Category Archives: Family Thinking

Everything to do with finding family awesomeness

Family Thinking

Reminiscing on the olden days

We are staying at my mum’s house, and it so happens that the former headmaster of my primary school works in a church down the road. He retired in 1999; his name is Mr Millard.

I went to visit him yesterday. It was divine providence that he happened to be in the building. He was locking up and preparing to go, so it’s just as well that I caught him. There is something extraordinarily strange about talking to the principal of your old school. He used to be the guy in charge, the big kahuna, the chief. And now you speak to him as an equal. Sometimes in life, you encounter a person that you haven’t met for over two decades, and you talk to them, magically compressing many years into a small conversation.

I wondered with him about whether life is harder now for children. I had always feared that it is only the cynical of us who say that things are so complicated now, and they were much better when we were kids. Mr Millard doesn’t strike me as the cynical type at all. He agreed with me. It’s somewhat a relief to know that you can look fondly upon the olden days and not automatically classify as a cynic.

He said life now as a child is very much harder, continuing that school these days is more about filling in forms and sticking to milestones rather than teaching and imagining and inspiring young children. He certainly didn’t say that school is terrible, just that these other factors seem to detract from what should be an excellent start to a child’s educational life.

One of the things I wondered with him was how a principal sets the tone and pace, but it is the talent, dedication and passion of the teachers that filling the structure. For example, my primary school put on many shows, which I think would rival some of the high school stage productions that I see in the world today. But those primary school musicals were really the result of one particular teacher’s dedication and passion for her craft. I must admit that I didn’t always get along with that teacher, but all the same, I think she was one of the defining factors of that school, making it what it was. Talking with Mr Millard made me realise that.

Are you that person who changes the world around you? Or are you just there for the ride?

As we reflect on the journey ahead, it is still intimidating to think about the educational decision we have made for this year, our children and the family in general.

I can say with confidence that when I type things in on a keyboard, the results are very very different from the times when I put pen to paper. In the news today was a study showing that children spend 20 minutes more per day looking at screens than television.

I think this year will be a lot about pens, paper and writing when it comes to even the children and me. We hope to explore their creative side and look at the things that really define us as humans, those factors which sadly I fear I neglected by mainstream primary school.

That is why we have made our decision, and we are going to execute on it as best we can.

Family Thinking

Appreciating the days

It’s a beautiful Sunday morning in Sydney. It’s not always necessary to travel far or travel perpetually in order to experience beauty around us. I must admit that we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for some external event.

There was a diabetes awareness walk occurring I’m we thought we’d come and join in given how diabetes affects our family full stop the main focus of today with type 2 diabetes which is a condition on the rise, especially out in Western Sydney. In fact, this region has one of the highest growth rates of type 2 diabetes in Australia. So at 6:45 a.m. they started a fundraising walk along Toongabbie Creek. I’ve often wanted to walk along Toongabbie Creek because it seems to run into many places and I’ve never really explored it. Today was no exception. We missed the walk and ended up staying for breakfast and speeches. Having said that, it was very nice but it is also the reason why I’m here and not lazing at home on this beautiful Sunday.

One of the things that surprised me most was that the people who were here were predominantly aligned with the Australian Labor Party. That really disappointed me because I’m sure that diabetes does not pick according to political preference. So why would it be that events are so polarized across political parties? I see two lots because we all go too many events across cultural groups, political preferences and ethnicities. All the same, I would have still expected diabetes to have a little bit more universal appeal. The children are different. They don’t care about politics or charity walks or even Toongabbie Creek but they did care about the fact that we would visit the playground afterwards.

I feel like a slightly deviant parent letting them play while I stand around at the side and write a Blog. Actually, I’m not even writing I’m just dictating and the machine is doing the typing for me. I shouldn’t feel that bad really because I’m trying to be less supervisory in these situations and watch safely From a Distance. It’s something I learnt in world schooling. The idea of attachment parenting, where you do Bill the attachment and you celebrate it is being very important but neither do you let them become so attached to you but they are incapable of functioning without to being present. I don’t know if there is value in blogging in the moment, although I think that is because sometimes thoughts fade if you let them.

