Exploration

On Sunday morning, needing exercise, we decided to go for a walk. But the boys were keen for a bike ride, so we walked down to Lavender Bay, and when we got there, they rode. It was quite amazing, as they tore off ahead of us, so that we could barely see them after about a minute. We walked, and they rode, all the way from the McMahons Point end of Lavender Bay to the Kirribilli Ferry Wharf and back again, until we ran out of flat path.

It still seems slightly amazing that a few months ago they were begging us not to take off the training wheels.

Science fair

As part of science week, the abc put on some science talks for kids. We took Alex and Lucinda with us to see "Planet Primes" with Simon the maths man and "Dinosaurs aren't dead" with Dr Karl.

They all enjoyed the primes better, mainly because it had more of a story, but also because it made them think a bit.

But they were almost as thrilled to see a real tv studio. Here are Declan and Lucinda posing in front of it.

Modern boys

We have bought the boys ipads since we have put away their computers while we sell the house. We gave them to them after dinner on Friday night, making them close their eyes before they got to see them.

Callum's face was a picture as his jaw dropped open when he did a double take and realized what he had got.


This was the picture that greeted me this morning as I came downstairs.

Chess champion

Cammeray has a intra-school chess championship this year which has been running for some weeks now. Callum was knocked out after a few games, and Declan's games seemed to have ground to a halt, so I had assumed he had been knocked out and hadn't told anyone.

But last night, I came home to the news that he was in the top 3 in the school! Having beaten a very strong player yesterday.

Today he played one of the other two, and lost in a close fought battle that lasted an hour. Although he was clearly disappointed (and much more willing to replay the winning moves from the previous day) he was still pretty thrilled to be third in the whole school.

Election day and night

On election day, I made the boys come with me to vote. They were reluctant, having seen the early morning queues, but once they got there, they were fine. They helped me check that I had number all 84 squares in the Senate (election geekiness starts early in this house) and each one got to put a ballot paper in the ballot box.

And then we went up to the mountains to see the election in with the Lees, Gaynor Vincents and Langdon Linigens.

The children mostly watched movies (after earlier exhausting themselves playing hide and seek in the garden) but every now and again one of them would come and ask the adults, "who's winning?"

Sadly they were disappointed that we couldn't tell them all night, and astonished when we still couldn't tell them the next morning. I think they are starting to get the hang of the lower house, but the Senate is completely beyond them.

Debating

Callum's teacher this year is in charge of Cammeray debating. So she set up a challenge between her Cammeray class and a neighbouring school (Middle Harbour). After an in class audition, Callum was picked for fourth speaker (the one who sits at the end and writes witty things for the others to say).

But then one of the others got sick, and Callum was promoted to second speaker. He was initially quite reluctant (I think he liked the idea of being the faceless man in the backroom) but got into it, and was judged best speaker of the whole debate by the adjudicator (even though Cammeray lost). The topic was "that books are better than TV" and Cammeray had the affirmative. Callum's best line was: "reading is far more useful that learning where the best position on the couch is!".

Arty

On the weekend, the Lees came to stay. On Sunday morning we decided to be energetic and walk across the bridge to the art gallery. As is usual, despite being desperate for an ice creams as a reward for walking such a long way, they ran sound like lunatics once we got to the botanic gardens.

The art gallery was more successful than I feared. Most children seemed to find at least one painting or sculpture they could appreciate, although Declan was very disappointed that the Monets were in a room with a concert so we couldn't see them.


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Callum's new blog

Callum and Alex have decided to make some money. They're going to set up a games review site, which will review games and get advertising revenue. Here it is. Callum's not quite got the hang of the idea that you have to post things to make people read it, but hopefully it will come.

Nine Men's Morris

Callum had his ICAS English test yesterday - basically a lot of multiple choice comprehension questions on various texts. One of them described the game Nine Men's Morris. He obviously comprehended that bit of the question, because tonight he came home and drew a board on a piece of paper, got out the Go set for some counters, and had a game with Evan.

Cal was a bit upset when he lost - I think he thought his ICAS experience would give him an advantage. I'm keen to have a game myself, now, though - apparently it was very popular in mediaeval Britain.

Keyboard games

Evan has found a bluetooth keyboard which he used to use while traveling. It can connect to my ipad from some distance, so Callum has just had a great time typing an anonymous email to Evan. For some reason he chose to increase the degree of difficulty by sitting half way up the stairs and getting me to tell him if he made a spelling mistake.

Walking on water

On Saturday, for a bit of a treat, we took the boys, plus Callum's friend Alex, to the Entertainment Quarter to try "walking on water". They have big blow up plastic bubbles, that the children get inside, and get to move around a big blow up pool of water. To the observer, the children seem very like hamsters as they try hard to stay upright by walking frantically.

But on the phone to Grandpa this evening, Declan told him earnestly that "it was the best experience I have ever had".