It’s great quality and quite thick which is important as it is going to get lots of use over the school year!

Gather your child’s sight words together (if you haven’t been assigned any sight words yet but you think your child would enjoy learning them, the Dolch Sight Words lists are a great place to start), and grab some permanent markers in a few different colours.

Then start writing! The different colours help children to focus on one word at a time, and can be incorporated into the activities as well.

Number 1: Word Jump – The child starts by picking out a word, and calls it out. If the word is correct, she jumps onto the word. When she lands, she chooses another words and jumps again. You can then make it a bit trickier by calling out the words, and asking your child to find them before she jumps.

Number 2: Swat The Word – Great for letting out some energy. Give your child a flyswat, and her job is to swat the words as you call them out. This is a great activity in which to introduce another player, as they can race each other to find the word and see who swats the word first.

Number 3: Rolling Ball – Choose a small ball (or dice, or small pebble). The child stands or sits at the edge of the mat and rolls the ball onto the mat. When the ball stops, your child calls out the word it stops on, or the ones that are closest to it.

Number 4: Bouncing Balls – Your child uses a larger ball to bounce onto the words. She can walk around the mat – bouncing and calling out the words as she covers the mat. You can participate by standing on the other side of the mat and calling out a word. When your child finds the word, she bounces the ball over to you by trying to bounce onto the word you have selected. Your child should repeat the word as she bounces it.

Number 5: Words by Colours – Call out a colour from the words on your mat and let your child see how many words of that colour she can hop onto and read out correctly, before she loses her balance. Keep a record and see if she can better her score each time.

Number 6: Katie’s Favourite – This is Katie’s favourite game so she has naming rights. Set the mat up in a large space with no furniture too close by. Have your child stand on one corner, facing the middle of the mat. Ask her to close her eyes and start jumping towards the middle (little jumps!). When you call out “Freeze”, your child stops jumping and calls out the word(s) she has landed on. This one is usually accompanied by lots of giggles (or rolling around on the mat!).

Learning should be fun! I guarantee that you and your children will come up with lots more games that you can play together as their sight word vocabulary grows. Moving and learning is natural for our early learners, so don’t feel that homework should always be about sitting down quietly at a desk or dining table.

The more we can learn to recognise the way our children learn best, the more they will love to learn.

How do you have fun with sight words in your house?

The entire country was devastated to learn of the abduction, rape and murder of Jill Meagher, a 29-year-old Irish woman, on the streets of Melbourne’s inner-northern Brunswick at around 2am on September 22, 2012. Jill was a beautiful, smart, and confident young woman who was tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Jill had made the decision to walk the short way home to her flat after a night out with her co-workers. Her final moments were captured on CCTV video where it showed her speaking to a man in a blue hoodie outside of a retail store. This man later proved to be her attacker.

I remember hearing the news that her broken and lifeless body had been found some 50km from Brunswick. The world changed ever so slightly for me that day.  Every young woman seemed to echo the same feeling that hung limply in the air, “That could so easily have been me.” We tell ourselves that we are safe, that this is Australia for goodness sake. That women have the right to feel safe on our own streets. But the sad reality is that we no longer feel safe, and we shouldn’t.

This week I travelled to Melbourne in what should have been a relatively quick and painless flight from Brisbane. Instead, our inclement weather saw the flight delayed from 6.55pm to 9.38pm. We touched down in Melbourne at around 12.10am. Making my way to the taxi ranks outside, I was waved on by a worker in a high-vis vest explaining that the Virgin rank was not in operation due to strike action, and that I would need to walk to the other side of the terminal to join the QANTAS taxi rank. So I did.

I walked quickly and mindfully, very aware of my aloneness in the middle of the night. As I approached the new rank, I had a couple of middle-aged business men actually RUN ahead of me in order to beat me into the queue. They got the last taxi that had been sitting there. I was directed to a taxi bay where I stood waiting – shivering in the 10degree cold that I never seem to remember when I pack from tropical Queensland. The man behind me in the queue took the taxi bay one up from me. After 5 minutes a taxi arrived and mistakenly pulled up in front of him. Instead of waving him along to me, he quickly jumped in the cab and zoomed off. I noted his eyes cast firmly downwards onto his iPad as he drove past me. He wasn’t about to make eye contact with the single woman that he had just taken the taxi from. Every man for himself and all that.

