1. October 2011 Updates: School Holidays, Part 7: Sydney Children’s Festival with Ben, Hamutal, Natan and Ehud

2. We joined Ben’s family (including his grandpa, visiting from Israel) for a tour of Sydney university, on the way to the Sydney Children’s festival. The children enjoyed crossing the large uni by foot, and stopped to rest on very funky benches.

3. At last we reached the festival’s site, “CarriageWorks”, which is a large converted warehouse, originally used to repair tram carriages. Now it’s a great multifunctional space with several halls.

4. The festival, which celebrates creativity through a circus theme, is very child and family friendly.

5. Hahgoot enjoyed working her gross and fine motor skills at the various circus inspired corners

6. The demonstrators\instructors seemed to be having as much fun as the kids!

7. Alma and 6 months old Natan had a first go at juggling

8. These circus tricks are a lot harder to do than you’d think...

9. After playing outside for a while, we went into the “Galaxy room” to hear a performance. The kids sat on pillows on the floor, under a large star-studded mobile, in the dark. This goofy looking guy was actually a talented musician, who gave a funny show with many favourite nursery rhymes in a new version. After about 15-20 minutes Hahgoot got sensory overloaded and spent the rest of the show on the floor, with her hands over her ears. I spent the whole time applying deep pressure with massage to her back, arms and legs with one arm, while supporting Alma with the other arm, as she was dancing enthusiastically to the music... It was a bit surreal...

10. After I managed to defuse Hahgoot’s meltdown following the show and we got through a picnic lunch, we were all recovered enough to enjoy “Mrs K’s Art House”, which was a workshop about art and creativity, using elements we saw before at the AGNSW.

11. Hahgoot walked off to explore mark making while I admired the walls, mentally stealing cool ideas for the art class of my dreams in the distant future...

12. Everyone enjoyed the magnetic cube with it’s many magnets. Alma was immediately adopted by a random girl (top middle).

13. Hahgoot explored many new perspectives for looking at her artwork...

14. Alma was very enthusiastic about the tactile walls, designed for rubbing, but it took a long time for Hahgoot to touch them.

15. In our next presentation: Hahgoot’s updates, part 1