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- Daylight savings so everyone up late!
- Reading books in bed – Daniel still likes Maisy, Alex asks for funny bones.
- Played popper game. I got very lucky with lots of 6s. Alex got upset about it and we talked about probability.
- Morning cuddles usually make for a good day
- Played some yahtzee
- Kids enjoying each others company and declare their love and ‘best friendship’.
- Started watching Emoji movie but it was boring, so we switched to hotel Transylvania 2 again.
- Played Blokus, Daniel took to it really well! I was very impressed as it’s for older kids.
- Kids helped Vio fix Alex’s bike tyre.
- Kids both into building forts around the house.
- Started watching a new show called ‘Little Monsters’ and King Julian.
- Played Pass the Pigs. kids liked the silliness. Alex started doing the scoring but lost interest so I finished.
- Vio played hide and seek with them.
- made zinc – carbon batteries with our science sets. The kids (and I) were impressed that they worked! Alex thinks we’ll never need to buy batteries again now that we have the recipe!
- Watched the movie Shark Boy & lava Girl. Alex loved it! he had lots of theories at various plot points.
Alex
- Watching Odd Squad and Skylanders, both a new series.
- Asking me questions about Harry potter, I think he’s trying to reconcile some things in his head about the story. I’ve ordered the first 2 books at his request. tehy arrived and we started reading, but haven’t gotten very far.
- Alex talking about times table – 5 x 12 = 60. Then he talks about fractions. Great that he connects the two and doesn’t see them as separate ideas.
- Climbing the walls!
- Buys slug packs on his iPad game ‘slug it out’ using his pocket money. Was really happy when the elemental upgrade came – he told me that the elementals do triple the damage they did before.
- Experimenting with glider – removing wings, tail plane etc and seeing how it changed the flight.
- Playing minecraft survival with me. Another day I bought him a safari world pack which he loved. We worked out how to tame animals etc.
- In car ride asked how people came to be – I told him both the story of evolution and creationism. In regards to the latter he replied ‘well that’s a stupid story’.
- Watching harry potter related videos – like compilations of all the deaths
- Some critical thinking – Whilst watching trick shots on a Youtube channel Alex told me they did first time. I said they could’ve edited it and recorded lots of times, just showing when they did it successfully. He responded ‘no, they wouldn’t have been that happy about doing it ‘right’ if they’d had to do it so many times’. I later got him the Dude Perfect app so he could do trick shots too. He saw a video with a girl discussing flat earth which he decided was dumb. i don’t like the word choices he uses, but at least he’s discerning.
- Played Stick Fight on STEAM. Then facetimed with another kid and played Roblox together for a few hours.
- Playing monster legends, slug it out, roblox, rocket league, watching ‘try not to laugh’ challenges, Carter & Steve, Dobray brothers and Team Edge.
- Looked at using an old toy car for Hebecon and he came up with some ideas for modifications (knives in pincer etc). We replaced batteries, weighed it, tried pushing other objects. Alex wants to add sticks to the sides to push the opponent away. I’m glad he has gotten excited about it as we get closer to the tournament date.
- Watched HTTYD2 again. Had a little cry at Stoick dying and lots of conversations about friendship, loyalty, sadness and loss. Quote from an observation within the movie ‘dragon skin is immune to fire’.
- Realisation from Alex – I know why i can’t get the mods these guys have, they’re testers!
- “I can mimic a frog, if I practise I can communicate with animals”
- “I think Stealth Elf can stop time and that’s how she teleports”. I replied that maybe she can travel faster than the speed of light.
- Bottle flipping – noting how many times he has to flip it to get it to land. Trying to beat his record.
- Keeps asking me to tell him the word for the number that goes on forever – then tells me he loves me 1000 infinities.
Daniel
- Making 3D shapes from nets and asking me what the shapes were called (pyramids and prisms). On another day he made a pez holder as he broke his dispenser again). Also playing around with patterns.
- Colour mix experimenting
- Doing puzzles by himself, playing with train tracks.
- Played Scrabble junior
- Loves Supa Strikas, especially the theme song!
- Played duplo, board games, drawing and glitter glue whilst Alex was busy on PC.
- Watching a mermaids cartoon where the girls magically turn into mermaids when they get wet.
- Playing Slug It out game too
- Played snap and pairs with the Avengers cards
- Some incidental arithmetic – I took 3 apples to training. He ate 2 and without seeing told me I had only 1 left.
- I read Mr Happy to him, Alex came over to join us. The kids don’t much ask for books. i offer but it’s rarely taken up by them.
- daniel napping and having big overnight sleeps. must be going through something as he’s been somewhat moody.
- Made playdough together. made fossils with air dry clay.
- His favourite number is 60-41. So cute!
Out and About
- Visited grandparents for lunch – the kids love Buni’s soup! We headed to the skatepark afterwards. The kids had a scoot and a play – Alex likes to run up the half pipe. We started to walk home but bumped into the neighbours, so headed back to the park.
- Open gym – Alex befriended some older boys and created a parkour circuit whilst I made a fort with Daniel. Once their friends arrived, they all played together.
- Alex attended a Gasworks workshop on Paper Planes. The presenter held a world record. Alex said it was great, though he found making the second plane hard, but he was interested in the ‘mechanics of flight’ and the testing. He was amazed at the presenters record for loops from standing – 316!!! Later on Alex shared how to correct planes that were not flying properly. Meanwhile, Daniel played in the gardens climbing structures, racing and playing mums and dads with his friends. We got fish and chips for lunch with our friends and then headed for the beach. The kids had a great time, running around in their undies splashing, playing ball, digging holes, jumping from 2m high walls, watching kite surfers, and playing a catch/launch game. Alex kept overshooting so we discussed trajectory if he couldn’t lighten his touch.
