Not only has it become a great
enthusiasm, but also the National Hockey centre is just up
the road, and Abi has been able to watch a couple of
international matches with friends, and has been quite
bowled over with enthusiasm by the whole thing.
Abi has blossomed this
year, her teacher has been wearing a radio
controlled microphone linked to her hearing aid, so she
hears everything she needs to hear (and a number of
things her teacher doesn't intend her to!) She has been a
year 4 in a 4/5 class and has relished the challenge and
done very well. She enjoys writing stories and has written
and illustrated a number of small books for fun this year,
She has also discovered that she likes maths - which is
great! She has developed a 'Tango on a Unicycle' dance
routine with her friend Lizzie which they perform in
unicycle performances and she continues to be the clown of
the family, performing
for fun in several
busking competions and festivals.
We're
still working on the make-up
Sam's confidence
has gained a lot from a number of camps that he has been on.
The Scout camps seem to be the best, he went to a week on
the coast last January, a caving weekend in April, where he
had to abseil into the cave in the first place (absolutely
brilliant!!)
Both kids went camping for a cub/scout weekend on a farm in
June.
By
comparison the school camp was much more ordinary, mundane,
safe and expensive.
Sam
left this morning to attend the Australian Jamboree in
Victoria for 10 days - that is expected to be his biggest
challenge yet, with 12,000 scouts and huge numbers of
activities.
Sam's sporting prowess has been developed by his enthusiasm.
He wants to play unicycle hockey, and he has been
practising, and badgering others to play at every Unicycling
session. He has steadily improved his ability, so that even
the good players have to work hard to beat him and he is
constantly working hard to get better.Today he is good, and
usually ends up pink and sweaty with a big grin on his face
at the end of a session. I'm so proud of his determination
and ability!
In April Sam took part in
the Australian Primary talent Search exam and did very
well, ranking in the 98th percentile for science,
94th for reading, 93rd for maths and 79th for English
(compared to all year 5 talent-search participants who
have to be high achievers to take part). He qualified (in
Science and Reading) to participate in a 6 day residential
program run by the Gifted Education Research Resource and
Information Centre at the University of NSW, this
opportunity is only offered to students who gain very high
scores, unfortunately the program clashed with the Scout
Jamboree so he couldn't attend but he wants to try again
next year.
Sam also got selected to participate in the 'Tournament of
the minds: an inter-school based project. His team had some
weeks to work on designing a remotely launched bird which
flew within a limited airspace and also had to perform
predefined manoeuvres. They had to develop a dramatic
performance which included the launch of the bird, and were
given points for everything they made themselves. They were
measured against set criteria such as innovation, artistic,
dramatic and scientific ability. I think that the
greatest learning experience was working within a team
containing very different expectations
(and learning that you really
do need
to read all the rules thoroughly before starting!).
There was a lot of stress on the way, but happiness and
achievement at the end.
Talking to the judges at the end of the performance
Not quite chaos, and a lot of fun.
Another challenge has been
set by homework where Sam was told to teach himself
something that could be useful to others. He's 'done'
electricity by now, so he followed the tradition of his
forefathers, and went for Civil Engineering instead. He
did a workmanlike job of building a mould, laying
(chicken-wire) reinforced concrete to repair a platform
by the clothes line, and then chiselling and mortaring
to replace paving slabs. His ancestors would have
beamed!!
Preparation and Falsework
Pouring and Finishing
Pure Pride!!
Animal Life
With enough pets to form a small zoo there have been
inevitable changes, with the loss of 2 chooks, one
mouse and a guinea pig to illness, accident or
predators.
We have a
new mouse (Nora the Gnawer) to keep Whiskers company,
and a young guinea pig (Butternut) has joined
Choc-Chunk and Bog-Brush to free-range in the back
garden
Three chicks (Celia Queenie and Arrietty) have joined
Henrietta, Charlotte, Hermione and Icarus. The chicks
are nearly a month old, they are growing fast, and
just spent a week at the coast with us discovering
grass (the drought in Canberra makes anything green a
rarity). They are now practising life with the
big chooks for the first time and we watch with
trepidation as the pecking order is firmly laid down.
Our existing brood of adult chooks are quite happy to
live in the Watson's old age home for retired chickens,
only Icarus is still
laying and she refuses to lay any eggs with shells.
This chick is planning to do something fast..
And .. and, Oh, she has, too, right on my book. Just
Great.
OK. Let's practice being cute, instead.
We have fish in 2 ponds, and regularly watch
from the kitchen window as the Kookaburras dive down
and carry off our fish for their lunch. The bottom
pond has been re-lined and turned into a frog pond,
with lots of nooks and crannies and mesh over the top
to foil the Kookaburras. We filled it with water and
then watched anxiously as it teemed with more and more
mosquito larvae, we were just at the point of
abandoning the project and introducing fish when the
first frog-spawn appeared- we now have numerous
tadpoles at varying stages of development who feast on
the mossie larvae and so hopefully we are contributing
a little to the survival of amphibians in this area.
In spring, the local
magpies have a tendency to swoop anyone/anything
daring to approach their nesting spot, so cyclists in
Canberra have to attach spikes to their bike helmets
to discourage them- they have strong beaks and
regularly injure people. We had a pair nesting in our
front garden and collecting the mail/ going to school
etc. became a dangerous pursuit. One morning Mike was
eating toast in the driveway when the male magpie
swooped him, he offered it some toast and marmalade
and the magpie took it from his hand and flew off,
returning for seconds a minute later. This
magpie has a gammy leg and has been named 'Hopalong'
He now regularly insists on being fed, as do his 2
chicks and his partner Limpy (another disabled bird).
The chicks and Hopalong now all feed from our hands,
the chicks squabbling ferociously with each other.
Other regular visitors
are the Gang Gang Cockatoos, Sulfa Crested Cockatoos,
Rosellas and King Parrots- all quite stunningly
beatiful and all with their own characters, we feel
very fortunate to be living so close to them all.
Cathy :
I have continued to work
in project and policy support for Allied Health
in ACT Health, I am ready for a change now (after 2
years) and have just accepted a 6 month project
officer position in head office acting at a higher
level with a few more hours. Not sure what will happen
when that project ends- but I am hopeful that
something else will turn up. I have also been
secretary to the ACT Unicycle Riders Society, been a
member of the school canteen committee, helped with
Scout fundraisers etc etc. My unicycling has not made
a great deal of progress but I am close to being
able to mount unaided- I would like to achieve that!
Christmas
Christmas has once been at Lilli Pilli, with beaches,
sand, waves and (some) sun. It is the best place if
you have little time to plan and prepare something
more exotic. We have been eating all those far
too nice things, reading, and most of all, slowing
down. It has given us such a good excuse to be a bit
late, but that's life. Today, we have a strong
aversion to interesting times. Lets hope that we all
have a life full of fun and success next year. We wish
you all the very best, with life treating us well.
All the very best for 2007,
Abi, Sam, Cathy and Mike.
