Cartooning Workshop with Bradfield Dumpleton

Last week at co-op we had the pleasure of inviting local cartooning mentor, Bradfield Dumpleton to co-op. Bradfield has extensive experience working with children and school groups and our co-op children have boundless amounts of enthusiasm when it comes to cartooning, so we knew we were in for an interesting day.

Bradfield led the children through various drawing games before asking them what they'd like to draw… What mythical, made up, madcap creatures they could imagine for him to show them how to draw. For the next three hours we watched our children relax into a wonderful afternoon of cartooning. Fears and inhibitions were overcome as artists emerged from each child there. Some even surprised themselves! What a wonderful thing to witness! Bradfield was a warm and encouraging mentor whose passion for drawing is infectious - hopefully we'll be able to welcome him back to co-op some day soon!

Open Day :: Imbolc

We'll be holding our very first open day at co-op on Thursday, August 21st and we'd love it if you'd join us! Seasonal celebrations have always been such a wonderful way to bring our families together to mark the nature and abundance around us, so we'll be creating seasonal celebrations for each of our open days going forward.

Our first winter open day will be a belated celebration of Imbolc. Traditionally, Imbolc is a time when we first start noticing the stirrings of spring. It's a celebration of the passing of winter,  the lengthening days and stirring seeds give us hope for the warmer seasons ahead. Imbolc is a wonderful time to mark new beginnings and to set plans into action. It's a time of reawakening and a beautiful time to welcome our friends to co-op.

Open day activities will include:

* Yarn bombing our beloved tree with colour and love. Sadly, the tree we gathered under was pruned to a tall stump a few weeks ago, so we saw fit to nurture it and create some new happy memories with it. We'd love contributions of hand knitted or crocheted squares, blankets or lengths of fabric or yarn to cover what's left of our tree on the day.

* Making seed bombs to plant in the co-op grounds or take home and plant in your garden at home. A little guerrilla gardening and seasonal observance all in one…

* Beeswax candle rolling and decorating - for lighting the remaining days of winter through to spring!  There will be a small additional cost for this.

We've discovered some public barbecues in from of the hall, so we intend to make use of these on the day, so bring along anything you'd like to cook up for your family or to share.

The open day will cost $4 per family. All are welcome to come along and join in, both old and new friends! We hope to see you there! xx

Sharing Skills

Much of our talk at co-op lately has been about what skills we have between us that we can pool and share. Realising that creating a culture of sharing and learning is strengthening and nourishing for our group and its members, we aim to draw out those skills as we grow together. Adults learning from other adults inspires children to get involved and learn alongside their parents, or their peers. And finding skills that the children can share with each other is wonderful too! Kids are always so keen to learn what their friends can do…

Last week, one of the children facilitated a Manga drawing workshop while one of the parents facilitated a granny-square crochet workshop. Long held crocheting and manga drawing ambitions were fulfilled! And we got a start on preparing to yarn bomb our tree. By the end of the session, children were learning to crochet too! Some of the crocheting parents were rather keen to learn the art of manga, so we may need a repeat performance of that one at a later date!

A little catch up...

Our co-op has been back in full swing this year, after a little break over the summer. Activities since last year have included ice-cream making, using an old wooden churn, Christmas crafts, spy club, art workshops and loads and loads of play in the playground and the open field.




Our meets are now weekly, every Tuesday afternoon from 12pm. The hope is that with continuity, or numbers will grow and a solid group of regulars will form and a strong little community will grow from it. Activities tend to be fairly low-key these days, with families bringing along interesting things for the children to participate in if they like. If a larger venue is required, the main hall is available to us and with this set-up our options are really without limit.

We now have a plot at the local neighbourhood garden, just behind the cottage. We've also started a small book-swap library where we can bring good quality used books that we've finished reading and read them at co-op, or take them home if they are useful or loved. No need to return the book, just replace it with another that you've finished with.

Do pop along and join in the fun. All are welcome and we look forward to spending some time with you!

Bread and Yoga

Apologies for the lateness of this post! Last fortnight's co-op was small but so much fun! We organised to use the space of the community hall and held a yoga class thanks to Carinda from Yoga Bugs! She took the children (and some adults) on a yoga journey or two with some very imaginative interpretations of traditional yoga poses, while managing to explain the history and relevance of them in a fun and engaging way. The kids were enthralled! We also made the most of having an oven for the afternoon and baked some bread! Lots of fun and yummo too.

