The New Swag

Simon got a swag for his birthday this year. It arrived a little late, and he has just finished setting it up with the boys... in the kitchen. This is the conversation I overheard.

Nathan: "That's what I call a swag!"

Joshua: "That's what I call a swag!"

Simon: "That's what I call a swag!"

Nathan: "I sometimes call it a little tent."

Nathan can read!

In typical Nathan fashion, he has started to read all at once. Last week he couldn't. Now he can. Well words with phonograms he knows at any rate. Size is not necessarily an issue. The first word he read was "letter". Why go with cliches like cat or dog?

I ought to know by now that when Nathan learns something it's all at once, but it still surprises me every time. Again, I really didn't anticipate reading to happen like this.

or swimming

or walking

or crawling

or sitting

You get the idea right?

I wonder when losing the training wheels will happen????

Nathan's 6th Birthday

Today we had a train party for Nathan. My aim has been for each of the boys to have one party at some stage during their childhood where we'll go all out. That way, they have some great memories. I figure you only have to do it once though!

So this year was Nathan's turn. His theme was trains. We deliberately had more unstructured play time. Nathan tends not to do so well with switching between tasks rapidly, so less structured is better. So we made some box trains in advance. The kids got to add wheels and funnels. Then Simon created a track over in the hall (there was a fair threat of rain today, and it was very wet underfoot from lots of rain yesterday). It was an amazing track - he did such a wonderful job. Meanwhile I made the cake - was way harder than it looked - quite the opposite to Josh's really. We did have one more structured game - Deliver the Parcel. Kind of pass the parcel, but delivering instead.

The kid's had a fabulous time.


Josh at the "train shed" collecting his train.


Josh and Nathan - so gorgeous.


The train track!


Nathan going through the mountain pass.


Josh delivering food for the animals at the zoo.


Nathan, having dropped off a load of construction supplies to the city.


Karen at the "workshop" creating funnels.


Waiting for his turn during "Deliver the Parcel".


Unwrapping the parcel.


The guests.


The Cake!!!

Swimming

Warning in advance - rather long, extended brag-fest.

Before we went away in Nov/Dec we were started going to swimming club. We only got there once and Josh was extremely anxious about jumping in at the deep end (which he has been happily doing with us all season, and half of the previous season).
My aim when we returned was to help him get over this fear before the swimming carnival at school. The rest of his year is turning 9 this year, so swimm the full length. He turned 8 in February, so had the choice of either the noodle races or full length. What I wanted for him was for him to be confident enough to choose to swim with the other boys in his year if he wanted to. So we kept taking them to club and he started squad. Again, we had some nerves, particularly when he had to swim from the shallow end toward the deep end. I might add, the deep end at our local pool is very deep.
Once he had been along a few times he really got over this fear quite quickly. His coach is amazing, and really good at working with him to overcome his fears.

Consequently when we got to school swimming carnival time he was really ready to go. He chose to swim up with the boys in his year in the 9-10 year old sections. He was a bit worried, but we reminded him of all the practice he had done, and that it was possible he may even be a little faster than 1 or 2 of them. That seemed to get him through his nerves. We were very proud of him for having a go.

We were quite surprised when he decided to give butterfly a go. None of the other 9/10 year olds did this, but he had a shot. He came in toward the back of the group, but we were amazed given the other boys were 11 and 12.

He then immediately swam in the 9-10 year 33m freestyle (our pool is 33m long). Not only did he hold his own, he actually won the race. I don't know who was more surprised, us or him. He then went on to do the same in the 100m freestyle and 33m backstroke, and came in 3rd in the 33m breaststroke. Even the relay team he want in managed to come in first. We were exceptionally proud of him, and of the way he handled himself. He was most excited by the first freestyle race because he beat his best time.

A couple of weeks after that he went along to the zone carnival. Our zone is Far West and includes christian schools from Dubbo, Orange, Wagga, Albury, Bourke, etc. A huge area. This year the carnival was in Dubbo. The children have to be 8 to go, and Josh had turned 8 the week before. I had assumed as this was the case they would put the 8 year olds with the 9 year olds, but apparently they don't. They have an 8 year old section for children who turn 8 before the zone carnival. Very strange. So at the carnival there were only about 6-8 8 year old boys. In some races they even had 9 year olds in with them, as they just compared their times to the boys in the 9 year old race. Josh managed to come 2nd in the 50m freestyle and 50m backstroke and 3rd in the 50m breaststroke. Another girl from our school came 2nd in the 10yo 50m butterfly.

So that meant Josh had qualified to go to CSSA (Christian Schools Sports Association) State Carnival. So along with the other girl and her Mum we headed to Blacktown Aquatic Centre for this carnival. This was early this week. Far West zone proved to be by far the weakest competitors in this carnival. I suspect many of us only have access to pools during summer.

Josh swam well. He has worked really hard at squad and remembered all the things he has been taught. In his freestyle, when he reached around the 33m mark there was an obvious transition, as he must have used up all his energy early. He came in last, but still had a great time. His aim in backstroke was to not stop to see where the end was, and we were exceptionally proud to see him succeed in this for the first time. Again, he came in last. But we bought the t-shirt to prove he got there! No disappointment from our end. We are very proud of him. For a child who started the season scared to swim in club races, and scared to swim toward the deep end, he has exceeded all expectations by us and himself. And manages to carry it all off with grace and a huge smile.

I'll toss some photos in from the carnivals. I think children swimming all look much the same, but there are some nice ones there.

