The Auckland homeschoolers are having an athletics day this summer.
It's all booked -- mark you calendars for Wednesday 13 February 2019 (or 20th, if it rains on the 13th).
It seems that I am in charge of it. Why?
Well, each year about 20 or so local schools do their athletics days at Onewa Domain, the home grounds of Takapuna Athletic Club. This year I have taken over the job at the Club to help these schools on their athletics days. In the morning (around 8 am), I unlock the grounds and clubrooms, and help the schools set up the Club equipment. Then, in the afternoon (around 2 pm), I check everything is safely packed away and lock it all back up again. In all, it probably takes about one to two hours each day.
Mulan and Miya come along with me each time to help, and it has been a very worthwhile learning experience for them. (Most fascinating has been observing the schools and teachers; I may write something here at the end of the season!)
Anyway, I mentioned to the homeschoolers at HASCA that we should also have our own homeschool athletics day. One thing led to another, and I have now set the dates with both Takapuna Athletics and HASCA.
Our vision of the day is that it will be a fairly relaxed and fun chance for the homeschool kids to have a go and try things out. Kids who have never done athletics are very welcome, and we will aim to do a little coaching for the newbies.
The reason for this is that homeschool kids who are already athletics-experienced will (hopefully) already be involved in their local athletics clubs. Athletics clubs do athletics better than schools do, and there is no need to duplicate things.
But alongside the newbie-helping, we will also run the event competitions. We still want it to be fairly competitive, and I think HASCA is planning to do certificates, etc for the winners.
The cost for the day will be minimal -- probably just a few dollars per child to cover the costs. HASCA will organise the registrations and fees, and will no doubt start advertising it in the near future.
Wednesday 28 November 2018
Monday 26 November 2018
Congratulations Miya
Miya competed in her first interclub athletics competition yesterday. It was also her first time competing on a rubber track.
This was a relay competition; Miya was in the Takapuna Grade 8 girls team. She ran in both the 4x100m and the 4x200m, as well as doing the shot put for the field events relay.
It was an awesome experience for Miya, both watching and competing alongside some great young athletes. It was also a very enjoyable family day outing for all of us.
Before this, Miya hadn't had much experience doing relays, so on Friday evening (after ballet class) she and I had a bit of a training session at the track. It probably took about 30 minutes to go through the basics of baton passing, and getting her to think about when to start running so she was up to speed to receive. By the end of the session she had got the idea and was starting to get fairly smooth with our baton passes back and forth.
The four girls did brilliantly on the day, comfortably winning both the 4x100m and 4x200m. Miya was delighted to get her first ever gold medal, for the 4x100m. Unfortunately though, they were disqualified in the 4x200m. Apparently there were two mistakes made -- someone stepped out of the lane, and a baton change was made outside of the changeover zone. The girls all took the bad news well, and as disappointing as it was they all probably learnt a lot from the situation.
The field events relay was a lot tougher. They only got two throws/jumps each, and no warmup throws/jumps. Miya's throws were decent, though not at her best. But we all enjoyed watching the power and skill of the best throwers.
The girls have qualified to enter the Auckland Relay Champs in the 4x100m on the 8th of December. Unfortunately Miya can't make it because she is performing at the Belmont Music Centre end of year concert on that day. Another girl will run in Miya's place -- all the best to them!!
This was a relay competition; Miya was in the Takapuna Grade 8 girls team. She ran in both the 4x100m and the 4x200m, as well as doing the shot put for the field events relay.
It was an awesome experience for Miya, both watching and competing alongside some great young athletes. It was also a very enjoyable family day outing for all of us.
Before this, Miya hadn't had much experience doing relays, so on Friday evening (after ballet class) she and I had a bit of a training session at the track. It probably took about 30 minutes to go through the basics of baton passing, and getting her to think about when to start running so she was up to speed to receive. By the end of the session she had got the idea and was starting to get fairly smooth with our baton passes back and forth.
The four girls did brilliantly on the day, comfortably winning both the 4x100m and 4x200m. Miya was delighted to get her first ever gold medal, for the 4x100m. Unfortunately though, they were disqualified in the 4x200m. Apparently there were two mistakes made -- someone stepped out of the lane, and a baton change was made outside of the changeover zone. The girls all took the bad news well, and as disappointing as it was they all probably learnt a lot from the situation.
The field events relay was a lot tougher. They only got two throws/jumps each, and no warmup throws/jumps. Miya's throws were decent, though not at her best. But we all enjoyed watching the power and skill of the best throwers.
The girls have qualified to enter the Auckland Relay Champs in the 4x100m on the 8th of December. Unfortunately Miya can't make it because she is performing at the Belmont Music Centre end of year concert on that day. Another girl will run in Miya's place -- all the best to them!!
Sunday 18 November 2018
Book review: Alice in Wonderland
I mentioned before that I was reading aloud to the girls Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Well, we finished them a few days ago.
I'm pretty sure I read the first book to Mulan several years ago when we were still living in China, but she didn't remember much of it.
We were motivated to read them because Mulan and Miya's ballet production this year is inspired by Carroll's books. (Mulan is in three dances -- the Mock Turtle in the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, part of the Caterpillar, and a Card. Miya is also in three dances -- the Sea of Tears, a guest at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, and a Chef.)
Carroll's famous books are, at one and the same time, both a simple story of a Miya-aged girl dreaming about meeting up with some funny/crazy people and also a complicated social commentary. We didn't get into discussing the social commentary stuff much, but the girls enjoyed the crazy humour of Alice's adventures. They also really enjoyed connecting it with their dances.
Carroll includes some really interesting poems/songs in the books, and we did the typical school-ish activity with Jabberwocky. You probably know what I am referring to:
Well, we did just that the next day. Independently, Mulan did a poster-style analysis of the poem, complete with pictures, "biological/geographical information" and "history" of how researchers learnt about the animals and environment.
It really is interesting that, unschool style, Mulan did something that would not look out of place on a classroom wall.
I mentioned what we had done to Gugu, and the cousins all did the same thing. We plan to meet up and compare everyone's interpretations, but so far it is hard to find a time when everyone is available and in one place (maybe next week at Nainai's birthday party.)
We are now a couple of chapters into reading aloud Harry Potter number 3. (I read aloud 1 and 2 earlier this year.)
I'm pretty sure I read the first book to Mulan several years ago when we were still living in China, but she didn't remember much of it.
We were motivated to read them because Mulan and Miya's ballet production this year is inspired by Carroll's books. (Mulan is in three dances -- the Mock Turtle in the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, part of the Caterpillar, and a Card. Miya is also in three dances -- the Sea of Tears, a guest at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, and a Chef.)
Carroll's famous books are, at one and the same time, both a simple story of a Miya-aged girl dreaming about meeting up with some funny/crazy people and also a complicated social commentary. We didn't get into discussing the social commentary stuff much, but the girls enjoyed the crazy humour of Alice's adventures. They also really enjoyed connecting it with their dances.
Carroll includes some really interesting poems/songs in the books, and we did the typical school-ish activity with Jabberwocky. You probably know what I am referring to:
'Twas brillig, and the slithy tovesOne night when Mulan was in bed (and Miya was already asleep) we got to chatting about what it meant. She had some ideas, and we started thinking about how different people might see it differently. So, we decided that all four of us (Mulan, Miya, Mama and me) should secretly write down on a piece of paper what we think it means, and then "present" our interpretation to each other and compare.
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Well, we did just that the next day. Independently, Mulan did a poster-style analysis of the poem, complete with pictures, "biological/geographical information" and "history" of how researchers learnt about the animals and environment.
It really is interesting that, unschool style, Mulan did something that would not look out of place on a classroom wall.
I mentioned what we had done to Gugu, and the cousins all did the same thing. We plan to meet up and compare everyone's interpretations, but so far it is hard to find a time when everyone is available and in one place (maybe next week at Nainai's birthday party.)
We are now a couple of chapters into reading aloud Harry Potter number 3. (I read aloud 1 and 2 earlier this year.)
Tuesday 13 November 2018
Congratulations Mulan and Miya
I mentioned before that Mulan and Miya did their ballet exams. They got their results back yesterday.
Mulan did the RAD Grade 5 exam, and got distinction!
Miya did the RAD Grade 2 exam, and got merit!
Both girls improved on their marks from last year -- Mulan got 3 more and Miya got 13 more.
Mulan did the RAD Grade 5 exam, and got distinction!
Miya did the RAD Grade 2 exam, and got merit!
Both girls improved on their marks from last year -- Mulan got 3 more and Miya got 13 more.
Thursday 8 November 2018
Crash Course Philosophy
Just over a year ago I mentioned that I was using the video series Ethics Matters with a couple of my paying young-teen students (both teens separately, as one-to-one students). We finished it a few months ago.
It is an excellent series and it was well worth the time spent on it. There are 12 12-minute videos in the series. It took us about 24 one-hour lessons to go through it all. We'd stop and start the videos, discussing the content as we went.
With one of the students (who prefers to learn through videos rather than books) I have now started working through Crash Course Philosophy, which is 46 10-ish-minute videos. After 12 lessons we are now partway through #12 in the series.
