Learn something new every day

WELL. That's another load of visitors gone, bid farewell with choked works and teary eyes.

Our 18-year-old niece and boyfriend have spent the last four or five weeks camping in our back yard before catching the one-way-road up north. Enroute, they'll be stopping off at all the usual places like Sydney, Queensland and the Northern Territory, followed by trips to New Zealand and the USA before heading back to the UK and onto to take up their university educations.

This trip will teach them lots in the way of lifeskills. For three nights, they planned a short trip to see the Twelve Apostles - one of Victoria's most breathtaking sights on the Great Ocean Road. On this youth-hostel-based-trip alone, they came back to the peninsula armed with enough information to write a book and the enthusiasm to get on with the next part of their travelog.

Ours boys have so enjoyed having one of their eldest cousins around - to watch them play basketball, collect them from school and even help them out with their homework. But there are some schoolwork assignments that children simply have to accomplish themselves.

And I'm not talking about spellings, or reading, or even the nine-times-table. It's what my 10-year-old has been doing this past few weeks and after seaside events of the past few weeks, I favour it big time.

A two-day excursion took my boy out to one of the local stretches of beach where he, along with his school chums, embarked on an intensive water safety and survival program. The days were designed to give the children an opportunity to develop their water skills and enhance their appreciation for the beach environment.

This year, the school incorporated a 'Resusitate a Mate' activity, delivered by Lifesaving Victoria. The one-hour interactive session has been designed to introduce children to basic anatomy and emergency response management and I'm all for it. Especially so, after recent events when we could have so easily lost our youngest son to the clutches of the waves.

On the last day of this program, the children competed in Iron Boy and Girl events when they had to run a kilometre along the beach, swim and the paddle their way around a grueller of a course.

Having lessons at the seaside is awesome. Just ask my boys!