OUR HOMESCHOOL CLASSROOM

I often get asked by friends and family how we manage our space for Homeschooling and exactly what we have to help us on our journey. I thought it was well past time that I took you all for a tour through our classroom/playroom and show you the types of things we use.

Our classroom was originally the home's loungeroom. We live in a home that has fairly good sized rooms but not a lot of them so we needed to be very organised when planning how to best use our space for teaching all the boys and allowing them enough room to learn and play. I moved the loungeroom into the smaller room that I guess was intended as a formal dining room. We don't need to use it for that as the kitchen is huge with more than enough room for our large table and 6 chairs. I thought outside of the box and realised myself and the boys spend the majority of our time at home in that classroom so it not only needed to be the bigger of the rooms but also central to the rest of the home. Putting them all into a bedroom located at the back of the house would just be a recipe for disaster as I wouldn't be able to properly supervise when working and cleaning in the kitchen (let's face it, with 4 boys I spend quite a lot of my time in the kitchen).

So we made the move into the loungeroom, added some new blockout curtains to avoid the afternoon Summer Sun flooding in and ventured off to Ikea to fitout the classroom. I have found the Expedit series of storage solutions to be the best for our purpose. We've been able to make the most of the vertical space in the room by shelving up against walls and right up to the front windows. Unfortunately the only downside is we have little wall space for displaying posters and artwork.

I recently bought a new Expedit bookcase to serve as the resources library. It houses all the workbooks for both Bailey and Dane, curriculum and reporting materials and some cool educational activities and toys. I find that by tucking it away in the corner beside my desk it deters the little ones from thinking it's interesting enough be pulling things out.

Our large Expedit shelves store art materials along the top in lightweight mesh Ikea storage boxes. The far left side stores boardgames and we keep more Art stuff on the top shelf next to more advanced educational toys and our little library of Usborne Young Readers. I plan to add more Usborne books to this library as time goes on as the boys adore the pictures and Bailey finds the word layout easy to read. We also store Playdo & tools, puzzles, cars, trains and playfood things to use with the play fridge and oven/stovetop.

 It is great that the room has timber floorboards as any playdo, paint, collage mess is very easy to clean. Each pigeonhole within the shelves have boxes with the name and a picture of the items that are stored inside. This way we all know exactly where everything is and it makes packing away a much simpler and quicker process.

I have a large desk for myself which I use to plan and organise workbooks and lessons. It also houses things like our current curriculum so I can constantly reflect and assess areas we haven't yet covered. We display on the wall a weekly planner for all the family to see. This is a great visual aid for Bailey so he can expect what may be coming in that week and also look forward to special events or spending the weekend at home with Daddy. We also have a World Map poster which is not only great for the boys when learning where places are located but is also used during our various units of study (eg: whilst we were learning about endangered animals we flagged the locations they live).

We have a good sized bookshelf but I am fast realising that this is not going to be big enough down the track. Here we store various encyclopaedias, science books, books on history and geography, animals, transport, etc. We also keep our special family reading books here at a higher shelf level away from little fingers. The two little boys have 2 of their own small bookshelves where we keep baby, toddler and young children's books. Ehren quite often takes a book from there to look at or selects a book he wants me to read to him. We have a road playmat that doubles as a softer floor to sit on an oversized cushion to have a little read of a book.

In our room we have various educational activities that help with an array of skill building areas. We have a lovely set of scales purchased from Edsco which is great for teaching measurement and mass in a more hands on manner. We have 2 sets of different tesselate shape sets for counting, sorting and creative play. We have a small container of counting bears which proves very beneficial teaching addition and subtraction and well as teaching younger children their colours and sizes. We have a Tupperware Shape-o-ball and a Stack-a-peg set which are good for teaching shapes, sizes, colours and great for improving fine motor skills and cognitive development. We have a sentence building set bought from Modern Teaching Aids which is awesome for sight word recognition, sentence building and spelling skills.

