Homeschool athletics day

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.