The playground is very interesting. There is a family here on a photo shoot with a photographer. They have two older children and a baby, I think the age gap for must be about 6 or 7 years. I think it’s nice to see a family taking such photos in a more family-friendly setting than a studio. We’re making good progress towards our goal of finding Awesomeness although I can’t report any single insight yet.

As it is we’ve had a really good week or two planning and pondering how we going to do this and what it might mean for things like our business are extended family life and all those things that we find it hard to escape like finances, houses and possessions. I can’t say that it’s easy but I think it’s lots of fun to try. It makes one feel invigorated. Now, one of the things about blogging in the moment is that the moment is always changing. As it is the children and getting a little bit bored of this playground and it’s time to move on so this blog entry will also move on to next time.

Family Thinking

Light in the Dark

I’ve been back a few days now after the World Education Summit in Chiang Mai. It feels like a bright shining light has been turned off in a dark room. The glow is still there, but it will fade to nothing after a while. What do I do now?

I suppose that we can look at this as an opportunity. It is a point at which I can out of the room and enter another space. The world is full of inspirational ideas. And those ideas are right here, at home.

But Aren’t There Many Ways To Do Good Things?

Chay had just sat down from a talk called Finding What You Love To Do &  Do It. He described a way of blending new forms of art to tell stories through painting with henna.

Indeed there are more ways than ever to find inspiration in your every day. Look at TED, a movement dedicated to inspiring the change we seek. Inspiration that seeks to reinvent, refocus and reinvigorate.

And there are some things that are not household names. Take High Resolves for example, an organisation doing fabulous work within the system. I went to their conference at the University of Technology Sydney in August 2018. Fantastic! At last, a view of citizenship and ownership for children to engage them in some of the big and unanswered questions. Groundbreaking to think of education beyond the normality and standardisation of the curriculum.

I think high resolves for inspired my resolution to find something better.

But my view changed while there. Because I realise that  High Resolves is noble and represented by some very accomplished people, it teaches its ideas in a box, while the intrinsic value of what it represents is actually what World Education is about. 

Don’t Contain Yourself

As i reflect on what this means, I realised that inspiration is the first part of the journey. I don’t like putting great ideas in a box. Indeed, those ideas are cause and reason to celebrate and develop things, but there is a point in life where one realises that a good idea, an inspiration should underpin everything one does. It should guide every fabric of one’s being, determine one’s destiny and be an intricate and noble part of whatever we do. One good idea often inspires another. So we take them both and weave them into our being. Then another idea, and another, and so on. Over time, those intricate and delicate threads interweave to form a beautiful tapestry. More than the fragility of a single good idea, but rather composed of a set of individually frail but congruent notions that together create something more powerful than any unique idea could manifest alone.

That tapestry is what we gaze upon. It does not deserve to be in a box, nor even a frame. We should walk on it, lie down on it, wrap ourselves in it, take it with us.

Good is not a force to be contained, and is instead a thing to be unleashed and set free. And that is what we are grappling with. How do we take the inspirations around us and bring them to life?

Family Thinking

Sign of the Times

It’s only been a few days since I got home from Chiang Mai.

The flight home was uneventful. I finished the article I was writing, in the old fashioned way with pen, paper and a notebook. Did some vLogging, which is still very new to me. Managed to do a stack of work in Singapore and I even worked on the aircraft by purchasing an in flight wifi connection. That worked well, although tiredness got the better of me.

But something else is happening. The kids demonstrated an overindulgent attitude yesterday, which gets us thinking of what exactly we want for them. And today a car crashed into the bus that I was travelling on. Driving in Australia is not a great pastime. The accident rate is way too high, given the standards that people are allegedly trained to.

It’s as if the world is saying to abandon this nonsense.