After another 5-minutes another taxi arrived, and I jumped in the back – grateful to be out of the cold air. We drove towards my motel in Highett – a good 45 minutes from the airport. By the time we arrived, I was so tired and so desperate to get into a warm shower and bed. I hopped out of the taxi at the door of the motel reception, which was just inside the driveway. As I gathered my bags, the taxi headed for home (I was his “final fare” for the night), and I did wonder fleetingly why he didn’t wait for me to at least be inside the reception before he drove off. But given the door was only a couple of metres away, I really didn’t think too much of it.

Until I tried to open the door, and it was locked. It was 1am in the morning.

So I knocked politely on the door, however found it to be double-glazed so that my knocking became just a tiny tip-tapping. I then pressed the call button, which rang twice and then put me on hold (which told me over and over again what a wonderful motel it was to offer 24-hour reception). After a few minutes, I pulled out my phone and dialed the number of the motel. Again it rang twice, and then put me on hold – to the very same ads that were playing through the front call button. I pressed the call button at the front door… again.

My phone blipped at me – “10% Battery remaining”. I pressed dismiss and hung up. That 10% suddenly meant more to me than just a pesky inconvenience. I walked along the windows until I found one that wasn’t double-glazed. My polite knocking from before was now a very loud and incessant KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! I knocked until my knuckles hurt. No-one came.

It was at this time, that I felt it. I felt every bit as alone as Jill was last September. I even texted a friend saying, “Are you awake?” – just trying to make a connection with someone who might tell me what to do. I wondered whether to call another cab to go to another hotel, because there seemed to be nothing else in walking distance. I wondered whether to walk around the motel in the darkness – looking for any sign of someone who could help me. I was so cold. And it was now 1.15am in the morning.

My heart rate started to quicken – if no-one was responding to the multiple phone calls I had made to reception, if no-one was responding to the noise of the loud-speaker phone at the front which continued playing the hold music, if no-one responded to the racket I was making by banging on every office window, then who would respond to a kerfuffle in the dark street in the early hours of the morning. Episodes of Oprah kept playing in my head – the ones where she says, “Listen to that inner voice. If you want to run, then get the hell out of there.”

I kept thinking, “What would I be telling my girls to do in this situation?” I was getting angry with myself. Angry at how helpless I felt. Angry at the situation that I had found myself in. Angry at the taxi driver who had just left me there. Angry at the motel for not having systems in place to make me feel protected and safe.

At 1.18am – exactly twenty minutes after the taxi drove away, a man appeared at the desk inside reception and opened the door. After I had stepped inside, he casually asked if it was cold outside. It was only then that I realised that my whole body was shaking – teeth chattering. Probably from the cold, possibly from something else. I told him that I had been ringing and ringing and ringing, and knocking and knocking and knocking. He shrugged his shoulders and looked at his phone and said “Oh there must be something wrong with the phones.”

You know that feeling when you finally set your eyes upon your child, whom you thought you had lost in a shopping centre? That feeling of a hundred different emotions and yet all you can do is hug them because they’re safe and in your arms and that is all that matters, so you can’t even bring yourself to be upset with them? That.  There was no point continuing a conversation that would go nowhere.

I took the key from him, and walked quickly to my room – using the last of my precious 10% of battery to light the way with the iTorch app, because the thought of walking into a dark room was too much to bear. My body slowly stopped trembling and I wiped away the single tear that had slid unknowingly down my cheek. I bolted the door behind me… and exhaled.

I don’t like it.

I don’t like that I don’t feel safe. I don’t like that as a society we are still not doing enough to protect each other. I don’t like feeling vulnerable.

So please tell me, what would YOU have done in this situation?

How would you have handled it?

And do you think that that we are doing enough to keep women in Australia safe?

* Post-script – the next morning as I was checking out, the receptionist advised me that the night manager had put his phone on silent which was why he didn’t answer. She offered me a free breakfast by way of an apology.

If you watched “The Voice” this week, you may have noticed a teensy little snippet in which Ricky Martin was asked, “How are you?” by one of the contestants. His reply… “Grateful”.

