Another day at work for me, and another day for the kids at Grandparents.
Next day we were up early and headed to the Aboriginal Heritage Centre. It was a long drive, but Alex really enjoyed the day. They painted boomerangs after learning about the symbols used from a story. Alex found the painting frustrating at first and kept wiping away his picture and restarting, but the educator showed him that placing dots and then joining them is the best way to draw. We were shown how to throw boomerangs, Alex loved this part! I even got a turn and my second attempt wasn’t half bad. We also went for a bush walk and learned about a few different plants, saw wallabies and emus, tried kangaroo meat and damper and were shown some artefacts – mostly hunting tools. It was lots of fun, but the kids weren’t in great moods. I can’t believe I don’t have any pictures of it!
We spent the afternoon cleaning the car and around the front of the house. The kids helped. We played with loose parts and magnetic tiles, and I played the T-rex game with Alex.
At Brimbank park the following day, Alex spent almost all of his time throwing that boomerang! He actually got very good at it, with it often coming back towards him. Interestingly this happened best when he threw right handed! Unfortunately the boomerang got stuck in a tree! Alex was initially upset but we all pulled together and tried to get it down. Alex had lots of ideas on how to do so and eventually we succeeded! We had fun problem solving. We went swimming in the evening and we’ve been playing the crocodile monster game where the kids run away from me.
Alex bought a marble run the previous day, one that sticks to the wall and so we had fun playing and experimenting with that – we talked about speed, direction, jumps, tricks and gravity. Most of the day I’d been cleaning up and the kids engaged with TV or iPads. Alex has been watching a new show all day called Dinosaur King.
The next day we did a few errands and stopped at a playground before gymnastics. Afterwards, Alex threw his boomerang around for a while. Some of the other kids were playing pretend and Alex was trying to join in, but he gets a bit carried away and overly physical. He then had karate and Daniel and I went to the shops to spend the money he received from my family for his birthday. He bought a Captain America suit and a duplo train set.
Another Saturday morning of football. in the afternoon we went to the park, and again Alex threw around his boomerang. Unfortunately I think he has left it behind! The kids played and scooted, and Alex got talking to another boy about catching pokemon. At home the kids played with the circuit boards, it was night so they turned the house light off and used the circuit light to make shadows. Alex was explaining about how his head got bigger in the shadow as he moved closer to the light. He talked more about shadows in their bedroom as they have bunk beds now and they’ve enjoyed climbing to Alex’s bunk together and making shadows from the bedroom light. Hearing Alex explaining to Daniel is so sweet, I’m reminded of the grade 5 classroom I’ve spent 2 days in recently where the kids have drawn posters to explain what happens with shadows. They’ve turned this incidental learning into a fact to be memorised, and likely not understood.
We visited Werribee zoo. Daniel loved the bus! Alex loved walking around catching pokemon!