Category: 2009 4pk News

This evening I went up to school to see Daniel & Emilie’s teachers and to find out how they are settling into year 6 and year 2 respectively.

First in the hot seat was Emilie, her teacher (Mrs Briggs) told me that Emilie was a superstar and an absolute delight to teach. She is a very enthusiastic member of the class and is always willing to participate in the lessons. Emilie favours literacy slightly more than numeracy and loves playing a part in drama. Mrs Briggs also told me that she loves Emilie’s sense of humour and the fact that she understands what sarcasm is and often just looks at Mrs Briggs and smiles when she knows that she is being sarcastic. Finally she said that Emilie mixes very well with everyone in her class & that teaching her is a pleasure!

Well Done Emilie

After meeting Mrs Brigg’s I headed off to the Junior department to meet Daniel’s teacher Mr Mackenzie…

Daniel took a seat with me at the table and Mr Mackenzie explained to us that he was very pleased with Daniel so far this year, he told us that Daniel is showing great enthusiasm for his work and is trying his best in all subjects.

We were told that both Mr Mackenzie & another of the deputy heads had been very impressed with Daniel’s efforts in Drama. We chatted about Daniel’s literacy & numeracy work with Mr Mackenzie explaining that he is happy with the progress that Daniel is making & he even told us that in the spelling test this week only 11 out 27 pupils got 9 or 10 out of 10 in their spelling test and that Daniel had been one of the pupils to get 9, which we were delighted to hear.

Mr Mackenzie also said that he is amazed at the number of ways in which Daniel can sit on a chair!

It seems that Daniel’s new routine is paying huge dividends with regards to his school work & we hope that this will continue for the rest of the time that he is in year 6.

Well Done Daniel

We are very proud of Daniel & Emilie for all the hard work they are doing at school – keep it up!!!

This morning Mum (Alli) & Dad (Tim) took Daniel & Emilie to school as today was Daniel’s last class assembly at primary school.

We knew that Daniel had a speaking part as he bought lines home from school on Monday evening so that he could learn them off by heart for this morning, we also knew that he was going to be pretending to drive a car as Mum had to help him make a steering wheel on Monday evening – it came to light after the assembly that he had asked his teacher if he could make a whole car, fortunately (for Mum) his teacher managed to convince him that a steering wheel would be enough.

The theme for the assembly, that the year 6 class had written themselves with no help from their teacher, was “Be safe be seen on Halloween.” Daniel was playing the part of a Dad driving his daughter home from a halloween party & on the way home he knocked over some children that were wearing dark clothes so he hadn’t seen them. Once again he delivered his lines beautifully and he could be heard at the back of the hall unlike most of the other children!

When the play was over all the children performed a dance routine to Thriller – it was actually very good and made everyone smile, and so that was the end of primary school class assembly performances for Daniel!

Whilst drinking her bedtime milk Emilie has sat on the sofa and penned the following little story that we thought we would share with you.

Onec upon a time ther was a little girel ho lifd in a cotige. Her muver seid plese kan you get a bucit of lite buloo spclin wort. So she went of to get sum worte. Wen she went along there was a big houg bear biy the pond so wen she touk a little step suddley the big black ber woke up and he smiyuld beces the little girel told the bear that it was utem so she smiyuled too.

And for those who don’t understand the scribblings of a 6 year old her is a version translated by Mum:

Once upon a time there was a little girl who lived in a cottage. Her mother said please can you get a bucket of light blue sparkling water. So she went off to get some water. When she went along there was a big huge bear by the pond so when she took a little step suddenly the big black bear woke up and he smiled because the little girl told him that it was autumn so she smiled too.

Not bad for a 6 year old writing on their own, perhaps she will be an author when she grows up.

We have had an action packed day today starting with rugby this morning for the boys, who were breaking in their new rugby boots that they got yesterday.

Josh trained with his “micro” team mates who were learning basic ball skills, including running to the cone holding the ball with 2 hands then throwing the ball in the air and clapping before catching the ball – Josh was very good at this. Mum, Dad and Emilie watched Josh doing his training in the rain but they did enjoy a cup of hot chocolate each and Mum & Dad had bacon sandwiches!

