Kylie's House

Today we spent the last day together as “ Kylies House ” kids doing what we love best - getting muddy and enjoying childhood ! We cooked over a camp fire, and made mud pies, and arrived home to find the house full of Kylies House whanau hosting a surprise farewell party. Imagine what that models for the children!?? How amazing is home based care?? The love, the relationships, the awareness and appreciation of each other. My home smells of fresh flowers,lots of tears have been shed and we are now on to new adventures.

Thank you Delilah for bringing the exuberant rainbow that is you into my home four days of the week for close to two years now. Dancing, singing, role playing and creating every day with you has been so much fun! I will miss being your “handsome prince!”

Thank you Carter for all of the endless snuggles, your excitement on entering my house each day, the big emotions you share with me , including all the things you love - “ I LOOOOOVE my family!” “ I LOOOOVE chocolate!” “I LOOOOVE my best friend Emmett!” , the flow of interesting questions about the world around you and your love of the outdoors and my garden space. It has been a lovely journey being your caregiver and watching you transition through crawling , walking , running and fearless climbing ❤️

Emmett you have brought kindness, fairness, dreaminess, playfulness and friendship in abundance! You are so soft, sweet, and wholesome.

Shuyi you have grown so quickly and have become so strong, confident and articulate in such a short time. You are so funny, and I’ll miss your daily huggles as you enter the house. Good thing we are neighbours ❤️

That’s a wrap on ten wonderful years on this exhilarating learning journey with wonderful children. Such a privilege to have been entrusted with them all.

❤️JJ, Tyler, Adelaide, Thomas, Minghao, Harry, Aisha, Hazel, Gwen, Hannah, Harrison, Michael, Tobias, Finn, Luca, Isobella, Emily, Godson, Levi, Kyran, Sesi, Mylo, Carter, Tilly, Esme, Delilah, Shuyi, Emmett, Elliott, Max, Esme, Diona , Poppy, Braxton ❤️

💚

One of the most interesting fungi in the world is the “Zombie Fungus”. It takes over the mind of an insect, causing it to climb up a branch and cling to the underside of a leaf before mummification. Once locked in place, the mushroom-like fruiting body of the cordyceps sprouts from the insect and eventually releases its spores. 😳🌿🐜🍄👀

Photography Credit: Jay Eeh
Info by Stories of Mushrooms

Kylies House is permanently closing next week as I have started on a homeschooling adventure with my own family. Ten years feels like a nice year to end this chapter on and begin another, although gosh it is hard to leave!

The goodbyes have begun, starting with the amazing Miss Esme 🤩

We enjoyed a suitably Dino themed afternoon for our treasured friend Esmes last day in care. Em and his mum came for lunch and we enjoyed some yummy food. Then we made our own dinosaur tails and partied!

It has been a marvellous adventure caring for and befriending Esme for the past 2 and a bit years - from the first moment I cared for her and she somehow scaled the smooth surface of my highest *CHILD SAFETY LOCKED!* pantry cupboard with the agility and stealth of a panther and gobbled a vitamin tablet I knew I was in for an adventure 😱🤩 👀👀

Her breathtakingly inquisitive mind, the intense and vibrant role play , brilliant on point one liners, her passion for the things and people she loves, the extreme facials 😂, her love for living creatures and science, her admirable intelligence beyond her years, the way she starts each day with her happy excitement …I love you Esme 😍 Good luck for kindergarten and all the amazing life that’s ahead of you 💓💓 thank you mummy Kat for your belief in my ability to offer Esme an environment she could thrive in, it’s been a pleasure working with your family .

We enjoyed a spring scavenger hunt at Glenfalloch Gardens, enjoying observing the changes to the trees and plants and ponds since we were last here in autumn. Lots of fun matching the little garden ornaments and bird houses and bridges to the pictures on the map 💓

Spring 🌼🪴🌞 is officially in the air so to celebrate we have experimented with flower printing and mark making, cutting out our own tubes to create different patterns on the paper with lovely bright colours . We have been enjoying lots more independent scissor work lately so this is a big interest of the children’s and they loved seeing their flower cut out pop off the page when pressed into paint 💓💓

Take your pick: Domination or Partnership?
Domination is the way of the hierarchy, of schools, corporate law, corporate takeovers, union busting, nation-state warfare, re-education camps, ecosystem destruction by methods of farming-horticulture-fishing-forestry that dominate nature, prisons, families etc.

Riane Eisler in her thought provoking book “The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics” explores the two power dynamics and their contribution to health, prosperity and harmony, or otherwise. She notes that the power dynamic domination is learned right from the beginning through the ways we parents use our power with our babies and children. While every baby comes expecting a partnership, they come to parents whose predominant experience has been in the power Domination Dynamic. We are the generation tasked with breaking the cycle. When you look at the list in the first paragraph you’ll see why our effort will make all the difference, both for our children, for society, and for this Earth.

Boss Baby Shuyi often perches and watches her friends whilst doing her phone and laptop work. I wonder what she likes about it so much. She uses chalk to write on the little screen too 💓

Nice and quiet at the bike safety park! Great for working on following the light indicators and lanes….and one footed riding stunts!

Some shared kai treats in order today to celebrate our wee friend Em turning 4! I remember when you had only recently turned 2 my sweet friend 😍
They are all growing up fast!

We joined our Porse friends for a nature walk and good old bush forage this morning. Finding skeletal leaves, spiders nests, very tall and skinny “baby“ trees and fallen logs to navigate across. Outdoors is where it’s at for these friends!

✔️exploration
✔️adventures in community
✔️nature play