I'm guessing by now you've all got sore eyes from reading too much so I'm thinking I might continue more on this topic in a part two! Thanks for reading :)

OUR OWN LITTLE ART CLASS

Using inspiration from the Art classes the boys have been doing at their Homeschool Group's Monday classes we decided to have our own little Art class this afternoon out on the verandah.

I had some canvas tucked away that I bought from Riot Art n Craft a few weeks back when they were reduced. I was just waiting for the right opportunity to bring them out to paint. Bailey asked if we could do some painting so I thought I should join them and be a little more formal this time.

We drew our sketch onto the canvas with a lead pencil and then added our paint to create our little masterpieces. Bailey and Dane decided to do their artwork inspired by one of their favourite ABC shows 'The Octonauts'. I decided to imagine it was a beautiful sunny day at the beach, quite a contrast from the sun-showery Winter day that surrounded us out on the verandah.

We spoke about colours as we mixed the right shades for our paintings and we tried to keep a balanced hand whilst we used to the brush to do small details. I showed the boys how to layer colours to create depth. I was very impressed with Bailey's attention to detail and the fact Dane managed to sit in the one spot for at least an hour.

Bailey and I took our time and spent a good 2 hours chatting and painting whilst Ehren slept and Fraser ate and played. All in all it made for a lovely afternoon. Something we'll have to do again very soon.

Kiddies Food ideas & recipes

A friend of mine asked for a recipe I recently made for Milo muffins and was after some kiddies lunchbox ideas so here goes. Anyone who knows me knows that I try to give my kids as healthy foods as possible, so this always includes plenty of fresh fruit, dairy items like yoghurt and wholemeal bread is always a must in my house. I have 1 boy that's quite lactose intolerant and another 3 boys that are mildly lactose intolerant so I always use the Lactose free milk in my baking. I also use olive oil in place of butter in just about all my recipes.

The best way to cut your grocery bill down when it comes to kids lunches is buying things whole and packing them yourself. I have found Tupperware to have the best range of containers for storing food in. Their kiddies' snack cups are awesome for sultanass, chopped up strawberries/kiwi fruit/grapes, etc. The dip bowl containers are slightly larger and perfectly fit a small muffin or cupcake, a chopped up apple/orange/mandarin and the sandwich box is a great alternative to gladwrap (think of the money saved and environmental benefits), plus it's easy for little fingers to open, easy to clean and stores even those sandwiches made from the larger bread. The initial investment of these core tupperware items will eventually pay for themselves.

Some recipes we love here in our house are:

MILO MUFFINS

1.5 cups SR Flour
2/3 cup Milo
1 egg
2/3 cup milk
2/3 cup brown sugar (or raw caster sugar or whatever you have)
1/2 tsp baking powder
60g Butter, softened (or olive oil)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Add all ingredients into a mixer and beat until smooth and combined.
Pour into muffin cases placed into a greased muffin tray. (Use olive oil spray to save time)
Bake for 25 mins. (Check after 15 mins and every 5 mins after to get the best time for your oven)
You'll know they're ready as they'll bounce back when you touch the top and will look smooth and glossy instead of sticky. HINT: I always open one to do a quick taste test ;)

YUMMY HEALTHY MUESLI BARS

70g Dried Blueberries (or sultanas or other dried fruit)
1 cup rolled oats (you can use quick oats for a smoother blend)
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup SR Flour
1/2 cup raw sugar (substitute for more honey or maple syrup if you wish)
125g butter (or olive oil)
2 tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Melt butter and honey in a large saucepan until bubbling. Take off stove.
Sift in flour and add all dry ingredients into the saucepan. Stir until combined.
Press mixture firmly into a lightly greased and lined (one strip baking paper lengthways) small rectangle baking tray.
Bake for 10-15 mins until golden. Remove from oven & allow to cool in the tray for 10 mins.
Remove by holding onto end of baking paper and transfer to a chopping board. Cut using a long knife and cut continuous straight cuts lengthways first and then across to make the size you require.
Will make approx 12 small squares.