Partway through Josh’s training session Dad was roped in to help as they need someone to throw to and catch passes from the micro rugby players, at this point Mum & Emilie made their way across to where Dan’s game was just starting. Dan had been having a pre-match training session whilst Josh was training.

The match against Blackburn was a great match and once again there were quite a few injuries to the team, U11s rugby is proving to be a bit more physically demanding but the lads are doing well. Dan played in his usual position on the wing and despite not getting any tries he did offer lots of support to his team mates and even stopped a few Blackburn players from scoring tries, he might be small compared to other U11 players but he can tackle!

Dan’s team won their third successive match with 3 tries to none! Hopefully this winning streak will continue next week when they play in the Manchester Festival!!

By the time Dan’s match finished at 12 we all looked like a bunch of drowned rats as it had rained very very heavily, so when we got home we all stripped off and got dry. Mum made us lunch whilst the boys had showers and washed the mud of their arms and legs.

After lunch we had a couple of hours to fill before we headed out to the cinema to watch Up, the film was fantastic – it was so funny that at one point Dad was crying with laughter! We laughed out loud at the film and munched our way through lots of lovely sweet popcorn and smarties and polished off a few drinks.

When we got home we had some little bits of homework to finish before we had our dinner – Emilie wanted to read her book “Stone Soup” to Dad, Dan needed to be tested on his spellings again and Josh needed to read his 2 books.

Josh asked Mum to help him with his homework and so she did – this sounds easier than it actually was as Josh’s books were all in Welsh which is a language none of us speak, so she asked Josh to read the books to her and tell her what it meant in English and then Mum wrote down how to say the words so that she can practice saying them before Josh comes to our house again with more reading to do. Josh said that Mum was good at saying the Welsh words and Mum said Josh was very good at being able to read all the words!

Once homework was done we all sat and ate a delicious meal of homemade spaghetti carbonara and then it was time for bed and boy did we need a rest!

Another great weekend had come to an end, now we are counting down the days to the next one.

Dad & Alli found out this week that there is an opportunity to meet Josh’s teacher on Monday, unfortunately both Dad & Alli will be at work but they didn’t want to miss talking to Josh’s teacher about how he is doing in Year 1, so Dad phoned Josh’s school and spoke to Josh’s teacher.

Josh’s teacher said that Josh is doing very well, that he listens nicely in class, that he plays nicely with his friends and that he is doing very well with his work especially his maths.

Dad told the teacher that Josh has been doing some activity books when he is at our house and Dan & Em have their homework to do and she said that was excellent, so we guess Alli’s homework sessions at weekend will continue.

This weekend Josh has homework to do, Josh has some books to read to us, unfortunately we won’t be able to tell if he is reading the words right as they are in Welsh, but at least we can listen to him and encourage him to read.

Bydew ‘n ddigon Josh! (Well done Josh!)

Dad & Alli are very pleased with the report from Josh’s teacher.

Tonight Mum & Tim accompanied Dan to the open evening at the high school they are all hoping Dan will get a place at.

They spent over an hour looking around the school which is a lot bigger than the primary school that Dan currently attends!

Mum & Tim say that high school has changed a lot since they were there which is understandable given that is was over 15 years ago, there wasn’t a blackboard, board rubber or stick of chalk to be seen anywhere instead it was all laptops and interactive whiteboards!

Dan particularly enjoyed the science lab where he was able to look at magnets and also poke a heart and lungs from some animal or other.

After looking round and seeing what was on offer we all went to the school hall to listen to the Headmaster, he explained how the school is one of the top 500 schools in the country!!

They all enjoyed the look around the school, even Tim who never really enjoyed or attended school, infact the hour and a half he spent in the high school could be a record time!

Dan was very excited after the visit and is really looking forward to going to the school next September, we just have to keep our fingers crossed now am hope he gets a place!!

Dan’s swimming has really improved in recent weeks, in might have something to do with spending hour upon hour in the pool in Spain!

His teacher has been saying for a couple of weeks that it looked like he would be moved up when the next assessment was done and sure enough after his swimming lesson and assessment this morning he was moved up not one level but two to Red 9!

