Semester 1, Week 2, Monday

Zakari
Zak did well with his swimming practice today - he swam 16 laps of the 25 metre pool! That's 400 metres!! Great effort!

After lunch, I had him complete pages 33 (Dividing VCCV and VCV words - 2) and 34 (Using VCCV and VCV words - 2) from Reading Freedom Book 4, following on from where we left off last year. While he understands the patterns of words (vowel consonant consonant vowel or vowel consonant vowel) he still struggles with the break in the syllables with VCV words. So instead of putting the break after the first vowel and before the consonant (eg sho-vel), he will put it after the consonant and before the second vowel (eg shov-el). However, he has no problems recognising nonsense words in a list.

After a discussion about sign language on the way home from swimming, I got out my Dictionary of Australasian Signs for Zak and Kaliah to look at, and they started to teach themselves some sign language.

Once Zak had completed that, he prepared his dad's meals and snacks for work. Later in the afternoon, he played Sudoku in the Brain Training game on the Nintendo DSi.

Kaliah
We found out today that Kaliah is the only one in her swimming class this term - Bronwyn told her that all the others had gone to school. So it looks like she gets "private lessons"! She has alot to work on to get her swimming up to scratch, in particular her legs.

In freestyle, she lets her legs lag under the water, so she isn't kicking on the surface. As a result, she lets her arms and upper body do all the work. So we have to concentrate on getting her legs kicking more, and correctly. In backstroke, she has a tendency to bend her knees and bring them up towards her body, rather than keeping her legs straight and kicking her feet. So these are things that she really needs to work on in order to improve.

After lunch, she read A Particular Cow by Mem Fox and then wrote about the story. I then had her read the book out loud to me, to practice her oral skills. I find that she reads out loud better if she has had the chance to read it by herself first. Kaliah actually has quite good oral reading skills, she doesn't appear to struggle with larger words, and I wonder if perhaps it is because she has had a chance to figure it out by herself beforehand, without any pressure.

Kaliah and Zak have taken an interest in sign language, and she enjoyed sitting and learning the signs from the Dictionary of Australasian Signs today. She tends to take pleasure in self taught and self paced activities.

She also got her dad's clothes bag ready for work, packing it with a towel and some changes of clothes.

Khaemon
It appears that Khaemon may also be the only one in his swim class this term - for the second week running, he has had one on one tuition! Steph is concentrating on his freestyle arms, using the kickboard to get his arms stretched out in front. He is also doing quite well at backstroke.

In the afternoon, Khaemon played Brain Training on the DSi, and even though it is beyond his years, he seems to enjoy the challenge!

Veygas
Veygas is so cheeky in his swimming lesson - his confidence in the water is unbelievable! His lesson today started off with tears (I think he has a problem with authority!) but Kate soon put a stop to that and cheeky Vevo came out again. He has never had a problem with his head being under water, and I think that the concept of paddling his arms and kicking his legs has finally kicked in!

Saffryn
Saffy's swimming lesson went well today - she is actually starting to respond to some of the games, but her "curling reflex" kicks in when I put her on her back!