Beyblades!
The kids got some for christmas, or have bought with their money and are currently in a BeyBlade frenzy. They both seem to know the composition of each bey, which parts belong where. And Alex even knows the names of most of them and their properties! Drain Fafnir arrived and is Alex’s most precious!
So many days playing beyblades. Daniel made an arena out of some old wood with Vio’s help. All the kids (including neighbours) play with it.
The shows are good too, Alex has watched several times, and the kids love the music and look up the songs on YouTube. They are also watching others battle and discovering best combinations. We discovered there’s a World Beyblade Organisation too.
We had some family tournaments, keeping tallies and deciding who our team captain would be as a result! Alex has also been having battles of his own to determine which bey is best – even the same bey but different branding (Hasbro vs Takara).
I found out about a tournament that occurs regularly at a store in the city, so vio took Alex along to check it out. Alex managed the whole day without any assistance. he introduced himself to other bladers, organised his entry into the tournament, followed and sought expertise from older bladers, and shook hands after battle in a display of great sportsmanship. Although he didn’t place in top 3, he would like to go back.
Alex decided to weigh all of the parts to see what the outcome would be for heaviest bey. He weighed each as a set, then all the components and noticed that the sums didn’t always match (by 1g) and reasoned that the parts must have been a little bit over what we read the measurement as – this lead to a chat about accuracy and rounding! No lessons required! It’s amazing to me how intuitive maths is for Alex.
Alex
At bed times, Alex is talking loads. He waits for Daniel to fall asleep, then asks me into his bed and talks about how much he loves his family! At other times he talks about how he gets angry with Daniel but doesn’t want to hurt him.
He asked to watch ‘David Attenborough at the museum’ again, it was very cool. Alex really likes it. New Trollhunters series watched in a few days.
Vio noticed some pulled carpet thread and I commented that it was daniel. Alex interrupted with “actually I did it, it’s my fault!” Very honourable.
Playing minecraft on PC. Some dragon mod had me spelling out names as he spawned new dragon pets. I also got him a seed for a dragon world. He used Elytra wings and found dragon’s nest.
New headphones (bluetooth) as an early birthday present. Alex doesn’t like to be somewhere else alone whether he’s gaming or watching, so these help for us all to be together without competing noise! Watching a lot of a gamer that plays Ark Survival Evolved. We’ve decided to save for it.
He’d seen some geoching on YouTube so asked if we could do. So one day we headed to brimbank park and found a couple. We used the GPS to help us and had some fun doing it, then scooted.
Unfortunately on one of the really hot days, some of the baby canaries passed away. So Alex dug them a grave and the neighbours helped say goodbye with him.
Daniel
He’s getting a little bothered by people not understanding him.
Daniel is loving Wild Kratts atm too.
Playing lots of board games. Especially Sushi go, Outfoxed and some old faves. Played lots of sleeping queens, probably Daniel’s favourite
Making cookies together and he tells me how much he loves his cookbook! We’ve done some icing too and the kids have helped Vio making pizzas.
With a few crazy hot days, we stayed home and waited for the slightly cooler evenings when we’d bust out the slip n slide!
Socialising
It was a hot day so we went to Micki’s for lunch and a swim in the pool. Daniel wasn’t keen to swim solo, though the pool is deep, but Alex loved snorkelling and diving. We then watched the movie ‘Ballerina’ which they loved.
Visited a friend’s house and the kids played with hoses, watched iPads, played minecraft, and nerf wars. Daniel played mums and dads with the 2 younger girls. It was a nice play as always.
Visited another friend that leaves near the beach and introduced him to beyblades. They played waterfights outside and wrestled in the water at the beach. Daniel swam some more, seems to be loving it.
And on another occasion we had a friend over for the first time, briefly. Alex was a little showy. he seems to find these situations uncertain.
We visited some HS friends for the 1st time – beyblades connects them! the kids battled, played. they we went to Toys R Us for new launchers and stopped at Edwardes Lake for a play on obstacle course and a scoot.
Friends visited and the big kids mostly gamed, while the little ones played with mag tiles and toy animals. My two showed their beyblade talents also.
We attended a birthday party of a long time friend. Kids played beyblades and nintendo switch. The neighbours have been over a lot too as it’s school holidays.
Met up with a new family of homeschoolers with a child Alex’s age, plus younger siblings. Alex told the child 9who is hesitant to HS) how much he loves it. The kids scooted and played for a few hours.
Out and About
Went for a swim at the pool and bumped into friends. Daniel got right in and swam with his kickboard for several metres. At various times he used a pool noodle to swim the whole length of the pool, racing his friend. He even swam on his back. to top it off, he decided to swim totally unaided and managed it briefly. As usual, Alex spent most of the time underwater and showed off with some dives. On another occasion Alex went on the holiday inflatables, and Daniel stuck his head underwater and swam unaided!
Days at the oval, mostly evenings when cool enough, to play football and fly drone. Visited Heide one day. Was much smaller than I expected. Alex climbed the huge tree there and we met another homeschooler.
Both kids got tickets to Arts Centre shows for Christmas. vio went with each of them whilst i hung out with the other. I took Alex to ACMI where he played FIFA and rocket league. We all had dumplings together and went to the NGV exhibit. The kids enjoyed the interactive exhibit but it was very busy. Went outside to climb, even Daniel made it to the top whereas Alex jumped off of the sides. We played at the sculptures and bought cupcakes that were on sale at the end of a market day. Was a great family day out. We played I Spy in the car too.
Trip to flip out. Also a trip to gymnastics open gym where Alex did lots of trampolining and used bars. they made a fort and did some parkour.
Headed to Portarlington. We were supposed to do a Junior Rangers event but couldn’t locate so we just had fun at the beach. Daniel swam lots and Alex snorkelled. We collected shells, Alex wanted the carnivorous ones! We dug holes and buried legs and on the way home stopped at McDonalds.
Vio was gifted some Romania football t-shirts – the kids loved them!
Went to marine discovery centre in Queenscliff. Kids enjoyed the rockpool that they could interact with – huge hermit crabs, abalone, and freshly born squid! We looked around at the skeletons and Alex put on a turtle shell as a volunteer in a talk about marine life. He was scared of the blue ringed octopus, and the potential of coming into contact with one. Afterwards we headed to the pier and went for a swim/snorkel. It was very deep and Alex wasn’t confident enough to explore much and I couldn’t assist with Daniel around.
We went strawberry picking. the kids weren’t as into it as I thought they’d be!
Headed to the Woodlea estate and played at the parkour park and adventure park. lots of fun!
We did a Junior Rangers event to herring Island. We had to get on a boat across the yarra. There were lots of nooks to explore on the island, we didn’t see much wildlife as it was cold and wet. There were lots of sculptures though. Afterwards we went to the bouldering wall next to the jetty.
Activities
Back to term time activities and the kids had a freerunning session after having previously done some parkour. Alex really enjoyed being able to combine his trampolining flips.
They also started back at little ninjas and they both ended up upset! Alex was frustrated that he couldn’t do back flips anymore and Daniel didn’t like having a new coach.