Considering it has technically been "school holiday's" for the past couple of weeks down here, we have been taking things a little bit easy. Well kind of, if you call running around all over the place easy. Lets just say there was a main focus on sports and outdoor activities. Followed by fitting in whatever we could around mama's coughing fits!
PDHP:
Swimming: We spent two hours everyday for four days straight at the local swimming pools trying to get our swimming strength back after a five year gap in swimming so that we could re-join the local Surf Life saving branch for Nippers. Then on day 5, being Saturday, both boys managed to pass their swimming test of 200m freestyle in under 5 minutes.
Nippers: The boys started nippers on Sunday, generally they will compete in sprinting, run-swim-run, flags, marathon and boards. Zak really came to the party and had a go at everything, even swimming out around the cans in rough water. Adem on the other hand is taking it slowly, he did well in the running and flags but opted out of entering the cold water. (Can't say I really blame him, I was standing in the wind shivering and coughing the whole time Brrrrrrr!!!)
Board Training: Nippers board training started yesterday and Zak again went in for it gung ho and according to his dad did really well. (This time I opted to stay indoors) Adem went along but opted to have a jog along the beach to the point and back and then did a sprint for a shorter distance. He is not ready for that cold water just yet! Zak wants to go back and have a practice again today!
Little Athletics: Zak joined Little Athletics and started last Friday night. He absolutely LOVED it. He was a little upset as he came second last in all the races, but really it was his first time. We had a little chat about competing against ourselves rather than the crowd and practice makes progress etc. He can't wait to go back and improve his times! He enjoyed trying out long jumps and shot put for the first time too.
Trampolining: Both boys have been spending time each day out on the trampoline, jumping and learning new tricks.
Scooters: Along with ripsticks the boys like riding their scooters out and about including going to the skate parks.
Nutrition: Discussions about food, nutrition and how various things effect our bodies. Including some healthy cooking lessons.
Environment and the World (ongoing...theme work) (Geography, Science, English)
Meteorology (Introduction) : Watched weather reports and mapped out a copy for ourselves. Learned about air pressures and weather patterns for the day.
Australia's Land Use: Using the World Atlas and other resources to find out what most of the land in Australia is used for. Locate various areas on map and create a colour key. Answer various question regarding industry, forests, agriculture and desserts. And why we live in the coastal areas of our country.
More Science: Watched a few different show's on TV about kids science, the environment, the Human Brain, survival in the wild etc. Particularly enjoyed backyard science. Monster garage, the New Inventors. Z conducted his own experiment on how far cars would go according to height, weight, size and distance travelled.
English:
Zak: We have started one of the language units from
Lesson Pathways for year 5, Dear Mr Henshaw. He is currently half way through the book and is preferring that we read it together as it is not interesting enough in his eyes to read alone. Thus far he has completed a few of the activities including making lists about what bothers him, what he wishes for and identifying various charicteristics from characters in the book. There are quite a few activities to complete in a week. And as we have been a bit busy we are not quite into it as yet.
Working on his diary (Wimpy kid style ;-))
Adem: Understanding Past, Present and Future Tense, + writing. Reading various chapter books of own choice.
Both: Grammar, writing, vocabulary etc, worked in with various subjects or like today Adem requested doing some of his vocabulary builder book.
Current reading: A- The Savage Stoneage (horrible histories) Z- Dear Mr Henshaw
Handwriting:
Zak has been working on basic handwriting again to try and get his writing a bit neater. Adem has a science cursive handwriting book which is doubling up as lessons on the human body. This week he learned more about the 5 senses. His handwriting is lovely in this book, would be nice if he could show this in his other work which tends to be sloppy.
Maths:
Zak has been working on grams and Kilograms and has been running around the house madly weighing things in. Guessing the weights and then popping them on the scales and recording results. Too funny when he guessed his own weight as 2 kg less. He then ripped off his shirt in the hopes it was the culprit! No such luck! He is also working on Litres and ML this week and on 3D objects around the house.
Adem is currently working on Ordering Integers and Using the Number Line.
Music:
Very slack in this dept. We have been playing rockband and listening to music but other than that? Nothing on the go just now.
Woodwork (For those who think we should be doing it! I give you photographic evidence....LOL..forgot I had these pics when I posted
my thoughts on woodwork the other day! )
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| trying to fix up the skate ramp |
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| If only it would work! |
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| Maybe, with a little help from your friends? |
Well as I mentioned before, he ended up adding to the brick pile and making it more stable rather than precisely flush to the ground! But it was not for lack of trying! :-)
And thats about as much as I can remember for now! Time to clean up, feed the kids and head down the beach for a little more of that "board training" he insists mama comes along and watches this time! Gah! There is no rest for the wicked is there?
