Surprise sleepover

A special treat awaited Callum and Declan after school was over on Friday - a sleepover at Alex and Lucinda's. Evan sprung it on them by driving them straight to the Singhi's place after school. Declan was the first to figure out what the surprise was. They had a wonderful time, although (unsurprisingly) they have been a bit grumpy at times today.

And the second part of the special treat is that Alex and Lucinda are coming back to Cammeray school next term, and Alex will be in Callum's class! The boys were very chuffed to hear that.

Speak offs

Declan duly competed in the speak-offs, in the library without a microphone. He gave his whole speech in a nice big clear voice, and added a few gestures he had been working on through the week.

Best of all, he was very pleased that his friend Nicolas (also from 2L) won the Year 2 prize!

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Declan has finally moved on from Beast Quest (at least temporarily) and is now reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Amusingly, though, this evening he came down for another book, "because I am getting addicted to Diary of a Wimpy Kid and I need to mix it up". Probably just as well - this series is of a superior quality (and written by a single real author) so only four have been written so far.

Harmony Day

Declan has come home full of tales about Harmony Day today. His friend Noah, who is Jewish, brought in Matzo for Passover, and Declan told us the story of the parting of the Red Sea (he was quite surprised that we already knew the ending).

Finn's mum came in to do some Irish fiddling, and there were some Irish dancers dancing along (Declan told me that they don't use their arms because in the olden days they would have damaged ornaments in their small houses).

And Declan also got a special Chinese piece of string which is symbolic of something that I have now forgotten.

I'm sure it is one of those days that are scoffed at as "politically correct" but Declan seems to really enjoy finding out about the traditions of all his friends.

Speak-offs

Declan was voted to represent his class in the Speak-offs this coming Friday. He's very excited.

Exercises

Callum has decided he needs more exercise. So at 8 and 8.30 pm, he has taken to doing a plank for one minute, 10 situps, and 10 pushups. He was very pleased when I started to join in on Wednesday. He's very proud of his sore stomach muscles!

Robots

This afternoon Evan and another Cammeray parent, Luke, ran a half day robot workshop for the robotics classes Evan's been doing at the school. The aim was to create robotic ways to distribute easter eggs at a school assembly.

I went along to be an extra adult, albeit one with little robotics knowledge. It was impressive to see Callum's friends Brendan and Felix, who created a self loading robotic catapult. Callum's though (with a lot of help from Evan), was the most impressive - a cable car that runs the length of the school hall, distributing easter eggs on the way.

The assembly is in 10 days time. Potential for mayhem: large.

Visiting the library

Inspired by these two posts on one of my favourite photoblogs the boys and I went for a trek into town yesterday. I told them we were finding a statue of a cat, and seeing an exhibition of a library (the Mitchell Library 100 year exhibition). Unfortunately I didn't sell it very well, so they weren't predisposed in favour as we caught the train in.

The highlight for Declan was seeing my desk at work (we dropped in on the way, just for fun). He was amazed at the size of all the desks, and loved being 14 floors high looking down on Martin Place. I forgot, because I do it every day, that the experience of a skyscraper is foreign to the boys. Callum actually did enjoy the statue of the cat, Trim (who was Matthew Flinders' cat).

Mindmap part II

As part of his preparation for his speech this term, Declan had to do a mindmap on the topic. It was surprisingly successful as an idea generator (normally Declan just wants to copy whoever got into the speakoffs last time).

Here is his mindmap on the topic "why my Environment is important to me".

Chess

Declan has joined the chess club at school. I'm not sure exactly what they do there, but it has made him keen to play chess at home. So I asked Grandpa to play chess with him when he was here tonight.

Grandpa was undecided about how nice to be, and ended up playing a normal game, and trouncing Declan. Declan was extraordinarily accepting. I think Grandpa was a bit worried that it would end in tears, but Declan understood what was going on, and even worked out that he had been Checkmated by himself. I suggested that Grandpa might like to spot Declan a Queen next time, though, just to even things up a bit.

Approximations

When it's time to go to bed, I often tell Callum, "it's nearly 8 o'clock!" when it is five to. He always protests that it is nowhere near, and he has heaps of time left.

But this evening at the school BBQ (when it was pouring with rain, but Evan and I were enjoying chatting with the other hardy souls who had turned up), Callum came and told us both that it was "nearly 7 o'clock" at 6.45.