Breaststroke at the school carnival



Zone Carnival at Dubbo





CSSA State Carnival

Nathan starts school

Nathan has started school and is loving it. He is overjoyed at being able to spend so much time with his best friend, 'I'. They aren't sitting together, and have managed to clock up a 2 week ban against sitting next to each other on the mat, while I was in the room I might add. But they do get to play together a lot in the playground and during free time in class.

He's already managed to bring home a certificate for working hard in maths. Somehow I suspect that is the first of many for that subject. He loves numbers, and I've even chatted to my Dad about it and we don't think either of us were as good as he is at maths at his age, and we both love mahts. Dad was a high school maths teacher for many years. Sorry for the bragfest, but it's nice to see him enjoying school and doing well.

I am really confident that we did the right thing by keeping him home for another year. He was much more ready for the social part of school this year, and just itching to get into it.

Here's some photos from the first day. I really must attach some photos of me as a child - he is a complete replica. In fact friends laugh when they look at photos of me as a child as it looks like Nathan with a dress and wig.






Again, totally slack on the photo and story front.

Overseas photos

In an exceptional display of slackness I have neglected updating this blog for way too long.

I put photos of our trip to Uganda and Europe up on facebook a while back. I'll add the links so you can take a look.

The Netherlands/Slovenia

London/Uganda

My Favourite Childrens Story Bible

I've just discovered they are animating my favourite children's story bible. It's by Sally Lloyd-Jones, and she has done an excellent job. She is a wonderful story teller, and the artwork is exceptional. Now it seems they are animating them. They've done a wonderful job of the first one. Just click the link below. You don't need a password, just click on the enter button.

Sally Lloyd-Jones blog

Henry

We've had a bit of a sad day today. Last night Simon discovered our beautiful cat, Henry, had been hit by a car. We've lost cats before, but this was pretty awful. He was just a wonderful pet. Really friendly, and lots of fun. We all really loved him.
Henry was a Burmese Blue. A really great family cat. He was just a bit stupid with cars. We think that he was probably asleep on the road - grey cat, grey road, night time.

We told the boys this morning. Josh was really upset. Nathan had lots of questions. But they are doing ok.

We know that we'll get another cat sometime. Just not yet.

Cakes

While I'm adding photos, I thought I'd add these ones in of some cakes I've made. Definitely similar theme as you can see. I got some really cute cutters, so thought I'd try them out for a cake we made for some friends who got engaged. Had some left over bits, and it was Simon's birthday a few days later, so made the most of them. I really enjoyed achieving the colour red - I've never managed that before.

Soccer

Just a couple of photos from the boys soccer. We picked up the shirts at the end of the comp for $1 each! Good price I think.

Crochet

I've been learning to crochet. This is the blanket I made for my friends son. I was amazed how easy it was. Very satisfying hobby as it is quite fast. I keep meaning to photograph it in the daytime for better colours, but haven't yet. One day.

So much for regular posting

I am truly poor at blogging. So must be catch up time.

It's school holidays, so we've been doing a lot of stuff around home with the boys. I've played quite a few games of Guess Who and Battleship. I've discovered that Nathan is a lot better at Battleship than I expected, and even concedes to doing it by the rules, which is unusual for him.

We've had lots of injections. We've been immunised to just about everything known to man. Still have H1N1 to go. Yellow fever had to be done in Tamworth, so we did that on Friday on our way to a meeting about Uganda. We've both been feeling a little seedy, but they do say side effects may come in 3-5 days after the injection, so hoping that we don't have any more.

The meeting for Uganda was great. I've been feeling lots of apprehension about the whole thing, so it was great to get a more concrete idea of what we'll be doing while we're over there. The person who ran the meeting has done a brilliant job of adapting the material for a different audience, and leaving lots of bits open to change if things aren't going well. I'm feeling very confident about it.

Things I find strange. We'll have squat toilets, cold running water, a bucket of warm water delivered in the morning. Yet, mobile coverage is apparently excellent, everyone has mobile phones, and there is a good internet cafe in town. Look up Rukingiri in google earth or on Wikipedia. We will be really remote. It's so strange to think that we can just text home whenever we want. Good to hear though.

I've just finished crocheting my first blanket - I'll do another post with the photos.

The boys have finished soccer for the year. I'll do another post with photos. Nathan managed to score a goal on the last week so that everyone in his team got one. In order for this to happen, the coach of the other team called his team over for a little chat so that Nathan could kick it in. Not set up at all :-) He didn't seem to mind though. Josh improved a lot during the season and even managed a few goals. Not that goals are the be all and end all, but I think it indicates that he actually wants the ball now, rather than positioning himself away from it.

Nathan is all geared up for school. He starts transition on the second week back next term, and is really excited. He has been an absolute sponge lately, constantly wanting to learn new things. He asked me the other day how to read. I was making dinner at the time, so a bit hard to cover, but I gave him a little bit of an idea. He has a lot of pre-reading skills already. His maths is going really well - he just gets maths. He learns a strategy and can apply it straight away. I'm not totally surprised - someone had to get my Dad's maths skill I figure. It's really interesting to watch him learn. I'm trying not to let him get too far ahead, because I don't want him to be bored, but he tends to teach himself or learn from Josh, so there's not much I can do about that. So I figure we'll mainly stick to the maths stuff, and leave the reading and writing for next year.

I find it really strange to think that both of our boys will be at school next year. Where did the time go?

Not a good idea

Nathan and I have been having an ongoing battle over obedience in a particular area. The other day he knew he was heading to a smack, and yet chose to flaunt the particular behavioiur directly in front of me. I responded with a quick smack.

Nathan (in full whinge): That hurt Mum.

Me: That was the idea.

Nathan: It's not a very good idea.