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Daniel had a terrible night complaining about his ear so plans for the day were put aside and we stayed home. Daniel was doing lots of cooking with some new rice I gave him – he says he likes cooking best with real food rather than playdough. We sat and cooked sausages using plasticine and made muffins with rice.
Alex played a little minecraft on the PC, then reverted to watching youtube gamers – San TDM and Typical Gamer mostly. We’ve watched some Tom & Jerry – Alex loved this when he was little. He asked ‘How come Tom walks on 2 legs but the dog on 4’. I watched a lot of Tom & Jerry as a kid and I don’t remember ever asking such questions. I don’t think I was very critical of my watching, but listening to Alex shows me how differently we each have used TV. We got talking about narrators. He asked me why ‘the man with the yellow hat’ is always called that in curious George. I’m pretty sure other people refer to him by name but not George, and the story is told by the narrator for George’s perspective. It was an interesting talk about perspective as well as literature. On another day we watched the first in the series of Lemony Snicket. I really liked it! Alex asked who the guy was talking – I said the narrator, he responded ‘but we can see him!’. Clearly he remembers the conversation about Curious George where I said we couldn’t see the narrator, and he has generalised that to be a part of the definition of a narrator. Alex has been watching a show called ‘Odd Squad’ – it’s very ‘educational’! (Groan – I find it a little annoying!). But he really likes the mysteries, and I guess that since he hasn’t endured forced teaching of concepts like odd numbers, patterns etc, the ideas are not boring to him. Fascinating really!
Daniel and I have been doing puzzles too. He does the vehicles puzzles alone and without asking now, but he will ask me to do the caterpillar one with him. He’s been watching musical shows on his iPad. I was on the PC one morning and he wanted to sit with me, so I opened up Word and wrote his name. Then all of our names. Then he typed and asked me to say the words. He made some really long ones!
Gigi has come over to see the kids and the kids had him playing ‘match’ with them. Alex was very good at it! And asked Gigi why he couldn’t remember!
We’ve all played Trouble board game – Daniel won, by a mile! He’s starting to recognise dice numbers and we helped him count his way around the board. We’ve played some lego wars too, though they never last long. We have read in bed – the Cranky Bear, the kids said the sheep was very kind, Peppa Pig, and a book about the 10 fastest things. Alex marvelled at them, but realised that it was outdated as he knew one of the fastest things was incorrect. We discovered the book was written in 2010, but Alex reasoned that the animals don’t get faster! Alex also told me that when i read to him, I’m the narrator.
The kids decided they wanted to build something, so we headed into the garage for some carpentry! They enjoyed sawing mostly and then they painted. They made trains. They wanted wheels but we didn’t think of a good way to approach this (yet) and so the trains are lying in the garage still!
We were supposed to go with Vio to see a seniors Avondale game but Daniel wasn’t 100% so the 3 of us stayed home and watched the movie ‘Sheep and Wolves’. I didn’t like it but the kids did! Alex noticed some things about the characters like the skinniness of the girls, and why do characters get married at the end. He hides his face from romance in movies and gets a little embarrassed!
We watched a few movies this week actually, including Trolls. Alex got up and danced lots.
Bad news – Sticky died. there were lots of tears from Alex
Outings
We ventured to a playground in Williams Landing that was themed as a control tower. Kids weren’t convinced with it though and kept asking to go! Alex’s behaviour was a little strange, he was acting out a bit. I think I’ll be saying no to play with neighbours a little more. We went to the RAAF museum and watched the interactive flying display. The kids enjoyed seeing the aerobatics and seeing the plane up close. It was a little long-winded to keep them engaged so we moved into the museum. We walked through rather quickly , the kids occasionally finding interest in something: ammunition, engines or new age fighters. We bought mini planes from the shop and the kids loved getting the balloons.
On Saturday afternoon I took the kids to Watergardens as I needed to do a few things. As an incentive I treated them to Tutti frutti. Alex loves it! We went to the library and the kids got some books and asked me to get some for them whilst they played on the computers. We went to the supermarket too – not our favourite thing to do!
Vio took Alex and Gigi to the U12 game. Alex watched the match and played with the other kids too. Afterwards they went to Gigi’s where of course Alex tended to the pigeons.
Socialising
The neighbours have been over a few times. We’ve been confining them to outside or the playroom as we were tired of the constant in and outs – they don’t stay doing something for very long. They’ve wrestled on the trampoline and made videos of themselves.
Our weekly meet was moved to a water park as it’s a very hot day! In the car Alex asked how many days/hours were in a year. So I grabbed the calculator from my glovebox and we worked it out. I gave instructions “365 x 24 =” on all the buttons (except numbers as he knows those) and he said it equalled 8760. I didn’t know he could read numbers in the thousands. then he wanted to know 10 years so I gave him instructions again. He couldn’t say 87600 though and asked what it was, Then Daniel had a play on the calculator as he was feeling left out! We picked up a friend – Alex was excited to sit in the middle. I told Alex his house number was 80, and asked him to help me find it. I spotted the side with even numbers and I told him – Alex knew that 80 was even and kept looking on that side. He spoke about odd numbers, I didn’t know he knew that. At the water park he played a little but mostly tried to catch what he believed to be tadpoles. I think they were fish.
We ventured to the nature playground at the RCH to meet a ‘new to melbourne’ homeschooling family that were keen to meet. The boy was a little older than Alex, in that he’ll turn 8 before Alex will. The boys got along ok, probably not as well as the mother had hoped for. Her son was a little sensitive, and it put Alex off somewhat as he said things like ‘I know you don’t like me’. It was hard after what happened at the West meet the other day. Alex is clearly feeling the strain of being around sensitive kids, especially the ones that provoke him and then get upset by his responses.
We met some old friends that we haven’t been seeing so much at a skate park. kids had loads of fun! The time went so quickly. On the way there Alex said he saw a sign that said ‘funny fish’ and declared that he could read – I didn’t see the sign so i can’t vouch for it. Alex asked what ‘buccaneer’ meant, I gave examples of captain Hook and Jake. So we sand ‘Jake and the Neverland buccaneers!’. Danil corrected us to ‘pirates’. Then Alex asked ‘are you one?’, ‘is daddy?’, ‘is Daniel’, ‘is… am I?’ He changed his question to self correct his grammar! He’d not been taught, or corrected by us or by anyone to my knowledge. i thought about the podcast I heard about kids being evaluated for moderators and just knowing what sounds right, not what they’d been forced to practise. So true!
We had friends over on another day. The kids had lots of fun outside on the slip n slide. They shared baths and showers to clean up for lunch – I decided to make pancakes having realised it was shrove Tuesday! Alex asked why it’s pancake day so I looked it up as i only knew that it preceded Ash Wednesday. As kids we always had pancakes but never fasted for lent. It turns out pancakes were made as a way of using up the rich foods people were about to abstain from. The kids also played with toys, and on roblox.
Activities
Athletics training as usual – Daniel often gets to join in. At track day on Saturday Alex received his silver medal. He was very happy about this! They had steeplechase event – the last ever at the club. Alex LOVED it! I was surprised at the distance – 600m! And Alex managed to come 4th! He was please to get a PB in discus and had a good day overall. Daniel wasn’t himself and didn’t want to race! I love how Alex gets excited for the other kids, cheering them on and congratulating them. Unlike some of the others that just brag about themselves!
We skipped Currawong Kids this week! The kids just need a day of chilling out. Since I’d already packed and made lunch, the kids just nibbled on it at home all day. they really enjoyed their picnic!
Alex had football training one night and loved it.