Land of the Getaway - Dampier Peninsular

Our kitchen view at Middle Lagoon

Trailer Failure

The helpers

Swimming at Cape Leveque

Sunset lighting up the red rocks at Cape Leveque

The beautiful blue of Middle Lagoon

Three Mermen

Land of the Getaway - Fitzroy to Derby

Geikie Gorge Walk

Derby Jetty

They have 'real' road trains over this side of the country

Playing on the mud flats around Derby

Boab Prison Tree 

Catching a mud crab on the jetty

Our home under a Boab tree

Helping Dad fix stuff - electrics don't like dust

Land of the Getaway - Tanami Desert

Flat tyre at morning tea

Desert 'track'

Camp at Renahan's Bore

Getting a birds eye view

Wolfe Creek Crater

Such a huge hole (800m across)

The family going back down.

China Wall near Halls Creek

Fun at Old Halls Creek

Land of the Getaway - Alice Springs

The highlights from our two night stay in Alice Springs.

Land of the Getaway - Across the Plenty to Alice

Kero Tin Hut in Morven

Campsite at Morven Recreation Grounds 

(perfect location with playground and skate park just behind us)

Musical Fence in Winton

Arno's wall in Winton - all sorts of random stuff moulded into a wall/fence

View from the kitchen in Boulia, on the Burke River

Cheese and crackers round the fire at Marshall River near Jervois 

Meeting an orphaned Joey at Tobermorey Station

Wattle with West MacDonnell Ranges in the distance from Anzac Hill in Alice Springs

Land of the Getaway

"We're living in the land of the getaway

No telling where the road will end

We're living in the land of the getaway

Just around the bend is a brand new day

Land of the Getaway"

Colin Buchanan.

This is our life for the next six weeks.  We are on a travelling holiday through northern Australia.  So far we have been on the road for five days and come across the Plenty Highway to Alice Springs.  We have seen lots of wide open spaces and awesome nothingness.  A two night stop over in Alice and now we are heading for the desert!

This is some of vast open lands we are seeing along the way.

Wisdom - what we did

WISDOM 

making right choices every day.

Well its been a little over a month at we have been focused on the character trait of Wisdom.  With a couple of weeks holiday in the middle, I felt like we needed to cover it some more before moving on.  I had lots of fun exploring the different ways I could present the concept of wisdom to the boys (6, 4 & 2).  The main idea that I wanted to get across was that lots of little choices being made right would build up to a life of wisdom.  So here are some of the ways we did that.

Building Blocks.

I built a tower with single blocks going straight up, not very stable.  Then I built another one with a solid foundation and as I did it we talked about how each block was like a good choice.  They all lean on each other and make a strong tower.  We also tried pulling a few blocks out and making gaps and explained how these were like bad choices and it leaves the tower a little unstable.  We also talked about how we want God to be the foundation of our lives and we want to base our choices on what his ways.  The boys then made paper towers to remember this lesson.

Marbles Jars.
Another day I used an empty jar to symbolise our lives.  When we make good choice our wisdom gets filled up (and I put a few marbles in the jar).  Then we make more good choices and the jar get fuller, sometimes we make choice that aren't so good and marble come out of the jar.  We talked about wanting to fill our lives with good choices and then made our own marble jars with a drawing and pompoms.

Treasure
God's word is where we can find out how he wants us to live.  We want to base our choices on what God says is right.  So we had a bible verse treasure hunt.  I wrote the bible reference on a white paper with a candle, rolled them up and hid them in the yard.  The boys took turns in finding them and then had to reveal the hidden message by painting with water based paint.  Then we found the verses in the bible together and talked about what each verse helped us with.

Wise Old Owl
We made paper bag owls and talked how owls make choices.

Crayon Wax Frame
Once again we talked about how many tiny choices work together to form a persons character.  I really wanted them to understand the importance of all those little choices we keep talking about in life.  I had grated a few old crayons - each small piece represented good choices.  By themselves they didn't look like much, but when we ironed it and they all melted together we had a beautiful 'stained glass' looking frame.  The boys loved this activity and it seemed to really help them understand how bringing all the choices together make a life of wisdom.

Compass
An arrow is a symbol for wisdom as it gives us direction and points the way, just like a compass shows us the way.  Guiding your way, wisdom will lead you through knowledge to understanding.  God's word is the arrow on our compass of life.  We each made simple a compass by rubbing a needle on a magnet and floating it in water on a piece of foam.  They had lots of fun with the magnet making the compass go all funny.  While they did that, I talked about how wrong choices can send us in the wrong direction away from what God wants for our lives, but we can always turn back to Him again.

God's Wisdom for Little Boys

We have a wonderful book called God's Wisdom for Little Boys by Jim & Elizabeth George.  We read one page most mornings after breakfast.  Each page addresses a different character trait with a poem, picture and verse from Proverbs.

It looks like we did lots but when you spread it out over a month it works out at about two activities a week.   The boys seemed to really enjoyed it and so did I.  I feel like we've all learnt lots about making right choices everyday!