BAKERY SCROLLS

You can make these using cheese & vegemite, ham & cheese, sundried tomatoes & cheese, whatever your family likes. Just substitute tomato paste/bbq sauce for the vegemite to keep it moist.

3.5 cups Plain flour

3.5 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup buttermilk (can use plain milk if you wish)

1/2 cup milk

2 Tbsp vegemite

1.5 cups grated cheese (use low fat if you wish)

Combine flour and baking powder in bowl.

Slowly add both milks til they form a sticky dough.

Place on floured surface, kneading til it can be rolled into a rectangle.

Roll out to approx 30x40cms.

Evenly spread the vegemite all over, then pop cheese all over.

Roll longways into a tube and cut each tube into approx 12 rolls.

Pop oven on at 200 degrees at this point.

Arrange closely together on a lined baking tray, brushing the tops with lightly beaten egg if you wish.

Bake for 20-30 mins, watching to check the best time for your oven.

They'll be ready when they look golden and puffy and cheese melted and bubbly.

ZUCCHINI & CORN MUFFINS

2 cups SR flour

1/2 tsp milk paprika (omit if desired)

1 cup buttermilk (or regular milk)

1 egg, lightly beaten

80g olive oil (or butter)

2/3 cup grated cheese

1 small zucchini, grated

125g can corn kernels, drained

1 shallot, sliced thinly

2 tsp parsley

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Grease muffin pan and line with 12 muffin cases.

Sift flour & paprika into bowl and then add in other ingredients.

Stir gently, do not over mix. You want the mixture to be lumpy but all mixed together.

Spoon evenly into the cases and bake for approx 20 mins.

HINT: After 15 mins if they look slightly golden you can use one for a taste test as I usually do ;)

These should get you started! Now I'm off to go make some muesli bars I think!

 

Our Homeschool Group

Thought it's been a while since I've done a blog on our homeschooling so here I am ;)

I've had so many friends ask us lately what I actually do at home with my boys. Seems people either think I get my boys to sit a desk from 9am til 3pm with a few short breaks or the other extreme I just let them run wild through the house and do as they please. Well yes some days they do more as they please but it's on those days that I just steer them into a learning direction that they don't even realise.

This year we found a local homeschooling group which has already been established for quite a few years. They consist of a very organised group of Homeschooling Mums that together formed a committee (much like the P&C committees within the state school system). They each have their roles and organise excursions, plays in various parks and what they call Lucky Monday classes. These classes are held within a local community centre and are set to a timetable for different age levels. My boys have had the joy of partaking in Spanish, Art, Drama, Science and this term Martial Arts lessons. The classes are mostly run by professionals in their field and we pay a small charge for each class that they take part in.

The thing I love the most about Lucky Mondays is that it's a great opportunity for the boys to join with peers to learn in an environment away from home. It's like a classroom setting similar to what they'd be receiving at a standard school, yet the Mums get to be there for support or assistance should they need it. It's a relatively short day, compared to standard school. My boys usually do 2-3 lessons on those Mondays so it's never longer than a 3 hour day of learning, which is about the extent of my boys concentration right now. They are small classes, usually around 5-10 kids per class so it's generally more hands-on and I know with Bailey he feels much more comfortable learning in a smaller setting.

The Homeschool group also organise various sporting activities for the kids. My boys have participated this year in weekly Sports and physical skill lessons run by the Life Be In It association. They've also done some swimming lessons with their homeschooling friends. This will be starting up again in the warmer months. Most of these activities have a cost involved but I've found it much cheaper than if I just sent them on their own, as we receive a group booking discount. I'm sure in the next couple of years I'll also look to putting them into other sports that are organised such as Rock climbing, golf and tennis.

