Summer antics

Happy New Year. Too short but very sweet was how I'd describe my holiday. Family time and relaxing with friends and their families in the Nelson, Golden Bay area sums it up really.

My partner and I had some much needed time out as Eli was well entertained, possibly to the point of exhaustion and overstimulation by his Taua and Poua and Aunty. It was interesting to watch how he handled the stimulation, new people and lots of travelling. At one point he spent a couple of days in a friends sandpit. Not interested in interacting with anyone, including his parents. Even 18 month olds have copy strategies.

So we arrive home with what seems like quite a different boy and have spent the last week trying to catch up with his changes. It occured to me yesterday that in our efforts to 'catch up' with him we have been giving him a lot more of our energy than is good for him and reverting to societies standard parenting techniques as we encounter new behaviours.

It was refreshing to read the Leidloff Continuum Networks website http://www.continuum-concept.org/ and be reminded of how we really want to parent. I was reminded by Jean Leidoff that it is not healthy for children to be the centre of attention, that they just want to be a part of what you are doing, that reward and punishment are not healthy and it's important to trust that your child is innately good and wants to do the right thing. This immediately made me relax, focus on what I want him to do, not what I don't want him to do; accept that he's been caught out when he pees on the floor without reminding him that he needs to go on the potty - he knows that; attempt to let him be a part of what I'm doing, not react to his wee tantrums; respond to him without judgement; stop asking him what he wants and show him that I know what he wants - if I get it wrong he lets me know; and meet his needs, including breastfeeding him when he asks for it at night. The latter is a hard one as sleep has been an issue and he has started waking often again. Though I have just been reminded to trust him and trust that their is a reason for it - he has been out of sorts and he will come right. When he seems better I'll encourage him to go back to sleep without a feed and if he doesn't complain (much) I'll know we're back on track. Some might say that it's not fair on him, the lack of consistency with when he gets a feed and when he doesn't. I say, I am consistently following my instincts and consistently adapting to his changes. The best kind of consistency a parent can show.

Phew, glad I'm back on track!

Anyway, another highlight of our holiday was visiting Lawrence and Antje McIntyre and their newly finished Eco Hut the Wee Greenie. Once Lawrence has his EcoAction Designs website up and running I'll post a blog on the Wee Greenie and direct you to his site.

In the meantime, happy parenting to you parents out there and remember to think about the whole system when you buy, travel, live! Not too much to ask eh! :)

Gorilla gardening and holidays

My last day of work for 2008 included some gardening. I guess I can't call it gorilla gardening as Otago Polytechnic's Living Campus is all about interacting with and being a part of the natural environment on campus. Even so it was a good feeling of rebellion when planting tomato plants without 'permission' from someone who might manage this environment. Besides they would have died inside with no one to care for them. So if you're passing H block on Forth St, share some of your water bottle with the two tomato plants bordering the H block sign. That way I'll have fresh tomatos when I return in Jan! Would you email me a photo to accompany this post Leigh?

2009 will bring the inaugural Education for Sustainability staff training course (now complete and ready for review/feedback) and Sustainable Practice 1 and 2 and a busy workload for me at 0.3 of a position. The other 0.7 and some is spent busily loving, educating and meeting the needs of my 18 month old. He will be attending pre-school for 3 1/2 hrs twice a week. I'm a anxious about him going into care, but I'm honest about the fact that I am doing it for myself and not because I believe it's the best thing for him. Sure he might enjoy an hour in a different environment with different people, but after that he would be quite happy in the company of the people he knows and loves. I don't believe in forcing him to become independent at 18 months. I believe in meeting his needs and letting him be dependent for as long as he needs to be. This is often not as long as a child whose needs have not fully been met who continues to demand dependence as a reaction to being forced into independence before they are ready.

Just recently Unicef stated that NZ had the highest rate of care for under 5 year olds and this was not necessarily a good thing. Children from a bad home environment benefit from it and children over 3 benefit from small amounts of care. It was clear on the National program interview that a 'normal' child does not benefit from full time or near full time care. Parents can and will justify the use of childcare for their children any way they can. I will not justify the use of childcare for Eli. It is purely selfish. I want to work as well as be a mother. I want my cake and to eat it too. End of story. Anyway this wasn't meant to be the story.

I'm offically on holiday now. Yeepppeee bring on the long summer days in Nelson, Golden Bay and the West coast, biking and rock climbing with friends and spending time with family. Better get on my bike and home to my boys. See you next year. anna :)

End of year workload

Kia ora koutou

Here we are two weeks out from Christmas and busy busy. Three new courses and a resource to develop, but no panic there is always time to post a blog, eh Leigh!

Education for Sustainability is a staff development course aimed to upskill staff on what EfS actually is and how it can be implemented. It involves approximately 6 readings with questions and discussion after each. This is a great opportunity for all - literally as it's all online and freely available on the wiki - to think about how they as educators can educate for sustainability within their subject area.

Sustainable Practice 1 and 2 will be run initially for the Tourism and Travel students, but are generic courses open to the whole polytech. Sustainable Practice 1 is an introduction to Sustainability and is very student driven. Sustainable Practice 2 is industry/subject specific where students look at how they are practice sustainably within their profession. Personally I am looking forward to some interaction with the student population again. It will be interesting to see where students are at with the sustainability issue, student directed/negotiated work and action oriented learning!

The resource being developed by Sam Mann and myself is intended to support staff in integrating sustainable practice into their teaching.

As for the photo. That's me showing off my nappy free baby. He does wear pants most of the time, but not a nappy in site during the day. I guess that's applicable to Midwifery and their Sustainable Development paper! Cheers. Have a great Christmas and New Year break, with lots of fun family time and recreation. Love anna :)

The Good Life!

Life is pretty good when you get a blue sky weekend in Naseby, riding the family friendly tracks with a wee mix of some exciting (leave the chariot with Dad) single track.
Unfortunately that was just one weekend! Now battling a neverending cold, sleepless nights (we are blessed with a wakeful wee boy!), juggling work, parenting, volunteer groups and the general running of life things seem hard.
Hard is relative I know. In fact life is pretty dam easy when I compare our lot to those less fortunate. In fact what am I even complaining about. Looking forward to a holiday up North, possibly seeing my grandparents for the last time and catching up with friends and family. Summer is charging on in in Dunedin and we're loving the days in the garden (cursing the slugs that are eating my brassica's) and on the beach chasing Eli into the surf and dragging him kicking and screaming back out when I can't feel my feet anymore!!! Looking forward to more of it - not the kicking and screaming that is, just the summer! Anna :)

Hello

start blogging anna. You'll get rich