From what I see of the series so far, it is like someone has looked at the standard first-year university philosophy courses (metaphysics/epistemology, ethics, logic) and grabbed the topics covered. Each episode then summarises in ten minutes what might have been an hour-long lecture plus readings.
Honestly, Crash Course Philosophy is not nearly as good as Ethics Matters. In general I really like Crash Course (I've written about it before here), and while their philosophy series is not bad, it doesn't have quite the same sharpness that Ethics Matters has. The presenter, Hank Green, is very smart and well-read, but it is clear that he has not had much philosophical training and his logical reasoning is sometimes not quite so spot on. He misses things and blurs things every once in a while. It really is a shame that they didn't get a trained philosopher in to head the series.
I plan to continue with Crash Course Philosophy with this student, and I recommend it as a nice introduction/advertisement for philosophy, but, yeah, Ethics Matters is still my favourite teen-level online teaching video series.
It is an excellent series and it was well worth the time spent on it. There are 12 12-minute videos in the series. It took us about 24 one-hour lessons to go through it all. We'd stop and start the videos, discussing the content as we went.
With one of the students (who prefers to learn through videos rather than books) I have now started working through Crash Course Philosophy, which is 46 10-ish-minute videos. After 12 lessons we are now partway through #12 in the series.
From what I see of the series so far, it is like someone has looked at the standard first-year university philosophy courses (metaphysics/epistemology, ethics, logic) and grabbed the topics covered. Each episode then summarises in ten minutes what might have been an hour-long lecture plus readings.
Honestly, Crash Course Philosophy is not nearly as good as Ethics Matters. In general I really like Crash Course (I've written about it before here), and while their philosophy series is not bad, it doesn't have quite the same sharpness that Ethics Matters has. The presenter, Hank Green, is very smart and well-read, but it is clear that he has not had much philosophical training and his logical reasoning is sometimes not quite so spot on. He misses things and blurs things every once in a while. It really is a shame that they didn't get a trained philosopher in to head the series.
I plan to continue with Crash Course Philosophy with this student, and I recommend it as a nice introduction/advertisement for philosophy, but, yeah, Ethics Matters is still my favourite teen-level online teaching video series.
Tuesday 6 November 2018
Rubik's cube
The Rubik's Cube is in fashion at the moment.
While we were away in China the cousins got into it, so when we got back at the end of July Mulan and Miya immediately tried it, too.
At first they were using my old classic early-80s cube, which I got when I was their age. But those ones are incredibly stiff and slow, so when Miya had her birthday a few weeks later we gave her a new, modern speed cube.
The girls have been regularly working on it over the past few months. Mulan has been able to complete it for a while now, and her fastest time has been steadily dropping. Today, she got a new best time of 1 minute 37 seconds.
Miya has been slower to memorise the algorithms, but yesterday she proudly announced to me that she can now complete it, too.
And would you believe it, but Miya did it in 1 minute 14 seconds today! Apparently it was a very lucky scramble, as she had far fewer algorithms to do on the final layer.
UPDATE: Mulan just fact-checked this. She informs me that Miya's other times today were over 2 minutes. But lucky scrambles still count as records, so Miya has the house record for now! Two of the cousins can do it in under 1 minute.
While we were away in China the cousins got into it, so when we got back at the end of July Mulan and Miya immediately tried it, too.
At first they were using my old classic early-80s cube, which I got when I was their age. But those ones are incredibly stiff and slow, so when Miya had her birthday a few weeks later we gave her a new, modern speed cube.
The girls have been regularly working on it over the past few months. Mulan has been able to complete it for a while now, and her fastest time has been steadily dropping. Today, she got a new best time of 1 minute 37 seconds.
Miya has been slower to memorise the algorithms, but yesterday she proudly announced to me that she can now complete it, too.
And would you believe it, but Miya did it in 1 minute 14 seconds today! Apparently it was a very lucky scramble, as she had far fewer algorithms to do on the final layer.
UPDATE: Mulan just fact-checked this. She informs me that Miya's other times today were over 2 minutes. But lucky scrambles still count as records, so Miya has the house record for now! Two of the cousins can do it in under 1 minute.
Friday 2 November 2018
My birthday pressie
I got a lovely birthday pressie from Miya this week.
For some days previously she'd been secretly doing something on the computer. It turns out she'd been writing stories --five four of them -- and then she printed them off for me. So, I got a seven-page book of original short stories.
Beautiful!
UPDATE: Oops, Mulan just told me that she wrote the fifth story (and she also spell-checked it all).
For some days previously she'd been secretly doing something on the computer. It turns out she'd been writing stories --
Beautiful!
UPDATE: Oops, Mulan just told me that she wrote the fifth story (and she also spell-checked it all).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)