My boys see their friends each week at Monday classes, Tuesdays sports and then at a park, excursion or a friend's home at least once a week. The other times of the week we spend reading, doing art and craft, watching educational documentaries, brainstorming and learning together on new topics, practising handwriting, mathematics worksheets, educational computer games and a host of other activities. They certainly get plenty of chances to socialise with their friends and also an array of learning experiences each and every week.

We've been so very lucky to find this group of Homeschoolers and I've loved seeing my boys make great friendships with some of the other kids. I've also been blessed to meet some amazing friends, mothers who want the same things for their kids, women with a wealth of knowledge in so many areas of life. Homeschooling has been a huge change in lifestyle for us. It's been the best decision I've ever made for my children and one I don't foresee ever regretting.

Thanks for reading
Angie

(Life Be In It classes)

(Dane and I at an environmental learning centre)

My personal weight loss challenge

Many of you have commented on the weight I've lost over the last several months. I've been asked time and time again how I've done it and what diet I'm following. I thought this blog might be the easy way to answer your questions all at once ;)
Firstly let me tell you that I haven't reached my goal yet, so if I've inspired you to lose some weight too then I'm happy for you to come along for the last bit of my ride with me. Most importantly I want to make something very clear. What I'm doing is NOT a diet. It doesn't involve attending a gym, it doesn't involve a financial outlay or appointments with weight loss consultants and it definitely does NOT involve drinking a shake instead of good, wholesome food! It's just about changing your bad habits and creating new good habits when it comes to the food you eat and the kind of life you lead. Anyone can do this and the results speak for themselves.

There's a few simple things that I have found that work for me. They may not work for everyone but I'm betting they'll work for most.

Eating small, regular meals - Some people think eating only a couple of meals a day is better than snacking all day long. I find however if I go too long without eating I get so hungry I'm willing to eat anything and everything in sight. The idea of taking my time to whip up a nice healthy meal completely goes out the window when I'm totally and utterly starving. Have a piece of fruit, a muesli bar, a handful of nuts in between meals. It will keep your tummy that little bit full and give you enough time and energy to organise a healthy lunch or dinner as opposed to the first drive thru or packet of chips you come across.

Plan ahead - If you're leaving home for the day and you know you're going to get peckish whilst you're out plan ahead of time and pack some healthy snacks into a lunchbox or handbag. Sure it might be easy to drive thru Maccas or stop at the servo for a chocolate bar but the reality is if you had an apple or muesli bar tucked into your bag you're far less likely to make those unhealthy last minute choices. I find this trick also works really well in saving money. If I stop at the servo to get myself and the kids all a drink and snack I can easily spend over $20 for something that is only really keeping us happy for an hour or two.

Eat fresh food in abundance - We spend at least $50 a week at our local greengrocer. I find that snacking on fresh fruit often gives me the sweet hit I'm looking for with the added advantage of keeping me feeling fit and healthy. I allow the kids to grab fruit straight from the fruit bowl as they like which means it can cost me a fortune but at least I know they're filling up on good healthy snacks. I also make my own juices which I sometimes use in place of afternoon tea to fill me enough til dinner time. My favourite  apple juice is made from green apples, a sliver or ginger and 1 stick of rhubarb.  My carrot juice is made from carrots, a little ginger with a few green apples to slightly sweeten.

Keep active - Friends keep asking me if I'm going to a Gym to lose the weight. I have done the Gym thing in the past but for me it never seemed to give any real noticeable long lasting results. I find that keeping an active lifestyle, running after 4 boys all day is enough to keep me feeling fit. I don't spend much time at home, even on the weekends. We are often out at a park, doing plenty of walking and in the warmer months enjoy going for a swim. I also enjoy going out dancing with friends on occasion. We have never felt the need to get Foxtel and rarely sit home watching movies or playing the PS or Wii.

