Trains - making Fantastic Family Memories

I am always conscious of how quickly these years with our children as children/young adolescents is moving past.  If we have a moment free on a weekend - which is a rarity with 4 busy children, we try to grab the moment and do a 'family' activity.
Our past weekend was spent enjoying one such activity.  We bundled the family into the car and did a small road trip to visit the 'Trainworks - rail and train museum', Thirlmere, NSW
This adventure was fun for young and old (from Bubsieboo to Grandpa we all loved our day!)

The day started with a steam train ride.  Let's face it, it is the slowest way to travel!!! We loved it.  The kids enjoyed the adventure of meeting a train driver, watching the driver throw coal onto the fire, being covered with smoke from the puffing engine and watching the loco change from one end of the train to the other.

Once this had concluded we enjoyed a picnic in the grounds and then a walk through the museum.  Seriously I had no interest in trains previous to this, but the experience that allowed us to visit the train travelled in by the Queen and Prince Phillip in the 1950's, a prison train, the train of the NSW government and other interesting first class trains - left me in awe of the workmanship of the olden trains.  The nasty red rattler's brought back bad childhood memories, when we would wait on the station and pray that the train would be one of the new 'silver' trains and then the 'tangara'.

I have never before contemplated NSW trains, but now have a new found respect for the rail transportation system.

Our children ran over dis-used train tracks, played hide and seek in carriages and played on the playground.   We were lucky as the weather was perfect winter sunshine.  Everyone left our family day feeling happy, calm and ready to hit the road for our trip home.  Content sleeping children lay in the back of the car, cuddled together.

Truly happy family memories & maybe a future in trainspotting!!

Hello

Hello, nice to meet you!

I would like to introduce my family.

I am married to Mr M and am proud to say that we have been married happily for 17 years.  I am lucky to be married to my best friend.  Family is everything to us.  We work hard, and take seriously our commitment to bring up ‘good’ people.  In turn, we love to celebrate the good times and enjoy the family relaxation times. 

We are parents of  4 wonderful children. Dancer, Swimmer, Cricketer and Bubsieboo. 
As you can imagine, life with 4 children 14,12,10 and 2 is never dull.  Our lives are full and busy.  There always seems to be a drama to sort out, or a new issue to traverse.  Life is exciting and life can be difficult….. sound familiar?  I think every family finds this to be the case.  

 My second vocation in life is teaching.  I LOVE being a mum, but my passion for teaching is definitely a very close second.  I started the business ED Specially 4U, 8 years ago.  This business specialises in School Readiness Classes and Literacy Tutoring, as well as educational resources for teachers and parents alike.  I am proud of it’s success and am enjoying growing the business year by year.  Clearly children are very much my world..

My new blog is unashamedly about the value of family and how we are learning life through the eyes of our children.  We love being witness to how they face the challenges of life as well as the small life moments of learning. 

Life long learning is not only our philosophy but how we choose to experience the world, and I hope that we are developing people who love to learn for life.

I welcome you to join with me and my family in our life learning experiences as we juggle children, work, and life’s general challenges.  We hope that our larger family dynamic is encouraging for your own family.  We honestly believe that the everyday lifestyle is an interesting one and welcome you to enjoy it too.

For the Love of Learning

Donna