Ohhhhh Ricky! What a beautiful soul you are. Last week I talked about positive male role models, and I think Ricky would have to be pretty high up on the list. And I loved this reply. How many times do you hear people actually say that in response to “How are you?”. If you’ve caught someone on a bad day, you might hear a blow by blow description of everything that has gone wrong that day… or about their latest health issues… or about something that they are worried about. Often you’ll just hear a polite “I’m well thanks.”

But grateful? That’s huge. That one word speaks volumes. It says, “My life isn’t perfect. But I choose to be thankful for what I have in my life.”

Yesterday I had a day that fell neatly into the “Thank goodness that day is over” category. It was long, it was busy, and it was often times very frustrating. I felt disappointed and let down by  a couple of things, and it was starting to weigh on me. The more I mulled it over in my mind, the more I felt like I was letting the Worrythoughts take hold.

Perspective.

I recalled Ricky Martin’s answer in my mind, and I stopped counting my worries, and started counting my blessings.

I have so many things to be grateful for… and so many people.

Friends who make me laugh. Friends that listen. Friends that I look forward to seeing just because.

Teachers who inspire me with their passion for educating children.

A husband who understands me.

A family that is united.

A CARAVAN!!!!!!!

And of course my children – the ones who give me purpose.

We all have bad days. Horrible, frustrating, disappointing not-very-good days. They will pass.

And today is a new day.

Today I am grateful that I am going on a school excursion with my daughter. I love seeing the students outside of their normal school environment. They always look so much bigger somehow. And they are so very excited and curious about the simplest of things – the ride in the bus, the lunch in the paper bags. I love that children actually SEE the little things. They are wiser than we give them credit for. I am lucky to be able to have this opportunity.

Today I am grateful that I am heading to Melbourne in the afternoon, so that tomorrow I can attend the launch of a new range of toys from K-Mart. I can’t wait to hear all about it and to share the news with you! I am looking forward to the flight in which I can enjoy 2.5 hours of nothing else to do but sit and read, or listen to some music. Peace. I am lucky to be able to have this opportunity.

And I am grateful for every single one of you who commented on the blog or Facebook, messaged me, emailed me, or came up to me in person to tell me how excited you were for us after buying our caravan. Every single one of you made me smile and gave me little butterflies in my tummy. I LOVE that you feel like you are a part of this journey with us – because you are. You really are.

Today is a new day. It is full of promise, full of hope, full of beginnings.

So tell me, “How are YOU?”

I can’t quite believe it yet!!

We first started looking at caravans at the end of last year. We thought we had PLENTY of time to make a decision. And then we decided to head off to Tassie in September as a warm-up for our big trip around Australia. So in the blink of an eye, the months flew by and we realised that we had to make the decision NOW!

We headed into the Queensland Caravan and Camping Show on the weekend, so that we could get one more look at everything that was on offer before we committed. We already had a couple in mind, but given that this is going to be our home for 6 months, it had to be perfect!

We arrived at the show at 10am and headed straight to the caravans. I think I must have stepped inside over a hundred caravans. Surprisingly, many caravans didn’t offer what we needed…

• Room to sleep all 6 of us in a full caravan
• A separate toilet and shower (I still don’t understand how people can happily sit in a toilet which is inside a shower – ewww.)
• Is light enough for our Nissan Patrol to to tow it.

I didn’t think we were being fussy! Eventually it came down to two caravans – the Jayco and the Coromal. The Jayco is really beautiful – it looks like a little home inside, and is finished so nicely. The Coromal has lots of little extras, and offers independent suspension which is a huge safety feature – especially for travelling on dirt roads.

So we went with the Coromal Lifestyle L716!!!! And here it is!!!

Ahhhh – I cannot believe that this is the one – AT LAST!!! The kids have named her Daisy, so it is officially a “she”. The triple bunks are fantastic – with a window for each bed.

We will need to do some modifications to the sleeping areas to fit Lucy in too. If the big kids were a bit older, they could sleep outside in a tent, but I am much happier to have everyone under the one roof.

Thanks to Mark at City Caravan Centre, who knows every inch of these caravans, we came up with some ideas about how we can fit another bed in. It means we will lose the washing machine, but we will deal with that later.

The kitchen is bigger than I had expected, and there is a 2 door fridge/freezer which should be plenty. The Thermomix will be coming along with us, so we really don’t need too much room for cooking.

I keep pinching myself that this is really it. After the months of comparing them all, we are so happy with our choice. Another step closer to our adventure!!

