Olivia goes to school this week. So I dusted off my sewing machine and sewed some children mouth masks. Somehow, time is changing, it is no longer “I have to go to school again” but rather “Hooray I can go to school!”. Half of the class had a school last week, half now and only three school hours per day, but it is so much better than nothing. They don’t have time to do everything, they have to do the rest at home, but Olivia somehow doesn’t mind at all and does everything without complaining.
We have been home due to Corona virus for five weeks. We went through a phase of enthusiasm but also a phase of why I have to do homework and Dominik doesn’t have to. Working and doing all the school tasks at the same time is still a challenge. It was good that there was a two-week holiday break and some time off in the meantime. Somehow, I feel like I’m not properly at work nor with children.
Olivia celebrated her seventh birthday. Firstly, children sang her a birthday song on a pony riding course, then she got a special birthday drink in a restaurant and after holidays she celebrated with her friends at home. After a birthday cake, they searched for a treasure together, they made keychains and ended the celebration with pizza. For school, we prepared muffins and decorated them together.
She still likes climbing and swimming.
Olivia wanted to ride a horse for some time ago, but in addition to all the activities we have, it seemed impossible to me. So sometimes we went to ride a pony and, as I led him, I was hoping he was lazy enough to run away. Then, in the autumn, we discovered holiday courses with Icelandic ponies, which, in addition to being cute, walk so that it does not burden the spine.
Last year Dominik was doing quite well, which roughly means that he managed to slow down and make small arches on the slope in the children’s area. Olivia learned to ski with the ski poles and she was skiing great, what we were really happy about. This year, Dominik could also join the ski course in Ostin organized by kindergarten. But there was not so much snow, so they were only in the children’s area all the time.
Our lovely children got picture cookbooks for Christmas. With their help, they are able to cook everything by themselves. I only helped them to find the needed ingredients. They already tried to make mini pizzas, muffins, sponge cake, baked potatoes, salad, baked pasta and waffles. Everything was delicious! They enjoyed cooking and were very proud of themselves. Yummy!
A new school year began and Olivia became a Year One pupil. On the first day, she walked enthusiastically with the school cone and school bag to school. Olivia goes to 1.D class. So far we had more homework than her, but those she had she enjoyed very much. Reward for an active participation at school or for good homework are stamps on a special card. When she gets a certain number of them she may choose an extra reward (we don’t know what it is yet, but it motivates her greatly).
It is said that the forest is called black one due to the color of the tree bark. It didn’t seem so black to us, but it smelled amazingly of mushrooms that we literally stumbled over, and there were loads of blueberries everywhere, so Dominik had a blue-violet mouth after each trip. We walked along a gnome path (about two hours in the forest), where we were looking for a capercaillie Anton together with two gnomes.
Dominik became a proper kindergarten kid. His love for machines, whether agricultural, construction or trains, has not changed. He likes to disassemble things and then to repair them and build. Last time, he said he would like to be a builder. He is really full of surprises. With Olivia everything has its rules, with Dominik it just doesn’t work like that, he somehow always finds a way how to avoid them.
Istria is nice hilly and about as far away from us as Italy, so this time we decided to replace the sandy Italian beach with a pebble one. We stayed in the camping resort Lanterna near the town of Tar. The sea was clear, the beaches were well maintained (the algae were also cleaned up quickly after the storm) and there was a pleasant walkway along the beach. Everywhere was a wonderful shade of pine trees, so we spent practically all day on the beach.