There’s not been much to tell these past 2 weeks! I have been sick for a large part of it, and now it seems the kids are suffering. Yesterday they spent most of the day sleeping – Alex more than Daniel. I’m hopeful that today they will wake up feeling much better.
I went to see Alex at presentation last week. I always enjoy watching him amongst the other kids. He’s quite confident and seems to really enjoy it. It surprises me that such young children can remember all of the moves and japanese names.
At the moment, the dojo is promoting a ‘walk without fear’ campaign against bullying. They are doing 1 million sit ups. So throughout the presentation, there was always a child doing sit ups. They had to do 10 and then mark a tally. Alex had never done tallying before, but after watching the other kids and with a bit of mentoring, he soon got the hang of it. It’s funny where these things crop up. I doubt he understands how to count up the ‘tens’ but he certainly got the idea that they were keeping a record. All in context, no made-up scenarios. Who knew we’d be in for a maths ‘lesson’ at presentation!
Some other things that have happened: Daniel has started to ride the balance bike! He looks so little, but he enjoys it. I’ve taken him out to the front a few times. He thought I was holding him but realised I wasn’t and then just took off! He’s still walking with it of course, not yet speeding off but it’s early days đŸ™‚ i don’t have a picture as my hands were busy helping and ready to catch! Plus Daniel gets distracted by the camera and wants to take pictures for himself.
We went to the NGV last week to see the new Tromarama exhibit. It’s about stop motion animation. Alex was trying to move the set and props he created like a video. When I gave him some advice, he quickly lost interest. I had hoped that he would find a connection to the activity as he is a keen cartoon watcher. Perhaps I can find him some ‘how to’ videos of some of his favourite cartoons being created. I have obtained the ‘stop motion’ app for the iPad. Perhaps we can do something at home with cars, trains, dinosaurs. pPossibilities are endless.
We’ve had a few play dates with a good friend of Alex’s. They share a love of trains and cars so they always play quite well together.
I’ve talked to Alex about reading together before bed again, I said I missed doing it and he felt the same way. So we are trying to bring that little ritual back to life. Alex likes to read with me, but he does have other things that he likes to do more now. The other day, whilst Daniel slept in the car after gymnastics, we read about 7 books together that we had just got from the library. It was a nice time. Alex was sitting on my lap as we read. I usually ask him if he liked the book, I also tell him if I didn’t. It’s fine if we disagree. Alex often has questions or observations as we read and I love to engage in a conversation about the books – much more than I used to when Alex was younger. Daniel is not keen to read with me. He’s very different to Alex at the same age.
We also visited the zoo this week. There was a baby pygmy hippo born recently and we got to see it! It was pretty cute, just amazing. Alex really likes to see animals, particularly babies. He’s been watching a cartoon called ‘wild kratts’ which is about animal discoveries – it’s fascinating!
We’ve got a busy few weeks coming up. I’ve realised I’ve booked a lot of activities – probably too much. Alex doesn’t like to be scheduled too much! Also, I need more free activities! Best get looking.