I can’t wait to see what it looks like when Lucy’s “bedroom makeover” is complete! We will pick it up in about 6 weeks, so I have lots of time to start planning our first trip – just one or two nights away for us all to get used to the rather close living conditions!

The dream continues…

I try not to get involved in Rugby League discussions. Despite coming from a family of football fans (Dad, you probably shoudln’t read this post), I have absolutely no interest in the game whatsoever. Don’t get me wrong – I do actually enjoy sports in general. There is nothing more thrilling than a close game that comes down to the final moments. I have stayed up far too late watching finals, sitting on the edge of the lounge and whooping with joy at an unexpected triumph from the underdogs.

But Rugby League seems to be about so much more than a game of skill. You only need to flick through the sports section to see page upon page of hero-worshipping stories about the “game’s greatest players”…”legends”… “superstars”. For reasons that completely escape me, our society idolises football players – and specifically Rugby League Players. Apparently the ability to lift heavy weights, run around a field with a little funny shaped ball, and pummel opponents into the ground is worthy of hero-worshipping. So heroic are these players that we build statues of them outside the stadiums in which they played.

On Wednesday night, the first of three games of the 2013 State of Origin was played in Sydney. As a “proud” Queenslander I was expected to clothe myself in maroon to show my allegiance. My allegiance??? To a football team? Umm. No thanks. There were cars flying flags, businesses draped in flags, people getting around in jerseys and painted faces. Pubs were packed (because of course football equals alcohol), and the gambling shops (is that what they’re called?) were madly spruiking their odds for winning team, first try, and whatever else they could think of to gamble on (oh that’s right – because football equals gambling).

Every news channel, every radio station, every newspaper filled us in on the thrilling lead-up to the “big game”. Whether we wanted to be interested or not, the State of Origin pervaded our lives. I heard all about what people were going to have for dinner on “game night” (pizzas, meat-pies and beer… because it’s football right), and the “Origin parties” that people were planning – setting the kids up in front of the TV to celebrate the “festivities”.

Each to their own and all that. Whatever floats your boat.

Until the next morning when I wake up to a Facebook newsfeed chockablock of this incident:

That guy in the blue – the one punching the guy in the red – is the Captain of the blue team. The Captain. And he just punched him. In the middle of the “game”.

It’s about this time that I’d like to remind you how many children, including impressionable young rugby league players, would have been plonked in front of the TV to watch this game. And having not watched the game, I can only imagine how many times it was re-played (and probably in slow-motion for extra special effect) – over and over again. But he didn’t get sent off. No – apparently it’s all just part of the game. Except it’s not. Because if it were a club game he would have been sent off. But it was State of Origin. So it was OK. To just punch him.

The Queensland Government is currently promoting it’s “One Punch Can Kill Campaign“:

You know, every year far too many young Queenslanders are assaulted at parties, in bars and out on the streets. We exist for one purpose: to reverse this. All too often young people are getting hurt or even killed when they are out just trying to have a good time.
You can help. We need mass support from young Queenslanders to shift attitudes and change the senseless violence we see all too often. Our message is clear – One Punch Can Kill.

Spelled out very clearly, the campaign asks, “So how do we stop this rising trend and change a culture that says violence is ‘ok’? “

I am having trouble putting all of this together in my head. Can we possibly be sending any more mixed messages than hero-worshipping these thugs masquerading as sportsmen, and then telling our young people, our impressionable youth, that they shouldn’t behave the way “our” idols do. One of the most viewed YouTube videos right now is a collection of Best Origin Biffs. On any other night, in any other place, these videos would be held up in court as evidence of assault.

Violence, drugs, alcohol and substance abuse, betting scandals, domestic violence, gang rape – every week there’s a new story about a footballer or team that has been involved in something illicit, illegal, violent or dangerous. But it’s OK. They’re footballers. They’re just “passionate”, or they’re “releasing some steam”. So they might get fined a few thousand dollars (which doesn’t even make a dent in their salary and associated earnings), or miss a game or two (boo-hoo).

And yet we all stand around and scratch our heads and wonder why domestic violence continues to rise, why alcohol fuelled violence is just part of a night out “with the boys”, and why our secondary schools have issues with steroid abuse in their top sports teams. We wonder why boys aren’t doing well at school. Well why the heck would they? Who are they aspiring to be? Why does football news take up 5-10 mins of the news – every single day?

