What a difference some sunshine makes! We were all motivated to get up and get on - the boys were raring to go before they were dressed! DS1 wrote and illustrated a lovely story called "Gary's Hiccups" (he has a lovely Write Your Own Story book from Usborne); DS2 created some fab models of flowers etc for Mummy, and he persuaded DS3 to unload the dishwasher with him so they could both get stars for helping me; DS3 also did some lovely colouring in his ABC book - and then it was time for breakfast!
Next we checked in with the NTU falcons we've been following, & received some sad news. Yesterday we'd noticed that one of the chicks was getting rained on despite the parents' best efforts, and it looked like he had died. Another of the chicks had its wing pathetically stretched over the little one's body, which must have just made that one too cold and wet too - he really wasn't looking good either. In fact, when the mum came back to the nest after a brief spell away, only one of the four original chicks could be seen calling for food :( The webcams went down shortly after & stayed off all night. When we checked in this morning, we were informed that two chicks had indeed perished, and a third one wasn't looking well :( Ho hum, it may turn out to be a much shorter Science project that at first planned... but still it is a valuable (albeit very sad) lesson. Our children are bound to encounter death at some point in our lives, and I think observing it in a fairly detached way, with relatively mild upset caused, is actually healthy for them - even if it's not what I'd have chosen :(
Well after that, we were even more keen to get out! The car is still out of action (but is booked in at the garage on Weds - hooray!), so as it was such a lovely day, we decided to make an expedition into town on the bus. As we rarely use the buses, it was highly exciting for all three boys (I don't think the other passengers minded the squeals of delight when we went over speed bumps). Once in town, I only had a couple of shops to visit, so we had a lovely relaxed time, eating icecreams in the town square, and watching the pigeons & starlings. The only slightly stressful moment was when DS3 decided he needed a wee after we had already been waiting at the bus-stop for 10 minutes. We weren't on a particular schedule though, so I figured we'd just catch a later bus, & off we went to find the toilets. DS2 then left his sunglasses in the toilet cubicle so we had to go back for them - but somehow we still made it back to the bus-stop in time for our bus, yay!
Home again, and after lunch DS3 was desperate to go to the park, so as the weather report is looking pretty soggy for the rest of the week, we grabbed their bikes and headed straight back out again... to make up for the last fortnight's worth of 'Physical Education'... and they do need that vitamin D! ;)
Finally, while I made tea, DS2 picked up his book on the body again, and followed me around the kitchen, reading bits out to me, and DS1 finished assembling his Weather Station.
(measures wind direction & speed, rainfall and air pressure...
we also have a thermometer but that was bought, not made!)
He is really enjoying recording his results and telling us how much better or worse each day has been, so that's been a great success! After he's recorded a week's worth of data, we'll hopefully be looking at ways of presenting his data, such as pie charts, bar graphs etc (at least, that's my plan ;) )
Oh, and if that wasn't enough for today, DS2 had a wobbly tooth fall out: only his second one, so that was exciting for him - and timely, given his current project ;)
That was one busy and sunshine-y day! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment