Athletics Auckland ranking lists

 The Athletics Auckland ranking lists have just been updated.

With her recent triple jump of 9.55m, Mulan is now on the Under 16 list.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi

We've just read Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Okay, so not specifically the Treaty (of Waitangi) itself, but a cartoon booklet put out by the Ministry of Education.

It's a quick and simple intro for kids, written as a leveled reader for Mulan-aged children with a reading level of Miya-aged children.

I learnt of it via a Facebook homeschooling group, where the poster opined that "bias is showing".  (Unfortunately, the poster didn't detail the biases.)

I'm no expert, but I think it was a pretty good and fair summary, and well worth reading.  But happy to be corrected by those more knowledgeable.  (I take it that the guy at the beginning represents many of my generation, and I think it's great that a more nuanced understanding is now being taught.)

The eggplant

The girls and I finished watching The Eggplant a few days ago.

It's a 6-part YouTube whodunit, investigating the mystery of who put a giant papier-mâché eggplant in the middle of the school rugby field.

Mulan and Miya quickly got into it, and were super-eager to keep watching more episodes.

Oh, it's actually an "educational" production, funded by the Department of Internal Affairs, helping kids to stay safe online.

It's really well done, and we highly recommend it.

Auckland children's pentathlon champs

And back to the athletics.

Mulan competed at the Auckland children's pentathlon champs yesterday, coming 4th in the 13 Girls.  The results are here.

Mulan got some awesome results, including three new PBs.

• Shot put 7.66m (5th)
• 800m 2:58.18 (5th) PB
• Long jump 4.54m (1st) PB
• 200m 31.19sec (6th)
• Discus 19.67m (5th) PB

Little black boxes of music

And now for something completely different.

A short break from the athletics, to report on our music activities.

Miya re-started music lessons at Belmont Music Centre yesterday.  She's learning saxophone and trumpet there this year (as well as clarinet private lessons).

Here's the music corner of our lounge, with a steadily growing collection of instruments.

Saxophone, trumpet, flute, clarinets (x3), violins (x2), cello, guitars (x2), ukuleles (x2), recorders (x5), keyboard.  (Mulan and Miya play all of them; Mama and I play none of them!)

Homeschool athletics

More athletics!

On Tuesday we had our annual HASCA homeschool athletics day at Onewa Domain, using the Takapuna Athletic Club equipment.

We had just over 100 children competing, with 12 different events happening throughout the day.  It's a pretty full-on day for the kids, with many of them choosing to do eight or so events each.  Some kids are familiar with the events while for others it's their first time trying it out.  So, it's a mix of fun have-a-go and also pushing hard.

It's the third year we've run it, and once again I was involved in the organising. To run all the events we need a lot of parent helpers, and I feel that each year it's getting easier to manage, as families start to know what's involved and each person does their bit.

I was on microphone duties again, directing traffic and walking the field checking it was all going smoothly.

Mulan and Miya competed again, hanging out in their age groups most of the time.

A good time had by all, and we plan to run it again next year.

Athletics Auckland Champs

Mulan and I competed at the Auckland athletics championships over the weekend.  The results are here.

As always, there was some good and some not so good, but on the whole it was good.

Mulan got the bad out of the way first up, when she got three no jumps in the long jump on Saturday.  The jumps were very good, but unfortunately she had too much power in the runup and overstepped the board each time.  This week we're going to have a look at her runup and make some adjustments.

Then it was onto the good.

Mulan got a new PB in the 80m hurdles, with 14.79sec.  What's really encouraging is that she could probably get even faster, as she knocked a hurdle and stumbled a bit.  Each race she does she's getting faster.

Finally, Mulan's triple jump on Sunday went perfectly.  She was aiming for over 9.50m with a legal wind (she'd previously got a wind-assisted 9.73m).  And she did it, jumping 9.55m (wind -1.0).  This got her a silver medal!

As for me, my 5.29m long jump was the best I've done in five years.  My 10.85m triple jump was the best I've done in 24 years, and bettered my Takapuna Athletic Club Veteran Men record.  And my 8.30sec 60m was okay.

UPDATE 11/2/2021: We've just heard from Takapuna Athletic Club that Mulan's 9.55m triple jump is recognised as a new Under 16 club record.  Well done Mulan!  And she still has until the end of 2022 in this grade to get even further.

The record books will now show that I've got the Under 16 Boys triple jump record (12.51m in 1991), and exactly 30 years later Mulan has the Under 16 Girls record!

My 10.85m triple jump, while further than my 10.59m club record, is not recognised as a club record.  Apparently (and weirdly!) the Veteran/Masters age group can only get club records at clubnights -- records cannot be broken at other competitions.  For all other age groups (such as with Mulan) club records can be broken at other competitions.  I have no idea why the club has this rule.