Why do we not hear about the scientists, doctors, researchers, artists, teachers, volunteers, fathers, musicians, and charity workers who are actually doing things that matter. The ones who make a difference, the ones who make our world a little better. The ones who show our children that passion does not equal violence, and that hard work, compassion, integrity and values are what make a person worthy of being a role model.

Where are our positive male role models?

Pre-children, in my days of mothering idealism, I thought that having children (and four of them at that) would be a cinch. I would get along like a mother duck with her little ducklings waddling along behind her, all in a lovely straight line with just a few little quiet quacks to let me know that all was well.

I was deluded. Completely deluded.

What they don’t tell you in all those pregnancy books and magazines is that those little offspring will not all be exactly like each other. They will, more than likely, be vastly different. They probably won’t get along at times. Their personalities can be worlds apart. You might instinctively understand one child, and wonder how on earth you could have produced another. It doesn’t matter if you use the same ingredients, the same process, the same oven… the fact remains that the buns don’t always turn out the same.

Now in my happier and wiser moments, I could tell you that variety is the spice of life, and wouldn’t it be boring if we were all the same, and aren’t rainbows beautiful, and we learn so much from those who are different to us. All of which I agree with mind you, but some days I find myself tearing my hair out from trying to understand all of their different personalities, and to parent them in ways that will bring out the best in them. I don’t treat my children equally, but I do treat them fairly.

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And it’s really exhausting.

My children don’t follow behind me like little ducklings. They run, skip, jump, stop and sulk, roll, crab sideways, stop to gaze at the clouds, trip each other, all the while singing, chatting, yelling, arguing, whispering, and following up with a bit of pinching, poking, hugging, tickling, laughing and crying.

I motivate my children to do things in different ways – I use bribes, rewards charts, simply asking nicely, negotiating, and demanding to name a few. Different ways work for different children.

When I have disciplined the children I have used gentle re-direction, explaining the consequences, counting down from 5, counting up to 3, using “the look”, time out, locking in bedrooms, and even and even locking myself in the bathroom! Depending on the child, some of these things are completely ineffective, and some are what is needed at the time. I can absolutely guarantee that there is not one single method of discipline that will work for all of my children. Because that would be too easy wouldn’t it? And parenting wasn’t meant to be easy.

I now have three children in school. Three children doing homework in the afternoons. And once again I am finding that my children view anything academic in very different ways. The last thing I want my children to think is that learning only occurs in a regimented and structured way. So homework has to be a little more creative as I try to embrace these differences.

I often wonder whether I am making parenting harder for myself than it ought to be. Maybe I do give them a little too much freedom to be the person they are. Maybe they would be easier to parent if I did treat them all equally. Maybe I wouldn’t feel like I am being split 4-ways every single day. Maybe I’ve just got this whole parenting thing wrong.

I’d like to think though that these hard years will be worth it in the end. That I am helping my children to be a little more confident in who they are, that they will be less likely to seek endless approval from their peers, that they will know they are loved for the person they are. I’d like them to know that despite our differences, we can always find ways to live peacefully with others. And I want them to know that no matter what, our home will always be their soft place to fall.

So yes I am exhausted. Yes I know this too shall pass. Yes I know that these are the moments that bring out the best (and the worst!) in us.

And still, despite my whining, I am incredibly grateful to be able to play a part in the lives of these four beautiful, and very different, children.

Sponsored by Target

I love this time of the year. The mid-year stocktake sales are such a brilliant time to snap up some bargains and stock up on some of the essentials for your home. However I headed into the Target Stocktake Sale with one thing on my mind – women’s fashion! I rarely pay full price for my clothes (I think this must be some kind of phobia), so when I see signs advertising 40% and 50% off I am ready to shop!

Now that I have returned to work for a couple of days a week, I am slowly starting to build a mix and match work wardrobe, but of course I don’t want to spend a fortune in these early days. I love the City Dressing range for work so I was like a kid in a candy shop to see they were 40% off! I may have bought one or two… or a few!

And 40% off long sleeve tops meant this top was just $15.

Maybe your wardrobes are full and you need something else? Well, I went on a bit of a shopping hunt to sniff out the best bargains to share with you. I was tempted to stock up on some 1000 Threadcount sheet sets – they feel fantastic and I still use the ones I bought from Target a couple of years ago.

