Healsville Sanctuary

This past year has been an amazing experience for us as a family.  We have been blessed with tickets to return home to South Africa for a 50th wedding anniversary family reunion, a trip to Queensland and family from South Africa visiting.

With all these wonderful adventures I've got a little behind in recording my memories and so have decided to set aside Saturday mornings to share some of the beautiful places we have had the privilege of experiencing.
 
We had the most delightful week last week.  Aunt T and Uncle G came for a flying visit from South Africa.  Their daughter plays water polo and was chosen to represent South Africa in the first World Youth Water Polo Championships and since they were in Australia they decided to come and see where we live!  It was an amazing time of catching up and showing them our beautiful city and the unique diverse wild life that Australia has. We spent a day looking around Healesville Sanctuary and here are some of our moments.

One of my favourite aspects of this zoo are all the sculptures and braille notices of the animals on display.

Top: Healesville Sanctuary Entrance

Bottom: Aunty T with Koala sculpture, Sir N with an Emu sculpture

 Top: Koala, Wedge-Tailed Eagle Sculpture

Bottom: Tasmanian Devil, Echidna

We took a walk up to the Australian Wildlife Center where we met a baby Tasmanian Devil up close and personal, later in the day we hoped to see Spirits of the Sky but due to renovations (enclosure upgrades) the show had been changed.  It was still great to see Wedge Tailed eagles, baby Kangaroo's and wombats.

 Top: Baby Tasmanian Devil (male)

Bottom: Baby Wombat, Kangaroo, Wedgetailed Eagle

Directly across from the arena is the new Land of parrots display where you have the opportunity to hold and feed a number of Australian parrots.

 Clockwise from top left: Sir N with a Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, Sunbird, Cockatiel, Cockatoo,

After lunch we explored the Animals of the Night display and Woodlands track.

Top: Echidna, Bilby

Middle:

Bottom: Tasmanian Devil, Flying Foxes

Gouldian Finch, Female Gangang Cockatoo, Wonga Pigeon, White eared Honeyeater

Having grown up in Africa (South Africa and Namibia) and lived in New Zealand I am amazed at the diversity of wildlife here in Australia. The colours, sounds and variety are astounding.  Australia may not have 'The Big Five' but they certainly make up for it with the colour and variety of fauna and flora.

What is your favourite part of where you live ?

Blessings


This post is linking with: Look What We Did

Christmas in Melbourne {2/2}

After a delightful morning of exploring inner city Melbourne we decided to take a walk up to Melbourne Museum for a picnic lunch and explore.

The gardens and beautiful Royal Exhibition Building

 After a peaceful picnic lunch in the gardens we decided to explore two of the newest displays in Melbourne Museum

Even the Dinosaurs had joined in Christmas this year!

Dinosaur Walk

The children enjoyed seeing the huge dinosaur skeletons and touching all the hands on displays and always a winner with the children are the computer animations explaining different aspects of dinosaur life. The museum has Educational resources available, a Virtual Exhibition as well as Prehistoric fun activities for children.

600 Million Years Victoria Evolves **

Next we explored a new division recently opened in the science and life gallery.  The amount of things to see in this gallery is a little overwhelming and you could take a full morning here to read and explore.  I was not prepared for what we saw and had not prepared Sir N who encountered the 100's of millions of years put forth as fact!  Needless to say we are having a few discussions about time and evolution.
You can take a virtual tour, enjoy some Fossil Fun activities, access educational resources or watch some video's.
** As a family we believe in Creation and young earth.
 
Dynamic Earth

Our next point of call and revisit was to Dynamic earth.  We briefly explored this exhibit in October and it made such an impact on the children they begged to see it again.

I stand in awe of our creator God who made all these beautiful things.  The images here do not do justice to the things we saw and experienced.

The website has a comprehensive overview of what you can see here as well as a library of video's,  Earth fun for children and Educational resources.

Christmas Blessings

It was a wonderful experience enjoying the outdoors, Christmas delights and earth science explorations for us.  It's days such as these that make homeschooling a delightful past time.

Which museums do you enjoy visiting with your children ?

