More little things

9yo displayed that he does have some organisational skills while we were playing Minecraft and he wandered off and said he had found some mines, then told me the coordinates so I could join him.  He had made a book and quill to use as a journal (and would be less likely to misplace seeing as it's in-game) in which he was writing down the coordinates of our bases and any mines he encountered (which would then be deleted once we'd finished exploring and digging them out).

7yo wrote me a poem:

On the back is what was left of a sticker sheet after the stickers have been removed; the stickers had been butterflies and flowers and she had used some of them as stencils and coloured them in.  I didn't have the heart at the time to tell her that we usually spell "Mum" with a "u" in this country, or correct any of her spelling mistakes really, I'll save that for the bookwork and when she shows me the stories she writes.

On his milkshake day 5yo had a dougnut with Smarties on it.  I don't know why he picked that one as he doesn't like smarties.  While we were talking and hanging out as we usually do on the milkshake days, he started playing with the Smarties and did maths with them (sorting by colours and saying how many out of how many were a certain colour, dividing into equal groups, etc) and then we took them home and he asked if he could have a plate of water to repeat an experiment he'd seen. I gave him a plate of water and he put the Smarties in and we observed which ones lost their colour quickes (the yellow ones) and which ones too the longest to lose their colour (the purple ones apparently).  Now all we need to do is get him to not tamper with the experiments while they're running.

We also headed out to Beverley and York to have a look at the area as we're thinking of possibly setting up a farm towards Toodyay, York or Beverley.  Very pretty around there (granted it was spring and wet).

Trying to take a photo of a large rock in a paddock with my phone on a quick stop we made so the carsick child could have a quick breather [CC-BY]

Taken out the car window driving from Beverley to York [CC-BY]

The aircraft museum at Beverley (which we didn't know existed til we went for a walk down the main street) was open so we popped in.  It was very small but as usual 9yo found everything fascinating, 5yo found it fascinating enough to touch and didn't want to hear that stuff (especially roped off stuff that had signs saying "do not touch") shouldn't be touched, 7yo was interested for a little while but wanted to leave well before 9yo ws ready to.  Unlike 5yo she was at least considerate enough to tell me she wasn't interested anymore but otherwise waited patiently for it to be time to go.

7yo and 5yo checking out a communication thingi

9yo checking out the gliders and models and things in the roped off section

The motor museum in York is supposed to be awesome but it was closed when we got there. Beverley was a really cute little town, Tork was a bit odd.  There was a whole pile of eras crammed just into the main street (had great conversations with the kids just about architecture) and it was a lot ore obvious than in Toodyay.  Unfortunately I didn't get any photos as the weather had gone rainy on us again and 5yo was getting a bit stroppy.

They're looking forward to term starting again as with it comes gymnastics.  7yo is doing really well and the coach reckons she'll have no trouble getting into Level 2 next year.  5yo is loving it, he told me recently that he only liked footy because he got treats.  I'm going to let him ask to go back without prompting if he wants to do it again next year.  9yo had one trial lesson before they shut down for the school holidays and had a blast and said he wants to do it, so will sign him up too.