Drink less alcohol - Here's where things get tough for some people. I've found since having my boys my need for a drink has lessened over the years and I just can't be bothered trying to deal with a hangover when there is 4 boys relying on me. Drinking alcohol regularly can seriously increase your calorie intake for the week without really noticing it. Switching to a glass of wine or low joule beer just a few times a week you'll soon notice the benefits not just on your body but also your wallet!

Changing the mindset - What I believe is the biggest factor in me losing almost 20kgs in the last 9 months is my motivation to leave the old behind and forge ahead feeling fit and healthy. It wasn't just about the numbers on the scale. It was about the gain in energy, clearer skin and about my long term health. I had a Hysterectomy and repairs last year (required due to a traumatic delivery of my first son) and more recently surgery for Hernias I incurred during my last pregnancy. If there's one thing I've learnt about surgery is that you wouldn't wish the post surgery pain and recovery time on your worst enemy. There's no way I'm going back to hospital for something that I can prevent. For this reason I don't smoke, rarely drink and I'm determined to keep myself in optimal health, long term. By losing another 4 kgs I'll officially be in the Healthy weight range. This is something I've been aiming for since back at Christmas last year.

Ideally I'd like to lose another 7 kgs which will put me back at the weight I was 9 years ago when I married my husband, right before we started a family. I'd love to hear from some of you who are going to join me on my weight loss journey. Stay tuned for more updates ;)

Photo 1: Me at Size 18 in red dress.

Photo 2: Me at Size 14 one year later.

Kids Kitchen

I'm not sure how these things come into my mind sometimes but I had what I thought was a wonderful idea that I just had to share with you all :)

So here I was, in the kitchen (aren't I always) in the middle of making up some organic vanilla custard for Fraser when Dane expresses interest in trying some. Considering the Heinz packets of custard powder is intended for babies 6 months and over, here I am thinking he's not going to like it at all. Here's where my awesome idea comes in.....

How about if I add some Milo and make it chocolate custard? How about if I grate some dark chocolate and sprinkle the shavings on top and serve it like a proper dessert?

Well once I'd created my masterpiece all of the boys wanted some of course! After tasting some myself I must say if I didn't know it was made from baby custard I'd think it was some super yummy dessert snack! So now I've found a simple, yummy and fairly healthy treat for all the family. How much did it cost me to make this yummy snack? About a third of a packet of Heinz Organic vanilla custard, about 200mls milk and a few spoonfuls of milo all adds up to just over $1 for 4 generous servings. Not bad I say! Much cheaper than those Yogo snack things (not that I buy them usually).

Our Easter 2011 Trip

Those of you who have been living under a rock might not know that a few months back we bought an old caravan and decided to fix it up a bit to do some travel with around Australia. We decided late last year that a light weight caravan might be an easier option for taking a holiday every now and then rather than tenting it as we have done now for several years. Space was getting pretty tight in the fourby now we've got the 4 boys and there was only so much stuff we could stow away on the roof basket before it reached weight limits. Besides who wants to spend a good half hour to set-up your basic tent layout just to stop over for a night somewhere and then have to pull it all back down again in the morning before hitting the road. We also soon realised motels charge you a fortune to stay even one night once you're family of 6!

Our best solution was to buy a cheap old caravan that we could pay outright cash on and do it up over time to make a comfortable place to eat and sleep, not to mention carry all our stuff in. Actually who am I kidding, the main reason for the caravan was so I could take a mountain of clothes and shoes with me and not be concerned if my suitcase is going to fit in the boot! We spend a good 3 months searching on Ebay to find the very best bang for buck. We considered a pop top to cut down the weight and the height of the van but most of the second-hand vans we looked at had water damage from the pop top or needed the canvas replacing. We also thought about buying a camper trailer but figured it needed almost as much setting up as our turbo-lite tent and you were still carting something behind your car. Finally we agreed that a basic full height but lighter weight caravan would serve the purpose and if we really wanted to rough it and do harder tracks we would go back to using the old tent for those trips. We bought an old Viscount because there seemed to be a lot of them still available and we did some research and founds parts were still very easy to buy. We got it at a good price as it had a fair bit of work to be done but was still towable back from Newcastle where we bought it from.