Blessings




This post is linking with: Look What We Did
Photo collages made with: Photoscape a FREE photo editor

Christmas in Melbourne {1/2}

We spent the most delightful day in Melbourne yesterday. In light of the fact that my PC took a turn for the worst and died two weeks ago I have decided to be more dedicated in recording our trips on my blog, as those are the only photo's I have left.  The moral of this sad story is back up! back up! and back up your photographs! Enough said and onto the wonderful day we had.

Each year for the past 57 years our Meyer store has decorated their store windows for Christmas.  This tradition inspired us to join the T family for a trip into town today to see the new windows.

This year I also decided to make more use of the community and grow a 'science of relations' as Charlotte Mason puts it.  Our morning started early with a trip trip into Melbourne central with a short walk to Meyer. This years theme is on the book: Russell's Christmas Magic by Rob Scotton.

Click on any of the collages to view full screen in light box.

Meyer Christmas Window

After exploring and enjoying the widows we took the lift upstairs in hopes of going for a ride on the Meyer Christmas train.  Unfortunately two of the children had grown to tall for this experience and after a deep sense of disappointment we went looking for the miniature railway display.

Meyer miniature railway

After a look at all the miniature things the children asked to see 'Santa'.  What a lovely experience we had with Rudolf sleeping in front of the fire.

A chat with Santa at Meyer Store

By now we were all thirsty and took a walk up to Melbourne Square and listened to some carols being played by the Salvation Army on the way.

Just before the square we discovered the Gingerbread Village by Epicure, to raise funds for the Children's Hospital. (You can view the Gingerbread Village at the City Gallery 90 Swanston Street, Melbourne.)

Next stop was Melbourne City Square for a picnic morning tea, a talk to the elves, a nativity story and a maize to find the reindeer.

It was a marvelous morning and it was so delightful seeing Miss L, Master G and Sir delighting in the things of childhood and creating some memories along the way.

From here we made our way to Melbourne Museum for a picnic lunch and explore but more of that tomorrow.

What have you done to enjoy your precious family this festive season ?

Blessings

..




This post is linking with: Look What We Did

Photo collages made with: Photoscape a FREE photo editor

Maximus Musicus

On Wednesday Sir N and I joined my sister for a trip into Melbourne to see the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform Maximus Musicus.

We had a wonderful half an hour being introduced to classical music and the different sections of an orchestra.  Well worth taking primary aged school children.

To read more about the Maximus Musicus project  head on over to: Maximus Musicus. 
There are pdf pages to colour in which accompany this performance as well as a book with a CD available from Book Depository. (non affiliate link) There is also an app at iTunes.

Blessings
Chareen

Melbourne Museum

To finish a week long unit study about Helen Keller and Louis Braille, we made a a special trip to Melbourne Museum to have a look at Living in a Sensory World a temporary display.  We had lots of fun exploring this and other exhibits on display.

Here is a photo story of our day.

We started off in the Living in a Sensory World where we explored the world of the blind and the things that have been developed to help make their world an easier place to live in.

The lighthouse is a symbol for the blind in Australia.  This brass light house was awarded to Helen Keller.

From here we did a little bit of exploring in The Melbourne Story.  We ran out of time to fully explore this exhibit. You can take a virtual tour of this.

The children enjoyed a 'ride' on an old roller coaster
followed by a trip to a movie theater.

We had a look through an old part of Melbourne and how they used to live.

From here we went to find the Dinosaur Walk exhibit only to discover that they have opened a new Dynamic Earth exhibit which we took a very quick look at and found it very hard to pull the children away from.  We had to promise to please come back to explore! (Gold to a mothers ears!!)

It was a wonderful day out and I am so pleased we have a family Museum Membership to enjoy this resource in Melbourne.  If you haven't been here in a while I invite you to come and explore it more fully.

Blessings
Chareen

Carnival of the Animals at Melbourne Zoo

Just arrived and find a spot to sit.

The main reason for our trip to the Melbourne Zoo on Monday was to to watch the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform Carnival of the Animals.

This member from the MSO sat on the floor and chatted with the kids.
He explained to Sir N which instrament he plays and let him look and touch the mallets he uses to play. 

The 11 member performing arrived tuned their instruments. Once they were ready the conductor came out and introduced the instruments and Noni Hazlehurst who was our host and read an adaptation of Ogden Nash's Poem between each section of music.  It was a wonderful introduction to the Orchestra.