Well Done Dan!

We have had a fantastic afternoon as Amy, Callum, Courtney, Jake and Luke (and their Mum’s and Dad’s) came round to our house as it has been a while since all 8 of us were together!

Courtney & Dan paired up and played on the x-box and helped supervise the young boys.

Callum, Jake, Luke & Josh ran around the house and garden at break neck speed playing with as many toys as they possibly could including a couple of games of football in the garden.

And Amy & Emilie did girlie things like colouring, drawing and putting make up on each other.

Our Mum’s and Dad’s sat in the garden as it was a lovely sunny afternoon and they all had a good chat catching up on all their news.

Mum made a spaghetti bolognese and her delicious home-made chicken nuggets with the very willing assistance of Jake & Callum, who helped her make the nuggets by rolling the chicken in breadcrumbs and then rubbing the breadcrumbs in to their hair and helped with the spaghetti bolognese by putting the spaghetti in the pan, but not before it had been broken into very tiny pieces. Mum said they were excellent helpers considering they are only 4 and 3 years old.

After dinner we ate delicious chocolate desserts that Auntie Jennifer had bought for us whilst our parents ate chocolate fudge cake and apple crumble!!

We had a great afternoon as we really love spending time playing with our cousins – we are so lucky that we all live near to each other and that we all play together nicely.

We can’t wait for the next Family Funday!

This afternoon Mum has watched Dan take part in his last sports day at primary school, the junior sports day is held in September rather than later in the year as the school have found that the weather is often better in September than it is in July which was certainly the case today.

The juniors were split into their respective house teams for the races, with Dan being a member of Red house. Dan had been selected to run in the year 6 boys relay race and long distance race, he did really well in the relay he ran the 3rd leg and managed to move the team from last place to second with his quick run (anyone that has seen him running down the wing will now his fast run is FAST!) and in the long distance race he finished mid field.

Sadly the red team came last this year, however Mum did smile a little when it was announced that Yellow team had won as when she went to school she was in Yellow house and they always came last!!

It is with sadness that we have to let you know that our lovely fluffy house bunny Hazel has passed away.

She was not a happy bunny last week and despite a trip to the vets on Friday and an injection she very sadly deteriorated over the weekend. Dad took her to the vets this morning and it was decided that she should be put to sleep rather than continuing to suffer, the poor thing had absolutely no strength at all and when she could muster any up she was bumping into things.

We will miss her a lot, Mum liked it in the morning when Hazel used to come jumping through into the kitchen and herd her to the fridge so that Mum would give her some vegetables and in a perculiar way we liked having our magazines and drawings nibbled away at the corner and our phone chargers chewed, it was Hazel’s way of showing she loved us.

RIP Hazel

We are only a couple of weeks into the new school year but things are looking good so far.
Both Emilie & Daniel have acheived full marks on their recent spelling tests and the words weren’t that easy.
Emilie had to master words such as crawl and frogspawn, whilst Daniel had percussion, direction, electrician.

Well Done Emilie & Daniel

Josh has told us he has had spellings to do but unfortunately we are unable to report on how he is doing.

Back to early Sunday mornings but this time instead of it just being Daniel playing Rugby and the younger two having to only watch; Josh got to finally take part. It’s been a couple of years now that he’s been keen to get stuck in but because of his age he’s not been allowed to before despite his size!

He had his first training session with Coach John which involved a few games of Bulldog which he lasted till the last 3 and the last 2 and then onto a mock up game. He was having great fun grabbing tags and managed to score 2 tries in the process. He’s obviously learnt a few things watching his older brother who was having his second training session of the season today as he went last week with his Dad. The passing drills his team were doing were very impressive with quick, accurate passing out to the wing and back whilst running down the pitch. Looks like finally Dan might get to see a fair bit of the ball now the team are going to be playing as a team and passing it about properly.

It remains to be seen if Josh maintains his interest in Rugby as it’s yet to be cold, wet and miserable on a Sunday but he’s quite keen at the moment to get stuck in and needless to say he loves getting dirty.