Saturday, August 20, 2005

We Go To Canberra

Do you remember those early readers, the ones with titles like"Peter and Susan Vist the Doctor". Or, how about 'We Go On A Holiday"? Well, this is our version, based on our one night and one day trip to Canberra, the capitol city.

"We drove to Canberra. We drove in our car. We got stuck in peak hour traffic. And then we drove very fast.

Canberra was sunny and clean. We visited the Questacon Science Centre. Anny's Tamagotchie had a hard time waking up. When he ( Bob) woke up, he ate lots of snacks.

We visited the National Art Gallery. We saw one of Monet's Waterlillies. We saw some of Andy Warhol's pop art. We liked Blue Poles by Jackson Pollack.

We did a lot of walking in Canberra. It has nice parks. J and A visited the National Library . T and Anny and I toured Old Parliament House.

We all met N for lunch at new Parliament House. We had a quick tour. We liked Old Parliament House more. But this was Anny's best part of the day.

We finished the day with shopping at the mall in the city centre. We drove home. No peak hour traffic this time."

Anyway, Peter and Susan aside, it was a fun day. Well worth a visit ( maybe at Christmas?) and we enjoyed the many discussions about the art, the earthquake house at Questacon and the sale of Telstra ( questions brought up a Question Time in the House of Representatives).

And home again, today, we went to ice skating and gym with other homeschoolers. One mum, a mother of eleven, came with the five or six children she is homeschooling.

I know that a very large family can present challenges but, sometimes, you wonder if some people are just not cut out for the role of mother in a large family. This mother made many derogatory remarks about some of her children - who she said were not as "bright" or academic as others in her family. She spoke to her children in what T called a "mean voice." She smacked them. She seemed tense and I felt sad. I think she needs a break. I think her children need a break.

Does it take a special sort of person to be a parent of a large, homeschooling family? Can one develop the "special" characteristics? How can we help others who seem burned out? And how can we help their children? I ponder this myself, as a mother of seven.

1 comment:

Leonie said...

Oh, I agree, Sarah. But how do I talk about this, to the mum of many, who is stressed? Maybe when I get to know her more.