Koala 3

He calls it Koala 3. It now sleeps with Koala's brother. Yes, this is my life. Koalas everywhere.

Koala's brother 2

I'm very proud of Kien for writing this all by himself without my help at all...and I didn't need to sit there and nag him. When he finished he wanted me to do the corrections for him, and then he took my phone and took the photos. Such a change from last year when it was like extracting teeth.

Koala and his brother

First blog post for Kien this year. He's been back at school for a week and a bit. His school started late - 7th February was their first day.

Day one at school. He's now senior school - upstairs in the new building.







Day two at school.

A couple of stories from Kien

Here are a couple of stories Kien has written over the last couple of weeks. I've not been concentrating on writing lately. We've been working on improving his keyboard skills as well as identifying and reading notes. I should really do a recording of him playing some pieces. He's coming along nicely with his music. I only have energy to work on one thing at a time, so it seems.

A couple of stories from Kien

I can't believe how quickly these last couple of months has gone by for Kien being back at school...and then we will be finished with this first term! He hasn't written anything for this blog recently, so here are a couple of stories. The first he wrote today on the iPhone, and the second was written a week ago.

​When I went swimming

​Yesterday I went swimming. I went in the deep pool. First I practiced diving. Second I practiced getting into a boat safely or if I didn’t do it right the boat would sink.

Koala in Mars

Sprysen beyblade tip

Thought I'd better get back into getting Kien writing his stories again. We get a bit lazy on a Sunday, and I'm finding him stuff to do to earn points. He's already emptied the dishwasher, practiced some catching for cricket, and practiced his concert piece on the keyboard (in a couple of weeks he's playing a little piece for the music school performance concert). A 3 sentence story earns him 3 points, so its a worthwhile exercise for him, even though the time it takes him to actually do it is an exercise in patience for me!

"Give me a smile, Kien. A proper smile. SMILE!" Urgh....

The water effect

At the family gathering yesterday Jef's cousin Doug's kid, Noah, and Kien did some science. Here's Kien's write up about it.

Philemon's birthday party

I asked for a 6 sentence story over the weekend. Jef helped him with it. I guess I can't complain. 3-4 word sentences are still complete sentences.

The fishing trip

2 weeks of school holidays and all routines go out the window! But we are back, and I'm reining this little dude in again. We are back to the points system for earning screen time - and here's his story, which is worth 3 whole points (and I'm being really generous by making a point worth 15 mins instead of 10 minutes set last term).

The perserverence continues

Now that I'm almost back to full health we are back to practicing writing. Here's Kien's latest little story. If you haven't heard of The White Rabbit Project, it is a Netflix series that was a spin off of MythBusters, and produced by the same company.



I've written a few little notes for Kien to discover in his lunchbox. He then thought it was funny to write a note back!





The cheek of him!

Hemi and the dinosaur

Trampoline park

Taking pics inside the my phone while the kid is jumping around is not conducive to non blurry photos. Ah well, they are only token photos anyway.

Transforming ninja star

We've confiscated all devices until he learns to appreciate how good he has it! I think we are now on to our third week where he's got to earn time on any devices by doing all his homework and keyboard practice. There have been a few tears, but all in all it has gone quite well. After his drama class today he came home and we did some origami. We made balloons and these transforming star things. Now he's doing his Reading Eggs (digital reading lessons) while I post this. BTW he insisted on drawing ++ signs above "magic Es".

For the love of bees

I took Kien to Bee School at Vic Park yesterday. This is our first step in the journey to becoming beekeepers, which Kien is very keen for. He's been asking when we are getting hives, and I've been putting him off for years - yes, years. We'll get there soon! Here's his story for the week.

My beyblade

You have no idea how long it took both Jef and I, in separate shifts, to get Kien to write this story. The stubbornness that kid shows is palpable. Perseverance pays off at the end of the day though. Thanks, Margaret, for the nudge to make the effort with these exercises.