As spring rolls in, there's a fresh burst of energy.
Schedules fill up, goals come into focus and homeschool families start looking ahead to those end of year milestones.
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This time of year is a great opportunity to revisit key concepts, strengthen foundations and build confidence towards your family's learning goals.
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Hey, parents.
Just a quick note before we jump into today's adventure.
Snaffles is nearly finished with his birthday guest list.
He's been checking it carefully, making sure everything is just right.
And there are only a few spots left.
We'll see you next time right here in the koala kingdom.
And to make it even more special, we're still offering 20 off our yearly koala shine plus and koala kids bundle, but for only a little while longer.
With the bundle, you'll be able to unlock over 800 episodes of ad-free listening, including all your favorite koala shine episodes, plus koala moon, koala tots and koala sleep sounds.
So you've got everything you need for bright, adventurous days and calm, settled nights.
And if you join as a yearly member, you can even request a personal shout-out from me in an upcoming episode.
But snaffles won't be able to wait much longer, so if you'd like to be part of the celebration, now is the time.
Just tap to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or head to the link in our show notes if you listen on Spotify or Yoto.
This is also where you'll find all the details on how to be added to Snaffle's birthday list.
And remember, keep on shining!
Hey Koala Kids, welcome back to Koala Shine.
I'm Kelly, and today we've reached the final episode of Hector and Sunny in the Topsy Turvy.
Last time, Sunny and Coco raced against the clock to help Hector, traveling all the way to the middle of nowhere and finding help in the most unexpected of places.
With Hector back on his paws.
There's just one important mission left to save Kira and the Koala Kingdom from the evil plans of Unchill Jill.
In today's episode, Hector, Sunny, and Coco return to the Topsy Turvy for one last adventure.
For now.
The kingdom is at risk and it's time to see if they can rescue Kira and restore balance once and for all.
I am so excited to find out what happens next.
Will Hector and Sunny be able to save the day this time?
Eek!
Well, strap in tight and get ready to tumble back into the Topsy Turvy as we discover where the Kira and the Koala Kingdom can be saved.
And away we go!
It was that time of year when the pillowy peaks began to change.
These mountains were the last place in the koala kingdom.
Winter clung to wrapping her icy fists around the trees and bare rocks.
But now spring was beginning to loosen winter's grip.
Snowdrops and crocuses and daffodils poked their heads up through the grass.
Meanwhile, the brook had unfrozen, and the musical notes of running water spilled through the air.
But while all of nature seemed to be bursting into merry life, the mood outside Chill Bill's mountainside cabin retreat was rather more grim.
Hector and Sunny had just arrived with their friend Coco.
First, his sister had disappeared, swallowed up by the mysterious and evil underworld known as the Topsy-Turvy.
And only a few hours ago, his home, the cozy cabin in the woods, and the rest of his family had disappeared too.
This was not proving to be Coco's week.
Now the four of them sat around in a circle.
Chill bill had led them through a guided meditation to calm their fraught nerves.
Before listening to their story, they had told him how hector and sunny had entered the topsy turvy and discovered that the mastermind at the heart of the evil was none other than chill bill's own long-lost twin sister, unchill jill.
Hector could still the glint of her sharp white teeth and the sound of her tiger snarl as she and her pair of the thick-set mean-seeming guards had chased them through the topsy-turvy.
The memory made his muscles tense.
When he had finished listening to them speak, Bill let out a long sigh.
He spread his paws out, wide their furred palms to the sky and said Ah, I'm afraid I can only apologize for my sister.
Though I've not seen her for many years, it still saddens me to discover that she is at the root of all this chaos.
And I feel that I owe it to you, to all of you, to tell you about her, so that you could all understand what you're up against.
When they were young, just a pair of roly-poly tiger cubs, Bill and Jill had been the best of friends.
They did all the fun things that baby tigers love to do prowling around, tumbling down hills, painting walls with black and orange stripes so that they could be camouflaged against it, and then jump out, gotcha at their unsuspecting parents, making them screech.
But then at some point things started to change.
Jill got mean.
She was more interested in starting arguments than having fun anymore.
While Bill discovered the tranquil joys of meditation and Tai Chi, Jill just snapped and snarled at the slightest provocation and made rude comments.
And that's how they got their names.
Chill Bill and Unchill Jill.
It was a cool autumn day when Bill passed his exams to become a Tai Chi master, the youngest master the Koala Kingdom had ever seen.
To recognize his achievement, he received the Kingdom Medallion.
This medallion, which showed the Koala Moon and the Koala Sunshine fused into one circle, boasted great power.
Whoever possessed it held the fate of their kingdom in their hands.
They had the power to spread peace or chaos throughout the land.
Oh, that medallion!
Hector piped up just then.
Sunny and I have seen it.
Your sister was wearing it around her neck when we saw her in the topsy-turvy.
