Wonderment & learning: a family holiday

Experiencing Life is Learning

We took the kiddies to Hamilton Island for a 6-day family holiday recently. I expected that we would have lots of fun and create lovely family memories – we did all of that AND more! My kids have been fortunate to learn & live in Canada, USA & Australia over the past 9 years. So they are ‘naturally’ curious about the world, the seasons, different people, time-zones etc. Of course like most children the idea of a holiday simply represented fun and a break from the routine of school to my kids, I don’t think they realised how much learning they would do on this holiday.

The view of islands from the plane

enjoying a quiet moment on a beautiful island

pure happiness!

Wonderment is an AWE-some moment/feeling that opens your mind to new possibilities

The best thing that we did on our holiday was to snorkel a section of the Great Barrier Reef. Snorkeling at the reef was absolutely wonderful and I think one of those special moments of my life that I will never forget. The coral and the fish were spectacular! Yet, it wasn’t the reef itself that was so wonderful for me instead it was watching my children completely awestruck by their own experience of the reef. For four hours my children were totally engrossed in this experience, they were excited and giddy with happiness. Our 9-year old son passionately announced to us that “This is the BEST day EVER!”. My children experienced pure wonderment that day and have commented on the experience many times since. I wish I could bottle this combination of awe, surprise, happiness & learning! 🙂