The Mini Olympics

Something funky happened to some of my phone photos when transferring them onto my computer, hence the weird lines on a few - sorry!

Last week we packed our bags and headed the three hours to Longreach to attend 'minischool' - where the kids get to stay at the school with their classmates for five days, attend 'real' lessons with their class teachers at school (and do some yucky Naplan), do some fun activities as a group and hopefully have lots of fun. It's sort of like a school camp...but at school.

We stayed in the quarters at school, there in enough space for 50 people with bunk bed style accommodation, a big dining room and industrial kitchen. There were 17 grade five students, plus mums, teachers, governesses and some siblings doing school at the same time.

Here is Maddy in the classroom and getting her hair braided one night before bed by the obliging Miss Kate, a fellow governess...

And the result in the morning...

The theme for minischool was 'the Olympics' - quite fitting for this year and the kids really got into it! I remember at the same age the Atlanta Olympics were happening for me, and I was lucky enough to go to the US for the games, I can remember my Olympics fever as a ten year old! 

Kristy was the head cook for the week, and after planning the menu and racking our brains for 'Olympic' foods we decided that we could go around the world via the menu. We brought our world map from the Malden schoolroom and got the kids to pin where the food was from before every meal. The foods we tasted and countries we visited were...

- American hot dogs

- Japanese sushi

- Italian pizza

- Chinese chicken and corn soup with egg and ginger

- Australian gold and green jelly with a caramello koala

- Dutch (Vikings!) roast pork

- Mexican tacos

- English scones with jam and cream

And after some creative thinking we also came up with the following, bit of a stretch? Perhaps. But the kids loved it!

- Jamaican marshmallow and fruit skewers (featuring coconut covered banana...I thought it was Jamaican?!)

- Antarctic ice-cream bar (get it?!) with an assortment of lollies, chocolate, sprinkles, Cold Rock style

- Greek 'cheesecake', also known as jelly slice. After much googling I discovered that the ancient Olympians were served what was believed to be the first serving of cheesecake...so Greece it was! Obviously.

The kids got to enjoy some fun activities - early morning cricket in the freezing Longreach chill, a session learning all about opera with an Opera Queensland crew who are traveling throughout western Queensland spreading some opera love, practising for the end of year school musical and a great Olympics x-box/wii night where they all had to dress up as an Olympian. Tom was a clay target shooter, with a gun and earmuffs he looked quite the part. After watching some rhythmic gymnastics videos on youtube with me Maddy decided she wanted to be a gymnast, a leotard and a ribbon stick completed the look.

The week was exhausting but fun - a lot of cooking and consoling overtired kids! While I was away in Longreach the poor suffering Matt was back at Malden in the throes of a terrible feverish virus, which he is thankfully over now but seems to have passed a bit of it on to me. 

On the night before we were due to leave I think we all woke up listening to the heavy rain on the roof of the quarters at 4am. We packed up, did the grocery shopping and headed home, some others were not so lucky, either spending more time in the quarters or only getting halfway home before being stopped by the rain, road closures and rising creeks. This was our car leaving Longreach...bit full??

Back into the schoolroom at Malden, the creek has come up since we arrived home and we're once again flooded in - Alex and Matt have been boating out. 

Until next time! 

Longreach Home Tutor Workshop

I've just spent the past week in Longreach attending the Home Tutor Workshop - the kids have been attending 'real' school with their classmates and teachers whilst us home tutors (other govies and mostly mums) learnt about how to understand this new curriculum which has just started this year in Queensland as well as share ideas and better ways to teach in our remote area schoolrooms. I met lots of lovely people at LSODE (Longreach School of Distance Education) - the staff, teachers, other govies, mums and students. 

With the creek still up we had to depart Malden via the trusty footbridge on motorbikes Monday morning - it's a three hour drive to Longreach, through Jericho, Barcaldine and Ilfracombe. Whilst in Longreach the kids got overdue haircuts and Kristy hit the supermarket while I took each of the kids seperately to the pool to practice their medley, swimming sports was on Wednesday and the kids weren't used to swimming in a big pool! Tom did really well and even did a lap of the 50 metre pool...

Tuesday morning we headed to LSODE for registration and school assembly, new school and house captains were introduced and the house war cry's chanted with gusto. Maddy and Tom are in Boree house (there is only one other house, Coolibah). Here is their war cry, impressive...

Whilst the kids had lessons with their classmates and teachers, home tutors had workshops to recognise how your child learns, how you teach and how together they can make it a winning combination. Turns out I am a dolphin/wombat teaching a wombat and a kangaroo/eagle. Don't ask.

We stayed at cabins just near the school, other mums and kids were also there which meant a wine (or three) of an evening, kids in the pool and take-away dinners together.

Pool time after school

Tom with a very cute pup one of the mum's had with her

LSODE

On Wednesday we had some more learning to do, both home tutors and kids, before the much anticipated swimming carnival in the afternoon. I took the kids back to the cabins to get ready with yellow hair spray and grass hula skirts. Boree's theme was Hawaiian and Coolibah's was Australian Lifesavers. 

Little Sienna getting into it!

Maddy showing some Boree spirit

Tom making some noise

Miss Emma - getting in the spirit of things and chief sports photographer

The carnival is held at the Longreach pool, thankfully undercover but still very hot spilling out onto the grass with all the other parents/govies. Maddy did really well with a few firsts, a third and seconds. The medley practice at home last week obviously must have done something as she came through with a blue ribbon! Confusion and chaos ensued to begin with though as I'd taught them one sequence of strokes and apparently they had to swim a different sequence! I stood at the end of the pool though like a paranoid govie yelling the different strokes to Maddy and her friend Rosie as they reached the end of the pool. Tom got three seconds and a third - terrific efforts by both of them. So proud!

Tired and grumpy kids by the end of it all. The next morning was an early start at school for more sport (netball and football) which was a struggle for most kids. Home tutors got to have a session with the new curriculum writers which was great, a lot of opinions aired and things off chests I think. In the afternoon Kristy and I got to hit the supermarket to do much needed shopping, Kristy has been stuck at Malden for 8 weeks while the creek has been flooded. Returned to LSODE to discover Maddy had made the netball team and selected to play tomorrow! Good and bad news, great she made the team, not so great that we had a heap of cold/frozen groceries and now had to stay another night. After a run back to the cabins to book in for another night and storing our cold food in the school's cool room we tried to get hold of the husbands to let them know we wouldn't be home. Unimpressed, said they were starving!

Maddy's netball on Friday was really good though, she played so well despite the fact the poor small school's team she was on was outplayed ten fold against girls who clearly play as a team all the time, not like these distant ed kids. Maddy was one of two grade five's selected so she was against giant's and much more experienced players. She did a few sneaky moves though and most importantly had so much fun. 

Back home to Malden and trying to catch up on school on a Saturday - poor kids, but next week we're in Emerald one day for the dentist and a hair cut for Miss Emma, as well as a day in Barcaldine as Maddy is playing netball again. Disrupted school week ahead but kids going well I think...I hope! 

I had a great week - full of insights into how to teach two very different kids well. I was inspired and impressed by the hard working families behind distance education - especially the mum's who are so dedicated and committed to giving their children every opportunity in their educations. Effort really does conquer distance.