Our education was like the snow conditions - varied, exciting, sometimes tedious to trudge through but always 'of the now'. Here are a few examples.

Learning how to wax your board. Why wax? What sort? For which conditions?

Getting the book work done...

How races work...

Music time at the op shop...

And of course just soaking up the beauty of the mountains, working on our snow sports and skills and whooping and hollering at every chance we got!

Returning home to the freedom farm after 4 months at the snow followed by the mad adventure of Burning Seed has been...bittersweet.

Bitter in that I felt like I had to scrub every surface, clean out every shelf and drawer and shake the dust and cobwebs from every rug, scarf and 'thing' in the whole place.

Bitter in that the reality of life with all it's activities and social engagements and schedules seemed to encroach on the time spent simply 'being'.

Bitter in that the 'on tap' bunch of new and old friends that had surrounded us at the Snow and Seed were now noticeably absent and not just 'on the hill' or in the campsite next door.

At home often it was just us, the valley, the horses and the birdsong.

And therein also lies the Sweet.

Catching up with neighbors and family, with plenty of time for 'just us'.

Being surrounded by all our memories and equipment and tools and instruments for play, construction and learning.

Having the chance to create a totally new timetable in our homeschooling lives (this term it's circus, beach play, drama).

Waking up in the lushest green wonderland and swimming in the river whilst gazing at the sandstone escarpment that keeps us nestled in with Mother Nature.

Sweet.

The utopian sharing community that is Seed, once again opened it's arms to us to play and learn amongst the wildflowers, red dust and chirruping frogs of the paddock.

Each experience of Seed is different, and the main difference this year was the addition of Gav. It was awesome having him to set up camp, explore and dance with!

The boys' experience of the festival is also changing. Felix tended to hang more with the adults (dressing up, playing spontaneous gigs in the street, going out dancing) while Luca was voluntarily engulfed into the world of kids camp and we barely saw him!

But we all came together to watch the temple burn.

It was beautiful.

Once again, it was a time of new experiences, a loosening of the ties that bind our minds, a limbering of the bodies on the dance floor and in the circus tent, a chance to people watch, participate in human moments and appreciate the beauty that exists in every flickering hearts flame.

The future is now.

That topic of socialization in homeschooling still pops up as predictibly as the sun during conversations with the uninitiated. I understand why, I really do, but let's face it - people are everywhere, it's not hard to find ones to spend time with.

Especially at the snow.

We had sooooo many wonderful visitors.

And there were many, many more.

We also made great new friends while we were there, from trampolining class and neighbourhoid hangouts, to the op shop crew and new buddies on the hill.

It's fun to be snowcial.

On the day before Fathers Day, Luca did a funny fall off the rail in Piper Park and started to cry, nursing his wrist. Now this was enough to set off alarm bells as his pain threshold is usually really high, and these wails were REALLY loud!

He got a skidoo ride to the Perisher medical centre where we waited for ages, witnessing broken arms being reset, dislocated shouldered bring popped back in and even one poor woman with a broken pelvis trying to walk. Ouch.

An x-ray and examination later, the verdict of 'chipped radius near the growth plate' was given and a heavy plaster cast was applied.

Now it was time to take it easy...which lasted all of 6 days before a new blue fancy fiberglass cast was put on and it was back up the hill for the rest of the season!

A great chance to look at bones and healing and study the anatomy of the arm. And create some cast art of course ;)