And there’s nothing quite like a change of cushions to give a new lounge or bed a bit of a lift! Two for $20 – bargain!

This is for all those Mums who brave the Saturday morning sports in Winter! No more soaking wet feet from the cold football fields – these gumboots will keep your tootsies dry. And how cute are they!

The kids haven’t been forgotten. For the little bubbas, the jumpsuits are just $6 and come in a rainbow of colours. And who can resist snuggling babies when they are in these little suits?

There is a huge range of sleepwear reduced by 30-40%.

But my FAVOURITE purchase was this sleepsuit for Lucy. I have been looking everywhere for a suit with feet – not  usually easy to find in Size 3, and this was reduced down to $16!!! YAY ME!

Now this one wasn’t actually on sale, but I fell absolutely hand on heart in love with it. I just need to think of somewhere that I can actually put it. The Kids Replica Eames Chair is $49. Love.

Of course I wouldn’t go shopping without buying a little something for you too! So this $50 Target Giftcard will go to one lucky Mummy Smiles reader.

All you have to do is follow the Rafflecopter details below, including leaving a comment telling me which of my Target Stocktake Sale bargain shopping finds would most likely jump into YOUR shopping trolley. All entries must be received by 11.59pm AEST, Sunday 9th June 2013. Australian residents only.

* Stocktake sale offers available until Wednesday 5th June 2013

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What does success look like?

Maybe it’s the amount of money in your bank…

Maybe it’s the amount of sleep you had last night…

Maybe it’s the number of bedrooms your home has…

Maybe it’s finally finishing the book that you were given for your birthday…

Maybe it’s the number of letters you have after your name…

Maybe it’s beating your husband in a handstand competition…

Maybe it’s the size of your dress…or bra… or knickers…

Maybe it’s perfecting your grandmother’s chicken curry recipe…

Maybe it’s the number of “Friends” that you have on Facebook…

Maybe it’s conquering a fear you have held since your childhood…

Maybe it’s the car you drive…

Maybe it’s walking away from an unhealthy relationship…

Maybe it’s how many hours you work each week… maybe it’s the number of hours you don’t work….

Maybe it’s your sporting prowess… maybe it’s your child’s sporting prowess…

Maybe it’s waking up in the morning… and getting out of bed… and walking out the front door.

Who defines your success?

From the minute we open our eyes, we are overwhelmed by messages telling us that we aren’t successful… yet. That we could be totally successful if we just did certain things, bought certain things, looked certain ways, had children that developed at certain milestones.

But who decides this?

And more importantly, why do we listen to them?

Why do we let someone else’s definition of success determine our own feelings of success?

You are unique, and powerful, and strong. You have purpose.

You have every right to be successful. And you have every right to define your own success.

Define what success looks like to you.

And then go out and live it.

Be successful.

Because you can.

Because you should.

Because it’s yours for the taking.

Next year we are packing our lives up in to lots of boxes, and heading around Australia for 6 months. You can read more about why HERE.

Now that our departure date is less than 12 months away, the planning and the preparations are well and truly underway. The anxiety of “What on earth are we doing?”, and the disbelief of “Are we really doing this?” is slowly making way for the “Holy Moly – we are DOING this!”

There were lots of questions that I didn’t have answers to when we first started planning. In fact, so many questions that if I paused to reflect on them too much, I would have just thrown the whole idea out the window. So instead, we made the decision to just commit to going, and trust that with time and with faith in the universe, that things would fall into place as they were meant to.

I have talked to so many people about our journey – experienced travellers who have been there done that, other families who are leaving in the next few months, families who are planning their own journey, and many more whom we have invited to share our adventure with us in many small ways.

So I thought I would give you a bit of an update of where we are at the moment with our planning – starting with some of the most common questions that I get asked.

When are you going?

We are leaving in April 2014 and returning September 2014.

How will you be travelling?

We will be towing a caravan. We did consider a motorhome or bus, but liked the idea of being able to go exploring in day trips with just the car. It will be nice to create a home base at locations, even if just for a few days.

Which caravan will you take?

