Our Busy Week

What a tiring week....

It was one busy and exhausting week with the start of all our term time activities on top of our school work and general day to day life. As far as house work goes I achieved pretty much......

Um NOTHING! LOL



Monday - We started off the week at the Long Bay Marine Education and Recreation centre http://www.merc.org.nz/ for our annual homeschool day there. The children were put into groups of 12 according to age and they participated in 3 outdoor activities each.


DS11 did Kayaking, Body Boarding and A harness stacking team activity called Stack-Em.
DS9 did Canadian Canoeing, Archery and Abseiling.
DD& did Body boarding, Rock Climbing and Orienteering.
http://www.merc.org.nz/activities.htm

Stack-Em

This was Dd7's first time taking part and she was a little anxious so I agreed to stay on site with Bubs for the day. Another friend also remained on site with her 2 year old niece so we had a lovely time chatting and sitting on the beach with the little ones watching the older kids.

When we got back home around 4:30pm we were all very tired but the boys insisted on going to their athletics that night. Thankfully the athletics club is right next door so I was able to send them off while dd7, bubs and I who were all too tired from our day at MERC all stayed home. That night despite the 100% humidity and 25 degree C night time temperatures we ALL slept surprisingly well.




Tuesday - was a normal school day but boy was it hard settling down to things after having such a busy day the day before. Ds9 spent a lot of time fussing over his school work and even dd7 had a bit of a tearful moment due to lingering tiredness. In the end I told ds9 to go play outside and dd7 decided to just spend some time reading quietly. Ds11 has outgrown the fussing and moaning but he dawdled something terrible and was still working at 4pm despite only having English and Math to do. It was also the first day of Dd7 and Ds9 gymnastics classes for the year so we had a lot to squash into one day.

Dd7 is in a homeschool class for 5-10 year old's which is at 1pm every Tuesday but ds9 has had to switch this year to an after school advanced class as they can't cater for his ability and badge level in the homeschooling class. So that afternoon I had to make 2 separate trips to the YMCA for gymnastics classes which was exhausting in itself. I also had to get Bubs off to sleep and drop ds11 to do his paper run so another VERY busy day for us. and once again we all slept well that night LOL. I just don't seem to have the stamina these days that I once did as I get very tired by mid afternoon, and thats on a normal day not a busy one LOL.




Wednesday - Dd7 had a swimming lesson at 11:30 and we had to fit in some school work before that. Ds9 was a little fussy again today but not too bad and ds11 was still working in slow motion. Dd7 was back to her usual form though and by 10am she had happily finished all her lessons. Wednesday afternoon was thankfully quiet and the boys spent a little bit of time finishing off their English and Math. It was another humid scorcher of a day making us all sticky and uncomfortable so by 2pm I had called it quits and told the boys to put their work away and have some quiet time as I needed a little siesta otherwise known round here as a Nana Nap. LOL.




Thursday - is another busy day for us with swimming lessons at 11am and then ds11 has basketball in the afternoon. It is his first year in a mixed age group class for 11 - 18 year old's and after an hour of running up and down the court keeping up with the teenagers in his group he was the colour of a beetroot and totally exhausted. I took pity on him that afternoon and helped him with his paper run. LOL

Before swimming that morning we had worked on some Grammar concepts and the kids each had a math lesson and then ds9 started working on his new bug collection. Dd7 asked if she could write a story instead of completing her English workbook. I agreed but secretly expected her to only manage to write 1 - 2 sentences.

I was thrilled beyond belief with what she managed to produce though.

Here is her story... ( I haven't changed any of the spelling, punctuation or wording.)

it was a suNNy morning aND a Lazy PaNDa was LyiNg iN a tree. " He aLways yawNs" compLAiNs a paNda. SuDDeNLy a PaNDa heRD a "ssss" it was a sNaKe the sNaKe was GoiNG uP the tree where the Lazy PaNDa was. He DID Not see sNake "ssss" saiD the sNake the Lazy PaNDa Looks at the tree He sees the sNaKe OH NO said the PaNDa aND He haD to ruN SO he RaN aND RaN theN From that Day oN the Lazy PaNDa was Not Lazy.

I was really pretty impressed with her effort especially as I had spent most of the week trying to encourage her older brothers to write just a few sentences each day without much success. LOL She did ask how to spell a few words but generally she managed most of the spelling herself.


Friday was a rest day for us as I was too exhausted to push for any school work to get done and the kids were too tired after their busy week to do anything much either. They were all highly emotional and there was lots of bickering going on. A friend wanted us to go to the beach with her family but they were all so high strung that I felt they needed to rest that afternoon rather than play on the beach and get even more tired so instead we just did the grocery shopping then they relaxed playing PS3 and on the computer while Bubs and I had a wee nap.

Bubs typically kept us all very entertained for most of the week when we managed to actually relax at home.....

So that was our week...

What do you think about our busy week?