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Thursday, September 01, 2011
I attended the funeral of Jack and Grace’s – Great, Great Aunty Marg
yesterday. (The sister of my Grandmother on Dad’s side.) As I seem to
be the one with the most interest in such things, I received all of her
Genealogy records, which started from the early 1800s, and included a
small number of various newspaper clippings. Oddly enough there was a
collection of stuff on Barry Humphries / Dame Edna. I’m not sure if
Great Aunt Marg was a fan, or if he is related in some way. I look
forward to investigating. It is a long lived clan, with quite a lot of
them living past 100.
Dad has spoken little of that side of the family (the Smiths), and they
were not prone to organising family get togethers. But he was fond of,
and thought a lot of his Aunty Marg. She was also active and appeared
to be very well respected within her church, and it was touching to see
the Minister visibly emotional at times. I was glad I made the effort
to attend.
While I am not a religious person, I hope Marjorie that you are finally
back with your husband Clarence and at peace.
Posted by Doug at 10:10 AM
Monday, September 05, 2011
The kids who had done well in the State Math’s Competition where called
up and acknowledged at the school assembly this morning, including Jack
and his group of Preps. Jack hadn’t been aware that their work had been
entered. The prep’s were amongst the groups whose work is now being
judged in the national competition. It will be interesting to see how
they go.
As I have mentioned before, there can be some awkwardness when
conversing with other parents about where our kids are at. We are aware
that there is logic to how the literacy and numeracy classes have been
divided, and then broken into subgroups within each class - and that it
is based on ability. We also have been told where Jack’s grouping sits
in the overall scheme of things. Many other parents don’t seem to have
been given the same heads up.
Al was asked by a couple parents today how the competition worked – and
you could surmise, were wondering if their own children might have been
involved but not won a certificate. Al didn’t know – we hadn’t seen the
work which have been submitted, and were not told that it had been. We
did know however that the kids in the team were all in the same numeracy
group that Jack is in, and that they are often given extension problems
and projects. Al didn’t mention that however. We do at times have
conversations with other parents where we sympathise with their
concerns, but in reality are having a completely different experience
ourselves. I expect one day some of these people might get their nose
out of joint when they realise this.
Ignoring the parent politics, we are both very proud of Jack, and happy
the school makes the effort to provide such experiences.
Posted by Doug at 12:07 PM
Thursday, September 08, 2011
Jack was up at 5:30am with a nasty cough and a temperature of 102.2. He
is having his first day off school sick. Not a bad effort to get this
far into the year.
Posted by Doug at 8:02 AM
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Jack missed both Thursday and Friday from school. The fever has slowly
got better, but he still spent most of today with a mild temperature,
and volunteered to go to bed early. We are not sure if he will get to
school tomorrow – and will likely decide at the last minute.
All the family have colds at the moment, and are not feeling 100%. While
I had a relatively relaxed weekend, Al and the kids bounced off each
other a bit due to feeling tired, out of sorts and being cooped up more
than usual. It will be interesting if the start of the week and getting
back into a normal routine helps settle everyone, or everyone crashes
and ends up home sick.
Grace enjoying computer time with Mum
Posted by Doug at 7:52 PM
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Jack on his PS2
Jack has rather an intense focus on playing his PS2. It is the first
thing he remarks on when you pick him up after school, and is usually
the last thing he talks about when he goes to bed.
We introduced the console to him when he started to visit William, where
they would often play video games. The idea was that he would get to
understand how the games worked and find it easier to join in when he
played with other kids. That certainly worked.
We also found that it was one of the few ways to keep him busy,
distracted, and out of our hair for a while, so came to rely on it a
bit. I have also been impressed with his general persistence to
understand and master his various games.
On the negative however he talks incessantly about it, even though I
repeatedly ask him not too. He is constantly harping to play, and can
be rather grumpy (or tries to ignore us) when we tell him to get off.
He can also get upset if he can’t get through a stage of the game.
Currently he was playing it once or twice a day during the week, and
twice on the weekends. Now, and I feel both like an old fashioned
parent and a hypocrite considering how much time I spend on my computer,
but we have now restricted Jack to playing on it only once a day. If he
doesn’t show evidence of stepping back a little with his love affair
with his PS2, we might have to consider further restrictions.
Posted by Doug at 4:19 PM
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
That was a bit startling. An over tired Grace was throwing a long and
extended tantrum upstairs while we ignored her. She suddenly started
calling for her mum – who found she had squeezed a leg, bum and half her
middle through the balustrade around the top of our stairs, and was
precariously close to hanging herself by her head, or falling 2 meters
to the bottom of the stairs.
Posted by Doug at 4:12 PM
Friday, September 23, 2011
At the start of each term we are given a list of weekly show and tell
topics that Jack should bring in. I suspect we are more diligent in
providing these than other parents – but our hand is somewhat forced by
how keen Jack is.
Towards the end of each term the feedback from Jack suggests less and
less people are bringing the correct things in. This week Jack had to
show an Australian Animal toy, which he took in a plastic Crocodile for.
(We try to find somewhat different options.) When we picked him up, he
indicated he was the only person to do the proper item on that day.
Today when I picked up Jack he made a remark that one of the other boys
had also brought in an Australian toy animal this week, so that he was
not the only one. When we got home I remarked to Al that Harry had
brought in a Koala for show and tell. Her reply was “What, a real one?”
This was followed immediately after by a facial expression that showed
she realised how silly the response was, then lots of laughter.
Posted by Doug at 3:56 PM
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