- Visited Watermarc with friends. Alex went on the waterslides and inflatable obstacle course. The kids had lots of fun playing with their friends.
- Library session ‘exploring science’ where they got to tinker with different gadgets. They especially liked the large bin that shot out smoke rings. Afterwards we borrowed books and scooted to playground.
- Visited Werribee Zoo. Alex was annoyed by school kids. We met up with a friend and did the safari bus tour. Alex was a great tour guide! He told our friends lots of facts about the animals – even that rhino horns were made from keratin – the stuff of fingernails! We stopped off at all the play areas, missed out on the lion cubs as they weren’t on display.
- Rode bikes to the park. Daniel struggled on the balance bike. I’m looking forward to him riding a proper bike, but he seems uninterested. Alex parkouring everywhere.
- Visited museum. Kids went to Discover Centre to find the peregrine falcon. We had a look at a few fossils too. We went to bug lab. At the entrance there was a slide. Alex noticed a laser detector on the slide that triggers a fart noise, and tried to go down the slide avoiding it. inside the lab was cool. There were videos about various bugs. they really enjoyed the buzzer response test and wind tunnel testing. It was unfortunately a bit busy. We went to the main part of the museum as the kids wanted to see Phar Lap. We watched a video about him, the kids were fascinated by the story and couldn’t believe that someone would poison a horse. Daniel loved watching some indigenous songs with accompanying videos. We went to the giant squid. Daniel asked how someone could have killed him when he has such giant testicles! So funny. Finally to the children’s gallery -Alex made butterflies whilst aniel watched more indigenous stories. Then we played outside.
- Rode to Jacob’s birthday party. Had lots of fun at bike centre.
- Enjoyed a play at the park in Keilor near Scout Hall in the evening. Kids climbed and played with sticks, enjoyed having the place to themselves.
- Visited the wave pool in Melton as requested by them both. The kids loved it and we spent 2 hours there.
- Went to Funtopia with friends. Alex climbed and then played with Daniel and Grace. The boys love her so much but I have to remind them to respect her autonomy a little! We stayed for milkshakes.
- Vio took kids to oval for a play and a kick.
- Visited Melbourne Star with friends. Alex was more interested in the mechanics of the wheel and our position on it than our view. Was a decent experience though.
- Went to a new park with friends. It was like a parkour course! Lots of fun. Unfortunately the kids didn’t get along so great, so we left early.
- Visited friends where Alex played minecraft and Daniel played families.
- Visited Narana. Kids enjoyed painting boomerangs, throwing them, going on a walk for bush tucker, seeing lots of artefacts. Had a good play with the other kids as well playing tiggy and parkouring all over the place.
Socialising
- Friends visited – big kids usually gaming, little ones played with animals and dressed up as Wild kratts.
- Cousins came over for a few hours, they all put on a magic show.
- Daniel plays with some other kids as Alex trains at football. They generally scoot around and visit playground.
- Facetiming friends (mostly Clea)
- Neighbours come over and play
- Cousins visited, Alex and Emily played Guess Who. Daniel and Jacob played pretend. then we all watched Captain Underpants.
- Watched friend’s kids whilst she popped out so the kids all had a play.
- Weekly HS plays at Brimbank Park. An old friend from Currawong Kids came along, Alex was so happy to see him!
- Another birthday party. kids played with their friends, but Alex came home a little distracted and destructive.
- Stopped off at Keilor Village for a play on way home. Alex got playing with another boy and his mother commented on how friendly and bright he was.
Activities
- Football training (Alex)
- VFS – Alex had a good session. I enjoyed watching him and his interactions with the other boys. He’s competitive, but unselfish and displays amazing support for his friends, congratulating them on their achievements.
- Alex started basketball. He enjoyed it and learned some basic passes, how to dribble a little better, how to shoot baskets etc. He talked a lot and was very competitive. As the weeks progressed I noticed Alex had to be first a lot and so I spoke to him about easing up. He did so. One week there was a boy that demanded Alex pass him the ball during the game and would yell at Alex. Alex wouldn’t take his nonsense, and we had a chat about it in the car afterwards
- Alex started futsal. He was excited because we take his friend with us. the first week Alex didn’t play well, but they were all getting used to the different surface. On other weeks, Alex requests to go in goals a lot. he certainly improved as the weeks went on. And he really enjoyed the time with his friend.
- Back at little ninjas. Kids extra excited as some friends were coming to try out too. I called Vio and suggested we have ‘p’ for dinner as it was late, but Alex knew what I was talking about!
- Started parkour classes. Even Daniel joined in.
- Skipped lego after a nits scare! Thankfully there weren’t any. Alex asked me to apologise to Gilbey (the organiser) for our absence.
Trip to Shepparton
- Long drive, kids asked for constant updates! Went out for pizza dinner. Watched a movie on TV. Noticed it was filmed in Melbourne (we recognised the museum!) – Nicholas Cage found a prediction of natural disasters. Alex asked lots of questions about it.
- Long day of football on Saturday. Alex played well, except in goals lol. The weather was crazy – hot, torrential rain, thunderstorms etc. In between games the kids played in soccer world. Alex really enjoyed the football target/darts game and bubble soccer.daniel spent most of his time in the bouncy castle. Thankfully the kids fell asleep early, lucky as we had to leave hotel at 7:20am!
- On Sunday Alex didn’t get to play as much. He wasn’t as committed as he had been the day before. In between games, the kids played at soccer world. Daniel played football pool which was really fun! Alex team lost the semi finals. We stopped at the lake on the way home, and met up with some others. The kids jumped in and played with the bigger boys. it was quite a nice afternoon.
And here are the pics:
