We have been staying over the road from Gorge Wildlife Park, and every time we drive past we catch glimpse of a camel, a few wallabies and hear the many birds. Today Trevor took a study day to Lobethal and after Max and Harry finished their school work we took a walk up to the park.
I didn’t think we would EVER get there though. You would think the incentive of “we’ll go to the wildlifde park as soon as you’ve both done your school work” would be massive enough to get the boys working at a furious rate. But no, we didn’t get there until after 1pm. I can see lots of progress being made by Max and Harry through home schooling, particularly in their writing. Having 1:1 or 1:2 “teacher/child ratio” is a main reason for this as well as Trevor and me having clear and high expectations, but I tell you what, it is hard work for all of us. I give the boys a ‘to do list’ of things they need to do in any order. I do this because it usually works, but also because of research that tells us that boys need to be explicitly taught skills such as list making to ensure their organisational skills develop (see Michael Grose’s publications for more on this). So with list in hand, off they go.
Doing work in mental maths books and so on is pretty straightforward, but getting Max or Harry to work on their trip diary is like a proverbial teeth pulling exercise. We work on a plan together and they have photos to refer to so I’d think that it shouldn’t be that hard. But AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
OK, thanks for listening/reading that minor outburst …. now back to the wildlife park… it was simply brilliant! The animals in this park are a mix of native and introduced species. Most of the animals are relatively small in size and so can be housed close together. This was wonderful, as unlike Perth Zoo which is a major hike from exhibit to exhibit, these ones were very near each other. They also worked well because many of the animals were housed in low fenced enclosures without rooves. They had discreet electric fencing around the base, but it meant that we could get incredibly close to the animals and feel like we were really visiting them rather than just peeking at them.
The boys just loved being able to feed the incredibly tame animals and have a wonderful interaction with them. Talking to Trevor afterward I reflected that it probably isn’t a realistic experience of Australian and other animals in the sense that wild animals are not able to be petted and gawked at, but even so it was an incredibly worthwhile place to visit. The cost to get in was $30 for the 3 of us, and the park doesn’t charge extra for holding/photographing the koalas. In fact, there are three koala holding sessions each day, and if you wanted to (and had finished your school work early enough, grrrrrr…..) you could go to all three. How good is that??
Enjoy the photos….
I was so impressed with the park! After Harry’s recent experiences with animals I suggested to him that he become a vet or a zoo keeper when he grows up. He said “No, I think a wildlife carer…” – well I think this trip has proven he would be wonderful at this!
There were so many birds there – we heard a lot of them while at the caravan park over the road – and I tried to get some photos especially for Trevor’s Mum Wendy and for Kestrel my fellow Joey Scout leader who both have a special love of birds. I always knew that there was a multitudinous variety of birds in our world, but I saw some here I hadn’t ever seen before.
It was a wonderful way to spend a day!
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