This Easter was our first caravan trip so as you can imagine we were all very excited. We spent hours in the caravan, painting, pulling out old carpet, filling holes and taking out the copious amounts of hooks and nails the previous owner had stupidly hammered in all around the caravan! We replaced the hubs and fitted brand new light truck tyres on the van and the spare wheel. Clif took the old dodgy hitch off and replaced it with a brand new assembly and replaced all the brake assembly with new parts. We pulled out the old kitchen and Clif replaced it with a temporary kitchen to get us through the trip, basically a pre-loved caravan sink put onto a new base. We'll work on the new kitchen in the coming months and have it ready for our next trip, hopefully a short one in October.

Our trip lasted 7 nights and 8 days and took us down through country NSW into the Blue Mountains region before heading back up along the coast to home. Our plan was to gradually chill out on the way down to the cold and then thaw out on the way back.

 Unfortunately my itinerary planning for our first night's stay in Armidale was made without the knowledge that it is in fact is one of the coldest towns in country New South Wales! Armidale is set up high on a mountain and catches a lot of the cool winds coming across the surrounding valley. We set ourselves up at the Pembroke Tourist park and were pleased to discover we had been given an ensuite site. For those camping amateurs this means you have your own bathroom (usually a toilet, shower and basin). It might not seem such a big deal but when you've got kids waking up to use the toilet at 2am in sub zero temperatures it's a true godsend!

We all took a walk from the caravan park to the closest Bunnings down the road to get a few odd things we hadn't thought about bringing! Walking back at 7pm the weather had become quite brisk but didn't seem too bad. We had some dinner and went off to bed soon after and figured we'd be ok without the heater as although it was cool we had lots of warm pj's and sleeping bags. Turns out the weather changed considerably at around 2am to the point that poor Fraser just couldn't stay warm and spent a good part of the morning awake screaming in our bed! We had to move stuff around to pull the heater out of the hatch under our bed but by then the van was already too cold to really make much difference til morning. We were beginning to wonder if this trip was going to be worth it!

Next day we headed for Tamworth for some sightseeing. We did some shopping at their 'big' shops and stocked up on even warmer clothes for the kiddies. We were a bit panicked that if the weather was that cold in Armidale what in the world would it be like in the Blue Mountains? We stopped off at the Golden Guitar for a look and some coffee (which was the worst coffee I've ever tasted mind you) then headed for our next night's stay in Scone.

We pulled into the caravan park in Scone and my poor hubby just wanted to turn the van around and keep going. It was a very old park, mostly filled with long term tenants in even dodgier vans than ours. In fact it's quite possible that our 32 year old caravan was the pick of the bunch so that's saying a lot. I knew when booking the park that it would be nothing special as it was the cheapest site on our itinerary but I figured it was a just a stopover so didn't really matter. We set up the van and played some totem tennis that we had brought along for the trip. Thankfully Scone is down in the valley so it was a warmer night than the previous one, but we put the heater on anyway just to be sure. We had a much better night's sleep that night and headed off first thing in the morning for the Jenolan Caravan park in Oberon where we would be staying for 3 nights. We were both very excited and apprehensive about reaching the coldest part of our journey.

I decided that we should take the scenic route and take a drive down through the mountains rather than out through Newcastle. At first the scenery was bushy and slightly boring but as time passed and we got deeper in the mountains we were thrilled to find huge rocky canyons, mountains reaching high into the clouds and deep valleys with beautiful lookouts. At one stage the road got dustier until we were led onto an unsealed road. Unfortunately it was at this time that we lost GPS signal and had no real idea how long the road would remain unsealed or how well suited it would be for the caravan. We travelled for around 30 mins on the bumpy unsealed road until we were back out on the Golden Highway and came across a cute little country town for a toilet stop and a stretch. Clif thought it was a good thing for the caravan to 'rough it' a bit as it proved that it really is a strong, old battle axe.

