I had organised for us to do a junior rangers event at Jawbone Marine Reserve as I was unable to get into the holiday program so contacted them directly. The rangers provided the kids with a scavenger hunt to complete and led them into discussions about them. We found stingray indentations, felt the roughness of tubeworms, witnessed hundreds of crabs dashing towards the ocean, and tested our strength against a limpet. It was a great experience with the kids jumping over rocks and puddles, they really enjoyed their surroundings.
The following day was rainy and bleak, so in order to avoid cabin fever we headed to a play centre – Alex often asks to go, but the money spent there makes it hard to justify going too often! The kids enjoyed the slides, shooting balls, bouncing on the inflatables and playing with their friends. There was one annoying thing – the race cars in the centre that you needed to pay extra for – Daniel was upset repeatedly over my ‘sorry, not today’. We headed to gymnastics, Daniel fully participated and is obviously listening to the coach as he understood the tasks. Alex went to karate, where he’d asked me to speak to Soke about some issues he’d been having with another boy and getting into trouble for. He’s been talking about it for 2 weeks so it’s clearly been on his mind. All was fine. A few kids earned their badges and white belts. Alex is always the one to congratulate another person. His empathy, compassion and warmth are just huge.
Another Saturday football training session, followed this week by a friend’s party. The party was a bit tricky, some tears over pass the parcel. Alex wanted to swap his prize but ‘Elsa’ wouldn’t let him. that would have been fine, except that she had let others do it. Injustice is hard at any age! Daniel was in bed early and Vio was out at the movies, so I played a new board game with Alex called ‘Ticket to ride’. It was lots of fun and great to have some QT.
The park that was usually head to after gymnastics is adjacent to Steele Creek and was the host to a community planting day, which we attended mainly for the birds of prey presentation – a boobook owl, kestrel and little eagle. However this was not the highlight for Alex, but instead The Ronnies guy was there entertaining the kids. He gives them animal cards, and as he does so he talks about them. he’s very interactive, he had a whole group surrounding him for most of the day! Alex came away with all the cards so happy, and enjoyed showing off his animal knowledge! At home, Alex drew pictures of stick insect enclosures, including one for a friend. We also finished reading 26 storey treehouse and he discovered minecraft on his iPad (I’d strewed that some time ago!).