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We played capture the flag. They wanted to use the glue guns. I suggested they grab some supplies and create something before we glue, but it seems they just want to test it. Alex glued some pieces of wood together and then kept throwing it to see if it would break. He also glued missiles (nerf bullets) to his aeroplane.
The kids have been at their grandparents whilst I work. They have been fighting a lot – Daniel often instigates as he is trying to play with Alex and he’s prefer to play on his iPad.
There’s been movies of course. One that we watched for several days in a row was lego scooby doo.
Alex
He saw a flower on our walk home and wanted to pick it. Since it was in the nature strip I said it was ok. When we got home Alex put it in water. It stayed alive for nearly 2 weeks! He noticed that it closes at night time so we talked about how some flowers do that.
Alex’s vocabulary is pretty extensive for his age, other kids often ask him what a word he uses means. On the way to football one evening he asked me how the moon shone. i explained that it reflected the sunlight
Minecraft has been played a lot recently too. Up until now he’s watched more than played, but this seems to have changed a little. I’ve been playing with him as well. Feed and grow fish has been a favourite too.
Daniel
He is being challenging and seems quick to anger! He’s much more explosive than Alex was – I need to watch him more for his triggers. I feel like we have just gotten through this phase from Alex. 7 has been much calmer. He is much chattier though, still hard to understand at times. I wonder if we should be concerned about his speech at all, though he has been using quite mature language. his vocabulary is pretty good. When he gets upset he often likes me to leave him alone, but he has also told me that he loves me 14 hundred.
Two of the chickens jumped the fence and so Daniel helped me round them up. He was laughing and shouting ‘naughty chicky’. he’s been into animals a lot, in particular with a book from the library where you search for the animals.
Daniel wanted to make playdough but we didn’t have the ingredients, so instead we painted and made some bead bracelets. He’s been playing duplo lots too. I got the kids these marvel disc things from Woolworths as part of their latest collectable. Daniel worked out that you can connect them. He also compared their roundness to the pocket money that he got from me.
Out and About
Very early start and the kids were so excited they got up willingly! We had a long drive to Cape Patterson. I can’t tell you how many times Daniel asked ‘when are we going to get there?’ Fortunately he fell back to sleep. Alex asked occasionally if we were have way yet, then 3/4. So I added other fractions like 4/5 as he knew that 2/3 were less than 3/4 and we discussed what that meant until i got to tenths. the kids were so happy to arrive at camp! We had lunch and then headed out on our geology excursion. The kids were given fossils and they talked about volcanoes. We found evidence of both types of volcano (fissure and cone) and an earthquake.
We also learnt that basalt forming with bubbles as locations for crystal growth and we found some too. The biggest hit was the ocean – the kids loved it and ran in fully clothed! It was lovely to be on a homeschool camp. the kids played with kids they’d never met. Alex came running over to me once and said ‘mum, guess what. they’re homeschoolers too!’ He thinks his life is so special!
In the evening we went for a night walk down to the beach. The kids hid and made shadows with torches. Daniel noticed how the light from our torch was square and the others were round. We played some games in the cabin too. the next day the kids were up early and out scooting the grounds. We visited friends and headed down to the beach. Again the kids had a ball, totally submerged, jumping waves, body boarding, squashing feet in ‘quicksand’ jumping rocks, searching rockpools. it was wonderful. We headed into Inverloch for lunch (fish and chips!) and had a play at the playground. the kids inevitably started playing in the bush and we ended up at a beach again. the kids found a stormwater drain that fascinated them. Alex searched the shores for cuttle fish bones. We went for ice cream too – the place that we had been to when we camped with vio the previous year.
In the evening we went for an astronomy session. We saw the moon and its craters through a telescope. Alex was shown how to adjust it. the we saw jupiter and 4 moons. The kids were cold and tired so we went to bed and they fell asleep immediately! The next morning we packed and went to the ecology workshop. We were taken to the estuary at Screw Creek and netted grassy wetlands to find and identify bugs. Alex was excited to find a shore crab. We also found a soldier crab, side-swimmers and shrimp. We went for a short walk where we saw loads of muddy crabs, some had red claws. Mike showed us the effects of rising sea levels with the new mangrove growth. He told the kids the story of the bunyip.
We visited the Incinerator Gallery. This time it was a short presentation and the kids were asked to create a made up creature. They had a share time at the end too. Afterwards we went to the park. only one other family came and they didn’t stay long. the kids used the obstacles and then found caterpillars, made other friends, explored the gazebo, made up haunted tales. But the most significant thing was that Alex became rather daring and scooted down a flight of stairs. I recorded it as requested and we watched it over and over.
We had another visit to Scienceworks. Alex was a bit resistant to stay without me but apparently he got up in front of all the other kids as a show volunteer. We spent most of the day there. Daniel played and loved designing cars whilst Alex played with his friends racing and in the sports section in general.
Socialising
We had some new friends over. The kids kept asking for TV because they were bored! I was surprised that Alex didn’t make the most of having someone to play lego with as his friend kept asking to. It wasn’t a great play but the kids seemed unsure and they don’t really know each other well.
We met up with the kids’ cousins at Brimbank park. The biggest two are clashing a bit recently, but the little two really enjoy playing together. We went for a walk/scoot around the park and found this interesting looking bug that we watched for ages!
Activities
Alex missed a football training session as we were on camp, but he practised whilst we were away and went to the second practice of the week. He also had a session with Vio and 2 other kids. The end of the week is game day. Alex loves playing matches. Some of the other kids in his team are being a bit excluding which is a bit hard to watch, but Alex is either unaware or not letting it bother him.
Alex has also continued with wrestling. he can lose focus but still says he wants to go. We’ll see how it plays out.