The A to Z of Kids

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WEEK 10

Dear Lincoln, Lilliana, Leni, Juliana, Evyn, Jack, Faye, Chloe, Emerson, Lake, Rita, Violet, and Ella,

This week I stayed with Tansy (5½), Zach (3½) and their baby sister, Zoë (1½), and their mom and dad. You might think that was enough people in one house, but this family actually let other children, very special children, come and stay with them sometimes, too. I will tell you all about that a little later.

When I first walked into this family’s house, although I knew I was still in Australia, not too far from Melbourne, I thought I’d gone to Japan! Zach and Tansy’s mom used to live in Japan and loves all things Japanese.

She has loads of amazing masks all over the walls, some from Japan and some from the many other countries she has traveled to.

She also loves sushi, which is a type of Japanese food, and she taught me how to make my own sushi rolls!

All the kids love sushi, which is good because it is super healthy.

Tansy and her dad learn karate, which is a martial art that started many, many years ago in Japan. It keeps them very fit.

I went to one of Tansy’s classes and I was so impressed with how fast they could all run and how high they could jump!

Tansy's dad has the coolest job I have ever heard of. He owns and operates flycams. These are very big video cameras that he sets up on long wires that fly overheard to film things for movies and television.

You know when you are watching skiing, or rowing, or swimming, the athletes move very fast, so if you are filming it, you have to be able to make the cameras move very quickly in order to capture all the action. Well, that’s what Tansy and Zach’s dad does! He goes to some of the biggest sporting events, movie and music awards and special events all around the world with his cameras and crews. What an awesome job!

In these photos, if you look really carefully you will see the cameras on the wires above people’s heads. These are the cameras filming everything so you can see all the action on your TVs!

The kids have such busy lives; they do so many interesting things. Every weekend they go to the toy library.

I’ve never been to one of these before. Instead of borrowing books, you can borrow toys. You keep them for a week and then take them back.

So instead of spending loads of money on lots of different toys and then ending up with a house overflowing with toys, they always have the same amount of toys in the house, just different ones each week. How cool is that?!

It only costs $40 per year to be a member and you can get 12 different toys each week.

Of course they also go to the regular library to borrow books. I was really pleased to see that they have the same computerized self-checkout system as they have in the library where I used to go with Lincoln (where we would sometimes meet Rita and Emerson and Lake) so I knew to check out the books.

You just put them on the machine and it reads the barcodes and brings up the titles on the screen.

At the library there is a box to put your old corks in. Zach’s mom collects corks from wine bottles and every now and again they put all the corks into the big box. This raises money to help sick elephants.

Every week Zach and Zoë go to story time at the library where they also do some art projects. Tansy used to go too, but she goes to school every day now. Tansy’s real name is Anastasia, so they have the “A to Z of kids” in this family! All the names in between are waiting to be filled by the kids they will foster.

So now I’m going to explain to you why they sometimes have more kids in their house. All of you have wonderful moms and dads. I know this because they are all my friends. Lorraine, Bill, Jennifer, Rob, Peggi, Kelley, Greg, Robb, Leanne, James, Cleo, McShane, Bridget, Chris, Molly, Mike, Michelle, Emanuel, Jed, and Melanie are some of the best parents any kid could wish for (and just writing their names makes me miss them very much!) But there are some kids in the world who don’t have parents, or their parents get very sick and can’t look after them. When that happens they might need a home, either for a long time, or for a short time, until their parents get better. Lucky for them there are some very, very kind families in the world, like Zach and Tansy’s family, who will give them a home for a while. This is called “fostering.” So Zach and Tansy’s mom and dad are sometimes foster parents to other kids for a while. They are a foster family. They are part of a big group of families who do fostering, and every week there is a playgroup so all these families, their kids, and the foster kids, can get together, so the kids can play and all the foster parents can talk to each other and get advice and support.

I wasn’t allowed to take any photos at the foster playgroup because the privacy of foster children is very important, but I met some amazing people. One woman I met is 81 years old (that’s probably much older than your grandparents) and is still a foster mother! She explained to me that she only fosters little babies who are not walking yet because she would not be fast enough to run after older children! She grew up in India and came to live in Australia when she was 18. She has lived here ever since, and has her own children, who have had their children, and even those children have had children, so as well as being a foster mother she is a great grandmother. What a lot of birthday presents she must have to buy! She believes that a house is not a home without a child in it, and will go on fostering babies for as long as she is strong enough to hold them. She is one of the most amazing people I have ever met in my life.

Tansy and Zach and Zoë all have bank accounts and save their money. Every week they collect coins (those they get in their pocket money and those they find around the house) and put them into their money box.

Then they take the money box down to the bank, to a big counting machine. It’s great, I’d never seen one before. You just tip the coins in and the machine counts them all up.

It then prints out a receipt that you give to a cashier to put into your bank account.

They always save a little money to donate to charity and Zach showed me the big money spinning machine that collects coins for the charity.

He thinks this is a better place for a few spare coins than using them to take a ride on the toy train. He is perfectly happy to just sit on it and pretend it’s moving instead!

Sometimes, if they've been really good, they might get a few extra coins to buy a lucky dip present. This is when you pick out a present without knowing what it's going to be. It's a nice way of buying a surprise!

Sometimes, when Tansy is at school, Zach and Zoë go to the crèche at the gym so that their mom can do some exercise. I went to some classes with her while I was there.

My favorite was called Body Pump, where we had to lift weights in time to music. The instructor was very funny. Because it was near Valentine’s Day, he put up a sign with lots of hearts on it, and called the class “Love Pump!”

The kids love going to the crèche. They do loads of art.

One of Tansy’s pictures was so good, they hung it up above the door to welcome people in.

I loved this family very much. On my last morning, Zach gave me a huge hug and told me he would miss me a lot, and would be sad when I left. I told him I would miss him too, but that we were now friends for ever. They are an unconventional family, which means they don’t do things like everyone else, they do things in their own way, which makes them really interesting people. For example, I don’t know anyone else who has a chipmunk called Alvin on the front of their truck!

The best thing about Tansy, Zach, and Zoë, and their mom and dad, is that they all have so much love to give. They give loads of love to each other and themselves, and still have plenty to give other people in the world. I feel especially lucky to have met them and to have been on the receiving end of some of that special love!

With love to you all, from me and this wonderful family,

Susie xxxx