Teaching a Science Lesson

For the past two Fridays, Austin has participated in teaching the science unit to Aidan's grade 3 French class.

Aidan's teacher has encourage Austin to use French in the classroom, and Austin is making a good effort to do that.

The grade 3's are studying the solar system. For Austin's first lesson, he stood at the front of the class after preparing some drawings of the planets and the sun. He also included the asteroid belt and Ceres and Eres (dwarf planets). He explained what he knows about each planet and then he shared some of our books on space and the solar system, with the class.

That weekend, Austin began creating a 3D solar system which was taking up much of the floor space in our basement suite. He's planning to take it to Aidan's classroom for sharing with the class. He flipped between the art of creating the solar system, and the iPod to consult Wikipedia to find out how many moons each planet has. In some cases, he opted to show only half of a planet's moons, because there were so many (Jupiter has 32 moons!).

The next week, Austin spent 2 1/2 hours the night before, preparing a treasure hunt for Aidan's class. He drew pictures of Earth, red giants, white dwarfs, black dwarfs, black holes, pulsars and quasars, among others. He spent quite a bit of time on Wikipedia again, finding out about pulsars and quasars.

It's nice to see him so engaged and enthusiastic. He asked me for a folder, collected his papers, protected a pastel drawing of a pulsar in a plastic sleeve, taped the sides of the folder closed, and stated his plans to ask Aidan's teacher for some extra time for the science lesson. He has a lecture planned, and was going to do a question and answer session after the treasure hunt.

He did speak with Aidan's teacher in the morning, and Aidan's teacher said they could go over it at lunchtime. I went to the school with Austin and he and the teacher discussed Austin's idea, in French. The teacher made some recommendations (ie. to hide the drawings outside instead of inside the classroom), and Austin agreed. Austin told me later that a student from another class had picked up one of the drawings and ripped it and scrunched it up, even though Austin had asked him to leave it alone (hidden). It seems that Austin took that in stride, and wasn't too offended. He's come a long way from how he would have reacted before. Something like that would have been very upsetting, and Austin may not have been able to continue with his planned presentation and "lecture."

Anyway, as it turned out, Austin said there wasn't time for his lecture, but a few students asked him to explain what they had found. The "prized" drawing was the one of Earth, with "LIFE" written in large, bold letters on the reverse.

Helping out

On October 1, our nanny (Gemma), who has been with us for nearly 2 years, moved out. We knew this would happen, but we were all sad to see her go. Fortunately, she has found a good new job with a nice family in our community.

On Sunday evening, October 3, I held a meeting with Austin and Aidan, to agree on the responsibilities we will each take, until it's time for us to leave on our 1-year trip to the Caribbean on October 28.

Austin and Aidan will get up by 8:00, eat breakfast by 8:20 and brush their teeth by 8:30. Then, Aidan will walk to school with Mum and Austin at 8:35. Austin will drop off Aaron at daycare. Austin and Aidan are eligible to earn $2 for each day that we all successfully complete our agreed tasks.

In the first week, Oct. 4-8, Austin also mowed the front and back lawns. He earned some extra money for that, too. On Friday morning, Austin remarked, "Mom, I've noticed that I've been helping out a lot more around here lately, and it doesn't even feel like I'm working any harder. In fact, I feel really good about it." I answered that I know the feeling - I really love to help others.

That morning, Aidan's teacher needed some assistance to reorganize the classroom after it had been painted. The teacher asked for some help from parents. I told Austin about this, and Austin said that he wanted to help out. There was only one parent helping, so Austin worked with her. For part of the time, Aidan's teacher worked with the parent while he had Austin read out the spelling words for the day. Austin had to read out the 15 spelling words and provide a sentence for each one. According to the parent, Austin was "wonderful," and very "helpful." I was very proud to hear this, and I could tell that Austin was pleased too, when I passed on the comment to him.

Reading up a Storm

Last Sunday night, Austin was excited to read some new Bionicles Legends chapter books. We had a big day with family, celebrating Thanksgiving, and arrived home in the evening. For a change, Austin was eager and happy to go to bed.

I said goodnight to him as he was getting into the first book.

The next morning, he had trouble waking up. He had stayed up until 3am to read three complete books! I told Austin that he has his dad's curse - he can't put a good book down once he's started reading it ;)

Unfortunately, it took Austin about a week to recover from that late night.

A Lesson in Morals

We had to go to a funeral in Victoria on September 25. It was for Skye's grandmother (Austin's great-grandmother). The funeral service was sad, but it was nice to see so many people turn out to say good-bye to Helen. After the service, our family got together for a meal at the Princess Mary restaurant. It was a very nice event, where we shared our happy memories.

Skye's brother's family gave us a place to sleep for the night. This is the place with the Bionicles.

Austin built Taka Nuva for Vicky's daycare, this time. But Austin and Aidan succumbed to the temptation to take a few pieces home with them, without asking.

At bedtime Sunday night, Austin came to me, visibly upset. He said he knew I would be angry, and he had done a very bad thing. I guessed what it was, even though I hadn't seen any evidence that they stole Bionicles from Vicky. Initially, Austin didn't want to tell Dad, but I convinced him and Aidan to tell Skye. Together, we all decided that the boys will call Vicky to apologise, and it was first Aidan's decision to offer one of his own Bionicles in apology. Austin then offered that he could give Vicky two or more of his Bionicles, since taking them had been his idea. Skye agreed. We both told Austin and Aidan that we were disappointed that this happened, but that they did the right thing by telling us, themselves. If we had discovered the theft on our own, consequences would have been worse. Skye was proposing that all the boys' Bionicles would have been sent to Vicky's place.

Anyway, Austin and Aidan both spoke with Vicky on Monday morning, and she was very gracious and understanding. She spoke with me, later, and said she wasn't surprised. The temptation was simply too great. She remembers something similar happening with her son (now 12), when he was about 9 years old. She was favourably surprised that they had come to me first. She really applauded that move, and reinforced it with each of them on the phone.

I told Vicky that Austin had been worried that she and Kevin would never want us in their home again. So, Vicky assured Austin that we are all welcome again, and she will take good care of the Bionicles that we are returning to them by mail.

French grammar practice

Austin helped Aidan with his French workbook on Saturday. Aidan needed to identify 4 nouns (noms communs), 4 adjectives and 4 verbs from a passage of 3-4 paragraphs. The book is based on Quebec curriculum, and Aidan's teacher explained that it will be a bit more advanced, and he will be well prepared for grade 4 French Immersion when we return, if he completes the book.

Austin hadn't really known what an adjective (adjectif) was, and he pulled from his foggy memory, that a verb (verbe) is an "action word." But once Austin understood the concept, he was off and away, helping Aidan with his selections. Austin is a good teacher. He doesn't just hand out the answer, and he is usually encouraging (though this can be challenging with a younger sibling, and the distraction of Bionicles waiting to be played with, when the work is done).

Ingo novel series

We discovered a new novel series that Austin is over the moon about, and the timing couldn't be more perfect. We started with a book called, "The Tide Knot," by Helen Dunmore. Out of curiosity, I invited Austin to listen to the first chapter and decide if it is a book worth bringing with us on our trip to the Caribbean. Even I was hooked! The book is engaging and thought-provoking. It's the second book in a fantasy tetralogy. The story is about a brother and sister living in Cornwall, England, who have the ability to breathe underwater. They venture to a place called Ingo with their Mer friends. The book brings up issues about families, strife, ecology and environmental concerns.

We now have three books from the tetralogy. Only one more to buy for the trip. Austin hasn't picked up one of these novels to read on his own, yet. I think he just loves being read to. Also, he's been spending time reading Bionicle novels, graphic novels and encyclopedias, as well as the Bionicle Wikipedia.

We've read 3 1/2 chapters from the first book, Ingo, and Austin is anxious to hear more. Me too!

Skateboarding

On Saturday and Sunday, Austin spent a couple hours each day, practicing skateboarding with Iain. It's clear that they both had pretty good workouts, evidenced by their flushed faces. Austin really enjoys his time with Iain.

Lego Mindstorms

Lego Mindstorms arrived this week! This was a very exciting time in our household. Austin and Aidan excitedly opened the package, and within less than an hour, Austin had a working vehicle. He was anxious to start programming.

Skye tried to load the software onto a couple computers, but it wasn't working on either Mac. Eventually, Skye worked out the problem and got it set up for Austin.

Austin spent about 5 hours per day, Wednesday and Thursday, building and re-building, programming an "alligator" to walk, chomp and sing. He was very enthusiastic about showing his creation with the intro, "Have you ever met a singing alligator?"