Chill Bill nodded.
Yeah, still was enraged by my success, he said.
She threw a huge tantrum, ransacked my room and stole the medallion.
Then she disappeared, and no one ever saw her again.
Up until now, that is.
It must have been Jill and her rage that tore a hole in the mountainside and opened up the portal between the Koala Kingdom and the Topsy-Turvy all those years ago.
He gave an unhappy shake of his head.
And now, with a medallion and unchilled Jill's possession, I fear all that is good, peaceful and kind about the kingdom is under threat.
Have to get the medallion back, said hector, and rescue kira, added coco.
But how asked sunny well to face evil, said chill bill.
We must confront it with good.
We must, all of us, return to the topsy-turvy to face unchilled ill.
Only together can we triumph.
Are we ready?
Hector, Sunny, and Coco all looked at each other with the same cloud of emotions on their face.
Were they brave enough to enter the Topsy Turvy?
Were they strong enough to defeat Unchill Jill?
Could the kingdom be saved?
There was only one way to find out, and so the four of them climbed up the steep mountain path.
As they walked, Sunny was quiet, lost in thought.
Hey, Sunny, what's on your mind?
Hector asked her.
Oh, it's Unchilled Jill, Sunny replied.
Oh I know she's doing some pretty evil things, but I just can't stop thinking about how, on her desk in the topsy-turvy lair, we found that photograph of.
But Sunny didn't finish the sentence.
Oh, never mind, she said.
Look, we're here.
There before them was the swirling purple whirlpool that led through to the topsy-turvy.
The whirlpool they had traveled through just earlier that day.
They stood around it in a circle.
Hector and Sunny, Coco and Chill Bill, paws in each other's paws.
And then together, they jumped, they sped through the topsy-turvy, the black moon burning above them.
A fork of lightning shot through the sky, briefly illuminating not only their faces but the craggy, desolate landscape.
And in the distance, the freezing volcano where Unchilled, Jill's glassy fortress stood like a black spike on the mountainside.
When they reached it, Hector suggested they split up.
He and Sonny and Coco should head through the main entrance, while Chill Bill should sneak around the side and find the rear door.
Fire escape.
After all, he explained, Unchill Jill already knew that he and Sonny were sneaking around the place.
She'd practically been expecting them.
Chill Bill still retained the element of surprise.
He was their secret weapon.
The longer Jill remained unaware that he was with them, the better.
Agreeing that this seemed like a smart plan, Chill Bill gave them a thumbs up, wished them luck and disappeared around the side of the topsy-turvy fortress.
Hector put his paw against the lair's glass door and paused.
Remember, he said, we've got two objectives.
Find Kira and retrieve the medallion.
Sunny and Coco nodded.
Then, without wasting another second, they pushed open the door.
The entrance hall to the fortress was just as Hector and Sunny remembered it.
Huge, cold.
The next room, smaller, colder, was just the same as well.
Except for one big thing.
Kira!
Coco cried out, his voice a twist of joy and worry.
He pointed up, and there, dangling from the ceiling, was Kira.
She was bound in magical vines suspended from the ceiling.
Two more long vines ran in either direction, knotting themselves to metal rings on opposing walls of the chamber.
Poor Kira looked utterly miserable up there, but when she heard her brother's voice she peered down.
Coco? she murmured, confused, as though it took a great effort to remember who he was.
Don't worry, Kira, Coco called up.
We'll get you down, I promise.
Hector, Sunny, help me with these.
Hurrying, they untied the vines that strung Kira to the ceiling.
Once those were untied, they left them dangling and ran to untie the other set of vines.
We're almost there, Coco called out to Kira reassuringly.
And then you'll be back with us.
Oh, will she now?
A cold, cackling, sarcastic voice swam across the room.
Just the sound of it made them stiffen, made their hearts skip a beat.
They swung around and saw that unchilled Jill had arrived, wrapped in her long, bottle-green cape.
Her razor-sharp teeth glinted, and alongside her stood her two terrifying guards an angry-looking rhinoceros and a jaw-snapping crocodile.
The crocodile seized the dangling vines and began to pull Kira towards them.
But Hector pounced, fixed his teeth around the other rope of vines and clamped down hard, stopping them.
The long stretch of vines tightened.
Kira held in the middle.
Unchilled Jill's eyes burned with a furious fire.
Guards! she cried.
Seize that silly panda!
The rhinoceros gave a roar and gripped more tightly onto the vine.
Coco cried, and he wrapped his paws around their vine.
Suddenly, Sunny remembered how the day had started.
Hector shaking a length of rope in his teeth, begging her to play tug-of-war.
Then she remembered when he'd begun to turn all topsy-turvy and how upset.
But this time it was no game.
This time, Kira hung in the balance.
Sunny took her position next to her best friend Hector.
He smiled at her in delight.