We reached Oberon late Thursday afternoon and set up the caravan for the longer stay. The big boys were keen to take their scooters for a spin to find out how many kids were staying for the Easter break. The park was at maximum capacity with loads of families setting up their monstrous campsites, complete with outdoor kitchens covered by huge outdoor tarps. Some even had their normal fridge from home stacked with meat and beer in preparation for the long weekend. We looked tiny by comparison. Just our car parked neatly beside our little 13 foot sunshine yellow striped caravan. No annexe, no tarp, just 2 folding chairs and a picnic blanket.

Good Friday was our big day. We had our 2 most exciting activities planned and it would all come down to perfect timing for us to get them both done. We headed off first thing towards the Jenolan caves. The road from Oberon stretches down towards the bottom of the mountain. It's an extremely twisty road, perhaps the steepest drive I've ever done. I put the Prado into first gear at the top of the mountain and it stayed that way right to the bottom, which takes about half an hour to descend. Finally when we reached the bottom we walked towards the amazing chalet type buildings to find a mish-mash of tourists, backpackers and families rugged up in their winter woolies.

The line-up at the ticket counter seemed endless and I was glad I left the family back in the car at the carpark whilst I got the tickets organised. The tour we wanted to do was the Imperial cave tour. I had chosen this tour as it was apparently the easiest and the best for young children. It had just over 300 steps to complete in an hour, whereas some others had over 1200 steps to complete in less than 2 hours. I reached the front of the line at 9:30 and was lucky enough to get the 10am tour. This meant though I had to run right to the top of the very steep hill to get the family to drive down to the drop off point so Clif could go back and park the car. I gave Fraser a breastfeed whilst we waited for Clif to return, whilst trying to ensure Ehren didn't jump into the waterfall/pond in front of us. Easier said than done, without a pram and a baby attached to the breast.

We managed to make our way to the cave opening with a few minutes to spare and wait for our guide to meet up with our group. The boys made friends with a little boy of similar age that was also waiting for the Imperial tour. Our guide showed up and we made our way up a staircase that led us into the top of the cave entrance. The Imperial cave follows the underground river and is mostly flat with a few steps down as you walk along through it. The underground river itself was probably the most impressive thing. It is crystal clear water with limestone sand underneath. It is that clear when you first look you swear it is just sand, no water at all. The stalactites and stalagmites are very impressive. They have been stained with peachy-apricot colours from the sediment washed along with the river over time. Our guide explains that this cave can get quite deep with water during times of plentiful rain and it was impassible earlier this year with all the floods that occurred down South. Our boys were quite impressed with the crystals growing on some of the walls. We are told that the crystals are much more impressive in some of the other larger caves. We will come back again in a few years when the boys are bigger to take a look at those. Clif and I were getting quite buggered as we reached the end of the tour. I was carrying Fraser in his sling and poor Clif was carrying Ehren through most of the walk, up and down stairs, through very low, cut away cave ceilings.

We didn't get much time to hang around in Jenolan as we were hoping to catch the 1pm steam train leaving from the ZigZag Railway in Clarence, just out of Lithgow. We raced back to the car and took the drive through the mountains trying our best to get there in time. Luckily I'm a bit of a leadfoot and a fairly confident driver and managed to get us there just as the train was pulling into the station. We quickly grabbed our tickets and loaded the boys onto the train before it departed for it's journey into the Blue Mountains.

