Perth Wk 4 Pre-primary and Science

Perth week 4.

9th - 15th May 2011

Alysha finally got her wish and started Mount Lawley pre-primary on Monday. Her teachers name is Mrs Taylor, and she has two other teaching assistants. The age range of children in her class are between 4-6 years. The pre-primary does school hours from 9am to 3pm Monday to Friday. Alysha has settled in very quickly and has just loved being with kids her own age and making lots of new friends.

We also learnt that pre-primary is different - more of a kindy with school hours then a school. Alysha thought it was great that she did no learning (e.g. maths, reading, spelling, story writing and phonic) and got to play all day with her new friends.

So because of this, we will be doing a mixture of home schooling and pre-primary so Alysha can get the best of both worlds, and not fall behind in the progress she had made in her schooling in NZ.

The pre-primary is nearly 2 kms away at the back of a big reserve so in the morning we drive there, and in the afternoon we walk to pick Alysha up and then the kids play at the play ground for a little bit and we walk home with Gracie and Hyrum in the pushchair and Alysha on her scooter. I have been amazed this week at the blue skies here, there seems to be never any clouds in the sky just blue blue skies it makes everything so much more bright in colour, the tree, plants, buildings everything. it’s really beautiful with temps still in the mid 20s its pretty nice place.

On Tuesday I went to homemaking during the day with the kids, i took things with me to keep Hyrum and Gracie busy. The homemaking was on knitting, there were 4 other older women there who have been doing knitting service projects throughout the year. Well I was really excited I learnt to knit, I got to take my knitting home with me and I have been practising every night throughout the week, its one of those things i have always wanted to learnt how to do though I am not very good at the moment. My knitting seems to have created a pattern all of its own, but I’m hoping the more I do the easier it will become, at the moment it takes me a really long time to do it.. but we will see how it goes, you might be all getting scarfs for Christmas.

Grant is still working ridiculous long hours. He has still maintained some of his New Zealand accounts, and is consulting a University in NSW Australia, as well as building up a team and business in Perth. On Tuesday night Grant flew to Sydney for the day. Flight left Perth at Midnight, after a 4 hr flight, got in to Sydney at 6am and then back on a flight at 8.30pm Wednesday to arrive back in Perth at 11:30 Wednesday. All a bit crazy really. Apparently there is light at the end of the tunnel :-) I hope so, as i would really like me husband back.

On Wednesday I decided to brave the mall again with Gracie and Hyrum and purchased some much need items, the kids were so well behaved and ended up be a lovely day out with them.

On Thursday Gretchen invited us to go to Science tech, which is a science museum, It was such a wonderful place that I bought a membership there so we can go back as many times as we like. Hyrum and Gracie had so of fun with Bruce and Catelyn exploring all the displays it is a real hands-on place, the kids just loved it. They even had their own “Dooby Wop” robot that draw there picture very cool.

On Friday I took Gracie and Hyrum back to the library for there Story and Rhyme time, both of them weren't really interested in joining in, but I think I will still persist in taking them back so they can socialize with other children their age. Both really enjoy choosing the books they get to take home.

In the afternoon Hyrum and I make play-dough together , and all three kids had so much fun playing and creating together. Even I had lots of fun with the play-dough. I seemed to turn into a sculptor and the kids turned into art critics., so much fun.

Grant went to the Temple on Friday night. With the temple so close (about 3kms away), we have made it a goal that one of us will go each week. One of the opportunities we have in Perth is to use this experience to draw closer as a family. We know that the temple is an important part of this.

On Saturday we have a fun day out as a family we went to Harvey Norman and got a new laptop so we can now video Skype everyone. we had been meaning to upgrade our computer for ages, so this was our opportunity as they had a big sale.

We then went back to the science technology museum as Hyrum and Gracie had enjoyed it so much, we really wanted Alysha to experience it to. What a fantastic place to spend a Saturday afternoon. The kids absolutely loved it (and so many things to do), Alysha liked the robot who drew her face, we all enjoyed the ‘glow show’ and Grant even got to ride / drive a Segway. The season membership is likely to be very well used. It was such a nice time to be together as family and see the kids faces light up every time they experienced something new and exciting.

Grant and I have decided to start our family history, so in preparing to start we are taking a family history class together at church to learn what we need to do to get started. Today was the intro lesson, it was so exciting and really motivating , I really felt a love for my family and wanting to learn more about them, and be able to bless there lives the way they have blessed mine.

The people at church are so warm and friendly and the kids just love going there, it really is a wonderful ward, we all had a wonderful time at church and I came away feeling very uplifted.

This week Funnies;

On Tuesday Hyrum wanted to walk home from Pre-primary with Alysha (usually Hyrum is in the pushchair with Gracie and Alysha rides her scooter). But today he wanted to walk, after walking a little bit Hyrum said to me “Mummy all this walking is giving me a headache.” (too funny)

I was putting Hyrum to bed the other night and he started asking me questions “Mummy pointing to my eye lashes what are things called? I answered him, then pointing to my eyebrows what are these called? I answered again, then pointing to my hair, what is this called he asked? i answered again. Then he said with a big smile on his face “good Mummy you got 10 / 10”. (cheeky! i wonder where he gets that from?).

Alysha after church today was asking about the priesthood (obviously after having a lesson about the authority of the priesthood in primary at church today). She asked “Daddy, who gave you the priesthood?”, Grant replied, “Great Grandad Osborne”, she then asked “who gave great grandad the priesthood?”, to which Grant replied “Thomas S Monson”, and again she then asked, well - who gave him the priesthood, and so It went on until we traced it back to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery who received it from Peter, James and John. Alysha then asked - “well who gave it to Peter, James and John?”, to which (thinking it was the end of it), “Jesus Christ”, she then pushed, “so who gave it to Jesus?”, and we responded “Heavenly Father”, and she then went further, and said “who gave it Heavenly Father?” - and out of answers, we could only reply “That’s a very good question you will have to ask Heavenly Father that questions” - to which she responded - “don’t worry i already know it was the Holy Ghost”. (yip that’s not quite right, now we know what the lesson for family home evening will be on Monday). Gotta love it - at least she understands that there a direct lineage for the priesthood authority.

Alysha is getting very good at her maths skills, she likes to do sums in her head, today she said to Grant and I : 10 + 10 + 1 = 21 and 100 + 101 = 201 and 4 + 6 - 3 = 7 and I said to her aren’t you are clever cookie, and she said “I know I am i have lived for over two thousands and one days”, and we both said to her no you haven’t, and she say “yes I have”, so Grant worked it out and yes our little 5 ½ year old has lived for just over two thousand days. (very close smarty pants)

Gracie our nearly two year old loves to sing, she sings all day long, and mixes all the song together. (its very cute) Her favorites are “twinkle twinkle little star, Dooby Wop, ABCD, Old Mac Donalds Farm, Ten little Indians, the wheel on the bus, and rocking the boat” and anything else her brother and sister sing etc Dora and Bob the builder.

As a family we read the scriptures every night, from the age of about 20 months Gracie has wanted to join in. this is Gracie reading the scriptures. (very cute) some days she reads every one elses part too.

till next time...