One thing that we love to do as a family is take day trips. We pack the picnic basket, get into the car and pick a direction. Neither of my little superheroes enjoy the unknown - the element of surprise and unknown really throws them both off balance. But throughout life, we all will come across unknown surprises so both Daddy superhero and I want to prepare them. We want them both to know what while preparation for changes is great, every now and then they will come across a change that they didn't know about and that they will be okay.
So the day trips that we take serve two purposes - having fun as a family and preparing them for the future.
About a month ago we decided to go on a day trip and when we got to the motorway, both little superheros pointed south so that's the direction we went in. We ended up down at one of Daddy superheroes old stomping grounds on the south side of Brisbane. There's a great little (well not so little in the grand scheme of things) playground with huge old Moreton Bay fig trees at Wellington Point. After a picnic, both little superheroes took off towards the trees.
Each time we venture to Wellington Point, both little superheroes love to climb up and sit on the branches of the old trees. This time, not only did they just sit on one of the branches, they wanted to have a go at climbing/crawling/shuffling along one of the branches into the tree. This is a huge step, especially for O, as while L really doesn't have a sense of fear, the branches aren't the easiest to climb along.
But they both had a go, and with a little help from Daddy, they both made it into the tree! And not only did they have fun, but by climbing the tree, they gained a little proprioceptive input!!
After some tree climbing, we saw that the tide was on its way out. Each time we've been to Wellington Point, the little superheroes have talked about the little island that is located a short distance off shore from Wellington Point. What they both didn't realise is that when the tide goes out, there is a sand bank that appears that runs between Wellington Point and the island, King Island.
So off came the shoes and we made a snap decision to walk the sand bank to King Island! Now as the tide hadn't gone completely out, we had to cross a small channel to get onto the sand bank. We all pulled our shorts up as far as they would go and waded into the water. Me being my clumsy self, went bum up and was soaked from the waist down - thank goodness, I'd wrapped my phone in a few plastic bags! Both little superheros, and Daddy superhero and the people around us, had a good chuckle. And both little superheroes reminded me "Mummy, you don't have dry clothes in the car. Now you're wet, you going to have to walk home!"
King Island is situated approximately 1 kilometre out from Wellington Point. The island is a conservation park and is a combination of sandy pathways alongside trees and it is surrounded by mangroves. It is uninhabited now, but in the early 1900's, the island was once home to the Phillips family for medicinal reasons - one of their seven children had polio and it was suggested to them that the child would benefit from bathing daily in the sea water. They built a makeshift home on the island and lived there for a number of years.
The walk out to King Island was quite lovely. At one point L told me "It very peaceful out here!" and that it was. We took our time walking out, stopping to look at the coral and shells that were washed up on the sand bar.
The walk was a little too much for O. She did make it out to the island but the shells and coral along the way was too much for her feet. So once we'd made it to the island, she and I headed back while L and Daddy superhero explored the island.
As you can probably tell from the photo, L had a ball bouncing, running and jumping all over the island.
On our way back to Wellington Point, O and I had a talk about what we had learnt from the walk as by that point O was quite teary. Her pain threshold is quite low compared to L's so I wanted to try and take her mind off of the walk itself.
We decided that next time that while we'd take our shoes off to cross over onto the sand bar, we'd bring our shoes so that the coral and shells didn't hurt O's feet. It is wonderful to see her problem solve issues that she comes across as it means that in the future, she will have these skills to help her in every day life.
At one point on the way back, O spotted a lump of dead coral. She knows that as a teenager and young adult, I had my heart set on becoming a marine biologist, so she is always asking me questions about marine life. The coral that she happened to pick up had two, that we could see, different marine creatures living on it. There was a black and brown chiton (a marine mollusc) sticking very tightly and moving very slowly along one edge and in a burrow was the tail end of a mantis shrimp - it was madly clicking as we looked at the coral as if to say "put my home down!"
Oh, and I didn't need to walk home - we'd packed towels just in case we ended up at a destination where the little superheroes could swim!