We haven’t worked out EXACTLY which caravan we will take yet. It’s really important that the caravan is of excellent quality, reliable and has a layout which works for our family of six. So we have narrowed down the field, and will be making a final decision in the next few weeks. Believe me, when we finally decide, I will be singing it from the rooftops!

Where exactly are you going?

The million dollar question! We don’t want to tie ourselves down too much with a definite plan, but we do of course need a rough idea of the direction we wish to travel. So here is the plan at this stage, starting in Brisbane and heading north-west.

The hardest part was deciding whether to head up the coast of Queensland or go inland. As much as we love the Queensland coastline, we have already travelled it extensively, and will be holidaying at Hayman Island in the Whitsundays in September. Given the historical and educational significance of some of the outback towns like Winton, Longreach and Mt Isa, we thought this would be a better option for the family.

I am so excited looking at this map – so many remote, and beautiful and inspiring places to see. Of course we can only cover limited areas in just 6 months, but I feel like we will see a great mix of outback, mountains, coastline, cities, rural and remote.

And don’t worry – Tasmania is definitely on the agenda, but it gets a whole special trip of its own!

What about school for the kids?

We will be withdrawing them from school, and applying for an exemption for the period that we are away. This means we do not have to officially register them as homeschoolers or distance ed. Of course, I will be actively facilitating their education through practical and real-life learning opportunities. We will also maintain close contact with the school while we are away which will hopefully ensure a smooth transition back to school on our return.

I would love for them to journal their adventure through blogs, writing, photographs, drawings, videos, and whatever else inspires them.

Will you be working?

Yes. We will continue to run our property maintenance business while we are away, and we will seek out opportunities for work as we go. Hubby will be able to pick up work on farms, stations, and caravan parks, and I would love to pursue some teaching work in some of the rural schools as well as the indigenous communities.

So what do you think?

Are there any parts of Australia that you think we would be CRAZY to miss?

Do you have any other questions for us?

Last year we gave our playroom a major overhaul. We added lots of storage, and made the space a lot more attractive and user-friendly. I believe that children have a natural inclination towards organisation, and that a playroom should offer many options for free choice and independence. So I have been a whole lot in love with the Expedit from IKEA, as you can switch around the activities that go in each cube, and you can also change the functionality by adding baskets, shelves, doors, and whatever else you can fit inside.

When I first designed the layout of the Expedit, I really had aesthetics in mind – I wanted it to look nice, which is absolutely important for creating a harmonious play-space, but in the past few weeks I really started to take notice of what was being selected to play with, and what was being ignored. And it turned out that anything in the full size wicker baskets on the bottom row were hardly ever played with.

This was really strange as some of our favourite constructions sets, like Mobilo and LEGO Megablocks, were in those boxes. These are fantastic sets and I was surprised that they had suddenly been forgotten about.

And then I realised that the full size boxes, whilst great for storage, were not terribly inviting for the children who tend to choose activities based on visual cues. The contents were completely hidden from sight, and the boxes themselves are a little bulky and heavy for little hands to pull out. So it was time for a change.

With the measurements in mind, I headed down to the local cheap shop to pick up some clear plastic containers. I chose some that had easy to use lids (easy to lock AND easy to open), and I also chose boxes with wheels on the bottom – to make it even easier for the boxes to be pulled out of the shelf.

While the boxes are clear, and certainly made the contents more visible than they were in the baskets, I wanted to go a step further so that the children could see in an instant what was in each box.

To start with, I took a photo of the contents of the boxes using my iPhone. An actual photo is so much better than just bringing up a stock photo from the Internet, because the children will instantly recognise it as their own (little things like the rug, or the background make it more recognisable).

Then I used the App “Phonto” to add a label to the photo. You’d be surprised how quickly children recognise the names of their favourite activities (most children can “read” LEGO before most other words!).

I then sent the image to my computer, where I printed it out to the size I needed for the storage box.

Finally I cut the labels out, and then laminated them so that they were nice and protected.

I attached the labels to the boxes using velcro dots. This is handy for when you want to swap the toys around a  little – you can quickly and easy also swap around the labels on the front.

So now the favourite toys are once again more visible and can cry out, “Pick me! Pick me!” The added bonus is that they can easily be selected by the children, and just as easily packed up and put away when finished with.

And now thanks to our iPhone and fancy-schmancy Apps, it’s quicker and easier than ever to make labels for all those toys that have been neglected and forgotten.