Members of the MSO tuning up and preparing for the conductor and performance.

On the WWW

• A Musical Carnival of the Animals! over at Squidoo.com
• Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals Coloring Book and Other Resources
• Carnival of the Animals interactive site 
• 15+ Fantastic Free Carnival of the Animals Resources.\

On YouTube

• Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals.
• Camille Saint-Saëns - The Carnival Of Animals - Complete & LiVe. The complete music score without the poem.
• Camille Saint-Saëns - Le Carnaval Des Animaux [complete recording]Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra - Bystrick Rezucha

Did you know that the MSO performs Free concerts ?  The next one will be at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in February 2013. Coming up in November is the MSO Classic Kids! Maximus Musicus.

Blessings
Chareen

Carnival of the Animals 

Performed with Ogden Nash's Poem

Narrated by Noel Coward for this 1949 recording.

Fire Services Museum Victoria

After an informative fire safety morning at Eastern Hill Fire Station we went next door to explore the Fire Services Museum.

This museum is open to the public on
Thursday & Friday 9 am - 3 pm
Sundays 10 am - 4 pm
Groups on other days by prior arrangement.
Admission fees do apply.

There are many interesting things to explore in this museum and it's an adventure to behold just on it's own.  I will let the photo's tell the stories of some of the treasures we saw.

 This is an "Austin" serries II front mounted pumper. It was placed in service in 1952 in Ararat Urban Fire Brigade. It made it's way to the museum in 1984. It pumps 350 gal per min and the first aid tank holds 120 gal. It carried a crew of eight.

 Top left - a variety of hand chemical extinguishers. The portable fire extinguisher was first developed in 1816 to replace the buckets of water that were stored in buildings for protection against fires. Captain Manby is given the credit for it's design which contained three gallons of water which was pressurized by a hand pump to expel it's contents.
The first soda acid fire extinguisher was deomnstrated at the 1851 Great Exhibition of London
Bottom right - This is an 1880's hydrolic pump which was used to test the Soda Acid and Foam extinguishers to an internal pressure of 300 lb/sq in every four years.

 One of the volunteers took out a brass helmet for us to try on.  These were used in the service until the early '70's

Left - St Florin the Patron Saint of Fireman. He was a roman fireman in Austria. When he became a Christian he was sentenced to death in 305 AD.
Top Right - United Kingdom Cap badges follow a basic pattern, an 8 pointed star upon which is the county arms or crest.
The points have individual significance and depict the qualities of a Fireman - Tact, Perseverence, Gallantry, Observation, Dexterity, Explicitness, Sympathy,

We finished the day with a tour upstairs of the emergency phone network and operations centre from days gone by.

It was a wonderful couple of hours of exploring the history of fire services in Australia.

Have you been here ?  Do you have a museum like this near you ?

Blessings
Chareen

Eastern Hill Fire Station Visit.

Metropolitan Fire Station (Eastern Hill Fire Station) Source: Wikimedia Commons

Friday was a wonderful day spent out at the Melbourne Fire Station at Eastern Hill.  They have a weekly fire safety display that I highly recommend you take your children to see.

The day started with an explanation of how to vacate a burning building. Crawl Low.

 

One of the Fireman got dressed in all his protective gear and let the children hear what it sounds like when he is breathing through his mask and encouraged them not to be afraid of a fireman if he looks likes this and not to hide but come to him as he is there to help them. The children then had a race with the fireman to see who could get into their gear the fastest as the crew need to be on the road in 90 seconds.

Next on the list was how to use a Fire Extinguisher and Fire Blanket.

The crew brought out the jaws of life and explained that they sometimes need to use these to help people who are stuck in their cars after an accident and not to be afraid.













From here the display shifted to the "Dolls House" where someone need rescuing from a burning building.  The crew arrived with sirens blaring, and proceeded to demonstrate a rescue.









Finally it was play time with the water and time to explore the fire engines!

This was a truly worth while experience.  We had a delightful time together.  From here we walked around the corner to the Firefighters Museum.

Have you visited your local fire brigade recently ?  Do you have your fire plan in place and do your children know what to do or where to go if there is a fire in your home ?

Blessings
Chareen