Bailey LOVES trains. In fact that's probably the understatement of the year! Bailey lives, eats, sleeps and breathes trains and the look on his face as we took off in one of his beloved 'steamies' was totally priceless. The train stopped a number of times to turn the train in opposite directions as we zigzagged down and then back up the mountains. The ride was a little scary at first. The track sits right on the edge of the mountains and the train feels a little unsteady as it rattles around along the tracks. There are 2 very old brick bridges that the train travels across and a very long tunnel that puts the train into complete darkness for a good 3 or 4 minutes. The train itself is an old Queensland Rail steam train. You can almost imagine yourself as one of the passengers back in the days when train travel was one of the most popular forms of transport. It's quite smelly from the coal and the train workers themselves end up black by the end of the 2 hour journey. The train ride was one of the real highlights of our trip. It's something I know Bailey & Dane will remember fondly right into their adult years.

The next day we decided to take a drive into Bathurst after a recommendation from a facebook friend that lives there. We took a drive to take a look at Mt Panorama then spent a good few hours at their award winning adventure playground. We all had a ball there, us adults included. The boys rode their scooters on the awesome paths, we all went on the flying foxes, the giant slide and took a climb up the giant web-like climbing structure. After that we moved on to the Kelso Pub. The food was first class country cooking but what really won us over was the huge covered play area that kept the kids happy and gave us some much needed relaxation. For those people who have taken their kids to a Lollipops playland or similar imagine pub quality lunch and free access to the play area, that's exactly what this awesome Pub has!

Easter Sunday also marked Dane's 5th Birthday. The boys woke to find Easter Bunny had made the effort dropping off some goodies in the caravan. Dane opened some birthday presents and we all had a little Easter egg with our pancake breakfast before packing up the caravan to hit the road yet again. It was a little sad leaving the Jenolan Caravan park in Oberon. Most other families were staying for another day and the boys had started to get very comfortable with the 'riding crew' doing laps around our block. The park is top class, roomy powered blocks, clean grounds and immaculate new looking amenities. We're hoping to stay there another time.

We drove that Easter Sunday heading out through the stunning Blue Mountains for the last time and stopped that night at the Big 4 Holiday Park in Cessnock. I had booked this park thinking that being a Big 4 it would have all the usual kiddy friendly inclusions but we were disappointed to find they didn't even have a little playground. The owner advised us they were more a park for the older travellers doing the Wine tasting tours. For a cost of $70 for an ensuite site I can say we won't be going back there any time soon. We found a local park and took some Pizza along for Dane's birthday dinner. I piled up some Dominoes Choc Lava cakes and stuck a number 5 candle on top for an impromptu birthday cake. Dane seemed happy enough with that and we all agreed the cake was yummy.

The next day Easter Monday we made our way up to our favourite holiday spot, Coffs Harbour. Coffs has such a lovely Gold coast feel without all the hussle and bussle. It's always a bit warmer in Coffs than in Brissy, no matter when we've visited. We stopped off for some tobogganing fun at the Big Banana. It's become a tradition for us now! We normally like to go and watch some candy being made too but we needed to check in at the caravan park and get ourselves settled in for the night. We stayed at Beach Park Holiday park this time and it's got to be the best park ever for kids. The weather was quite nice for late afternoon so Bailey, Dane and I went for a play and swim at the water adventure park they have there. We then took a nice drive around Coffs while the sun went down before picking up some yummy fish and chips to eat back in the caravan. Wasn't long before we turned in for the night and headed back towards home in the morning.

The only real mistake I made when putting together our itinerary was not staying an extra night before coming back home. The Easter holiday traffic was a nightmare and together with pelting rain it made for a long and somewhat testing drive home. We saw 3 accidents on the way back, mostly just people being impatient and not being considerate to other drivers. It's amazing how many caravanning families drive like absolute maniacs in their effort to get home as early as possible. We took our time and even stopped off the side of the road to cook up a can of casserole on the gas cooker for lunch before taking a scenic detour through Byron Bay. We were just happy to get home safe and sound.

The trip was our very first in the caravan but it certainly won't be the last. The convenience of pulling up somewhere, pulling the support stands down and being able to enjoy ourselves was simply awesome. I can't imagine ever going back to camping in our tent again. This has me asking the question, should we sell our super-duper $1000 tent or keep it just in case? Hmmmm....