She clamped her teeth around the vine.
And then she cried.
Three, two, one, tug!
They tugged, they tugged, and they tugged and tugged and tugged.
Oh, but what match were a couple of pooches and a koala against a tiger, a rhino, and a croc?
Try as they might, their paws scrabbled along the ground.
They were losing.
Come on, cried Sunny.
Tug!
They tugged harder and gained a little more ground.
But soon, Unchilled Jill and her guards were pulling them back across the floor.
Sunny tried once more.
Think of the Koala Kingdom, she told them.
Think of friendship and happiness and all those good things.
She thought of it too.
She let her mind fill up with all the memories she had of adventuring with hector and coco and kira and all her other friends who lived in the kingdom.
She thought of them really hard, and now they began to stride backwards, gradually at first, then more and more, Stride after stride after stride, they were gaining ground.
No! roared Unchill Jill.
Pull, you minions, pull!
What is the point of you if you do not pull?
But it was no use.
Jill and her two guards fell to a heap on the cold fortress floor way, and when she reached them, the enchanted vines that had bound her released her and fell to the floor.
In a flash, Coco threw his arms around her and hugged his little sister close.
Oh, Kira, he said.
Oh, you're back.
You're safe now.
But little Coco's rejoicing was short-lived.
Look out, cried Sunny.
But it was too late.
The vines that had strung Kira to the ceiling now rose into the air, coiled like hissing snakes, then shot out and wrapped themselves tightly around their bodies.
All of them, Hector and Sunny, Coco and Kira, were all tightly bound.
Unchilled Jill let out a triumph.
Oh no!
Oh, she's made peanuts to me.
What I want is the whole koala kingdom destroyed forever.
And you pea-brained chumps have just helped me achieve that.
Hector's eyes went wide with horror.
Us?
But how.
Every part of the koala kingdom we swallow up the topsy turvy gets stronger a tree, a house, a panda.
And each time the topsy turvy gets stronger, it's able to swallow more, like a snowball picking up steam.
And now that you three she smiled an evil smile upon Hector, Sunny and Coco have decided to join us, the balance has tipped.
From around her neck, she slipped a loop of string, on the end of which hung the kingdom medallion.
But the medallion, which Chill Bill had told them was gold, had changed color.
It was turning purple, swirling with darkness, like the whirlpool that had led them in the first place to the Topsy Turvy.
With two taps of this medallion, Unchilled Jill growled, the Koala Kingdom and everything else I hate will be swallowed up just like that.
Goodbye, Sleepy Forest.
Goodbye, Peace and Merriment.
And most of all, goodbye, Chill Bill. needle-sharp claw.
She drew back the claw, preparing to tap the medallion and end everything, when suddenly Sunny burst out.
You don't want to do that!
Unchilled Jill paused, her glittering claw suspended in midair.
Oh.
I don't?
She sneered.
And whatever in the world would make you think that?
But because?
Sunny said.
Her heart was beating.
She barely knew what she was saying.
She only knew that she had to try.
She had to try.
Otherwise the Koala Kingdom would be lost forever.
But because?
Because?
She stuttered.
I've seen what you've got in the heart of your lair.
Just through that door.
On your office desk.
I've seen the photograph.
A shadow of doubt seemed to pass across the tigress's face.
What are you talking about?
The photograph, Sunny said.
The one that you keep on your desk?
Of you and your brother, Bill, when you were younger?
And?
So what?
Well, it just confused me, said Sunny, trying to avoid the looks of bewilderment.
Hector was throwing at her as if to ask her what kind in the name of chewy bones she was going on about.
Because why, if you hated your brother so much, why would you keep a cherished photo of him?
Unchilled Jill's eyes flared, but she said nothing.
She was lost for words.
Because here's what I think, Sunny said, courage making her bold.
I don't think you hate him at all.
I think you love him.
But you've just got so twisted up that you'd rather tear the whole world to pieces than admit that you miss him.
Lies, hissed Unchill Jill.
But Sunny insisted.
Not lies.
The truth.
And here's another piece of truth.
Chill Bill is here.
He's with us now.
Unchill Jill let out a cackle of disbelief.
Where?
There, Sunny said, and she pointed to the door, to the heart of the lair, just as Chill Bill stepped out of it.
He had gone around the building, coming into the heart of the lair through the fire escape, and in his hand he held the photograph from the desk, an image of himself and Unchill Jill, arm in arm, young and happy, whispered.
You've kept this photo of us all these years.
Unchilled Jill's eyes seemed to wobble, as though they were filling with tears.
But she said nothing.
Jill, Bill went on.
You don't have to do this.
You don't have to tap the medallion.
You can give the medallion to me instead, and we can all live in happy harmony together once more.
For a moment, Unchill Jill's claw twitched, as though she were about to tap the medallion.