Tomorrow we are having a simple play meet with some paper window star folding, possibly some ice cream churning and an outdoor game or two in the open fields. Hope to see you there! xx

Wildlife Carers at Co-op!

Last time at co-op we had the pleasure of meeting Stephanie and Wayne from Southern Wildlife Rescue.  They came and talked to us about all things wildlife. They even brought along a little furry friend or two!



Everyone was engrossed and entertained by Stephanie and Wayne's engaging presentation and we all learnt so much about our native wildlife. We learnt some amazing facts about what makes our wildlife special. We had a close-up look at wombat poo and a good laugh at some tales of baby wombat antics while patting a gorgeous baby wombat.



Best of all, we learnt how each of us can help our native wildlife if we come across any sick or injured along the roadside or in the bush. We have a checklist now to keep in the glovebox and some activity kits to take home and enjoy as we remember Stephanie and Wayne's words.



We were also lucky to see one of our co-op families taking the next step to becoming wildlife carers, bringing in a baby Bennetts Wallaby for us all to see. Thanks so much to Stephanie and Wayne and to Fran for organising for them to come along!

This Tuesday (October 2nd) , we will have YogaBugs along to give us a free trial class. The weather looks to be lovely, so we can do yoga outside, or I've organised for the big hall to be available to us for the class. If we like it, there's an option to make yoga a regular co-op activity. And of course, if your child doesn't feel like participating, that's totally ok. Please feel free to bring along an alternate activity to share with the group if you like!

See you at co-op of Tuesday! xx

Activities for co-op

We have lots of exciting new things happening at co-op over the next few months! I'm looking forward to the sunshine bringing people out of hibernation too and having a fab time together. So, here's what we have to look forward to - besides spring!...

After speaking with most of the group, it's been agreed that a better time to go to the Marine Discovery Centre will be the 20th of November... Lots of time to put it in our calendars and hopefully the weather will be sunny and warm, so we can potter on the beach nearby.

Yoga Bugs will be joining us on September 4th for a free yoga class to trial. If everyone loves it, they are also able to offer us a program of regular visits to co-op for as much yoga as we like! I'll have more details of that soon, but you can check out their website here.

Fran has kindly organised for wildlife carers Stephanie and Wayne Clarke, the Coordinators of Southern Wildlife Tasmania, to come and talk to us on September 18th. Here's a brief run down of what they might talk about:

- what we do as wildlife carers and the role of Southern Wildlife

- what you can do to help our wildlife, including dogs and cats

- what to do when you see dead wildlife on the road

- what to keep in your car to help wildlife - pillowcase, etc

- feral animals

- roadkill & roadkill prevention

- who to call

- we also talk about how special some species of wildlife are

- We also have a small flyer that we ask the children to give to mum or dad and ask them to put it in their car so that when they come across any wildlife there are instructions on the flyer to help them to help the wildlife as well as the Southern Wildlife rescue phone number."

If you think you'll be at Stephanie and Wayne's talk, please let me know by email, on facebook or in the comments section below and I'll pass that on to Fran so that they can prepare adequately for the day. 

If you feel like organising something at any time, or if you know someone with a fantastic skill they could share or talk about, please feel free to set aside a day and let me know. It's so great when we all get involved as a community in organising something mutually beneficial for our families. And it's easier than you'd think ;) 

See you at co-op! 
Lauren. xx

Hooray for co-op!

The Hobart Natural Learners Co-op has been gathering fortnightly for almost eight months now. So far we've felted soap, made kites...





Blown bubbles, shared our favourite stories, visited the beach, gone fruit picking...



Made electronic gadgets, played board games, made musical instruments, face painted, made christmas cards, made masks



Built tents,  visited an observatory, spoken with Aboriginal elders, enjoyed some laughter therapy games, swapped our stuff, made origami and melted beeswax...



And spent countless hours climbing the tree and playing in the playground. The field beside our cottage is a favourite place to run off extra energy after lunch... It seems the opportunities and ideas are limitless if the energy and enthusiasm is there...



And with all that combined kid energy, we're bound to have many more magical, fun-filled days at co-op.