Jill, Chill Bill said again softly, in little more than a whisper.
I've missed you too.
Angel Jill's claw retracted and instead she held the medallion out to her brother, flat on the palm of her orange paw.
The vines that had tightened around Hector and Sunny, around Coker and Kira loosened.
They fell to the floor, in green loops around their feet.
And then the four of them watched as Chill Bill stepped towards his long-lost sister and finally wrapped her in a warm, loving hug.
My, my Betty the Badger sighed a couple of hours later as she handed around a plate of chocolate brownies.
What a day it has been.
I think we all need a sweet treat and i'm glad to say that my brownies are once again just that sweet.
They were all hanging out in a glade in sleepy forest the late afternoon, sunlight filtering softly through the trees, the air was filled with the sound of christmas carols.
Even though it wasn't christmas, That meant Sunny thought happily that the choir of chimps was back, rescued from the topsy-turvy.
And the chimps weren't all that had returned.
The cozy cabin where Coco lived was back to its rightful place, along with all of his family.
And Kira was back too.
In fact, right now, Coco and Kira were swinging in a pair of neighboring hammocks.
Coco had just finished telling Kira all about what she'd missed while she'd been away.
Their adventures in the Topsy Turvy, the search for Alma, the Apothecary Alpaca, in the middle of nowhere.
And Kira Coco said if you don't like your purple hair ribbon anymore and you actually want to wear a black one, I support that.
But Kira only giggled.
Don't be silly, Coco.
Of course I want to wear my purple hair ribbon.
Purple is my favorite color, and that is never going to change.
Across from Coco and Kira, Chill Bill lay on the grass, chatting quietly with Unchill Jill.
They obviously had a lot to catch up on.
Unchilled, Jill had agreed to come back to visit the Koala Kingdom with them, which she hadn't seen in decades.
She would be returning to the Topsy Turvy, of course.
That was her home now, and it wasn't like she was about to give up her crown.
She loved being queen, but she was going to stop using the topsy-turvy for evil.
It would now simply be the weird upside-down opposite land of the Koala Kingdom, the two worlds existing in balanced harmony.
Rather like the koala moon and the koala sunshine.
Ying and yang, sea and sky, hot soup and cold ice cream.
What a relief, Sunny thought to herself, that Bill and Jill were reconciled again.
Perhaps Unchilled Jill might even learn to be a bit more chill.
Sunny watched as across the way Betty offered Unchilled Jill the plate of brownies, like the kind of tiger who wants one of your disgusting little snacks, she asked.
Well, thought Sunny to herself, perhaps Jill might not learn to be chill after all.
Now Hector padded over from the other side of the glade, He sighed, resting his head on his paws.
What a day.
I'm exhausted.
Sunny laughed.
It's hard work saving a kingdom.
Yup, Hector agreed.
It certainly is.
Hey, Hector, Sunny said.
Can I tell you something?
Hector turned his head to Of course you can, he said.
Sunny took a deep breath.
You were right about the tug of war, she said.
I am a bit bored of it.
Not forever.
Who knows, next week I might like to play it again.
But just for now, is that okay?
A smile played over Hector's golden face and his eyes twinkled at her.
Oh, of course that's okay, sunny.
He said.
Things change all the time.
Seasons change and people change.
Sometimes you dig up the tasty bone you buried last week to discover yuck, it ain't so tasty anymore.
Sunny rose an eyebrow.
Are you comparing me to a manky bone, Maybe?
Hector said.
But seriously, what I'm saying is, just because something changes, love doesn't.
Look, Chill Bill and Unchill Jill still love each other, even though she tried to destroy the world.
And I still love you, even if you don't want to play tug-of-war anymore, because that's what friends are for, okay.
Sunny smiled and nodded.
That's what friends are for, she said.
For a few minutes they lay there in the warm sunlight, watching their friends chatter and laugh.
Then Hector lifted his head.
So it's a no to tug of war, but what about a game of frisbee?
Sunny jumped to her feet.
A game of Frisbee?
Now that I can do.
And just like that, Koala Kids, our adventure comes to an end.
Hector and Sunny face the topsy-turvy together.
Kira was saved, balance was restored, and the Koala Kingdom found its way back to peace once more.
Phew, what a journey it's been.
Thank you for traveling with us through Hector and Sonny in the Topsy Turvy and for sharing every twist and turn along the way.
I think it's safe to say Hector and Sonny are ready to put their paws up for a rest.
Chill Bill and Unchilled Jill have plenty to catch up on, and Coco is very happy to have a sister back where she belongs.
We really hope you've enjoyed this brand new four-part series.
And we'd love to know what you guys thought.
So please let us know in the comments.
And if you guys have any other ideas for mini-series you'd like to see and hear, then let us know.
Something tells me there is so much more to discover.
Until next time, though, Koala Kids, keep on shining!
Koala Shine!
