Swimming with an Olympian

Tonight at our girls swimming club we had our club fun races night with the fabulous addition of Australian Olympic Gold Medallist Brittany Elmslie.

She brought her Olympic medals and let all the kids hold them, try them on and have their photos taken with them. The medals are large and very heavy - so impressive!

Brittany herself was brilliant with the kids - she chatted to them about swimming, got in the pool and raced against with them, and told her story of how she went from a young kid in a swimming club to being an Olympic Gold Medallist.

What an inspiring evening for the kids!








A couple of months ago, our girls had another opportunity to meet Olympic Swimmers, and to compete in special handicapped races against them.

Once again, it was an amazing experience for them. The Olympians themselves were great with the kids; taking the time to talk to them, pose for photos and sign autographs.

Then on top of just a great experience - our youngest daughter won the 50m backstroke  (handicapped) race against Gregor Tait.  For that, she received the trophy below and was awarded it by Gregor himself.  Such an amazing moment for her and one she will treasure and remember - the day she beat an Olympic swimmer - when she was just 7 years old!
It was a really special swim meet - where it was all about the younger kids and encouraging them in their sporting endeavours.



It's great that top sports people do take the time to encourage young kids in their sports.  To provide a strong role model and something for the kids to aspire to.

Kids need encouragement and support in their endeavours - and most of all rewards for their achievements, and acknowledgement for their efforts. To get that kind of encouragement and acknowledgement from their own heros and idols is perfect!



Have your kids ever had the chance to meet top sports people in their favourite sports? What impact has it had on them?




How to Seize a Dragon's jewel


Have you read any of Cressida Cowell's Dragon books?   Last year our daughter bought one with a book token she had and I read it to our girls.  It turned out to be one of the most fun books to read that I've found. Such a funny story, expressions and words and we all enjoyed it so much.

This year, our daughter received a book token again for a school award, and decided to buy the next book in this dragon series 
(How to Seize a Dragon's Jewel).
Tonight we started reading it and it is just as good as the last one.
I haven't read a book to the girls in a few months. They are both good and avid readers and happily read by themselves now.  However, they aren't too old to enjoy Mum reading a book to them, and I'm enjoying reading it too!  

What good books have you found for your kids lately?  And do you still read to your kids? How old did you or will you keep reading stories to them until?

Vanilla jam biscuits


Both our girls like to help out when I cook and bake, but our youngest is showing a particular interest in baking cakes, sweets and biscuits.  So once a week through last term she chose and made us a new dessert.  It's great to watch her confidence grow as she learns to measure, mix and read and understand the recipes.

She's learning to weigh and measure in both imperial (pounds and ounces) and metric (grams); and also in terms of cups,  as I have a selection of recipe books from the UK and Australia so the measurements vary from recipe to recipe!


Here's one of the things she made us recently - Vanilla Jam Biscuits

Ingredients:
125g butter or margarine
1 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups SR flour, sifted
1/2 cup custard powder, sifted

Icing:
100g butter or margarine
1 cup icing sugar, sifted
1/3 cup strawberry jam
icing sugar to dust

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 180C
  2. Using electric beaters, beat margarine and sugar, add egg and vanilla and beat well.
  3. Fold in flour and custard powder until mixture is firm. Put in fridge for 30 minutes
  4. Roll out dough and cut into star shapes. Place onto greased trays and bake for 8-10 minutes until golden.
  5. Cool on wire rack.
  6. Make the icing - beat margarine and icing sugar together.
  7. Spread a little icing, then a little jam onto a biscuit, and then sandwich another biscuit on top. Repeat with remaining biscuits.
  8. Dust with icing sugar to serve.




The biscuits were a big hit with everyone and our daughter was very proud of having made them all by herself!  (I barely helped at all).  Her arms get tired using the electric beaters after a while, and I also helped with rolling out the last of the dough but pretty much everything else she did herself (I just watched and took photos!)

What a great skill to learn - and the added skills of learning and practising measurements, and following instructions provide bonus extra maths practice for the holidays, with no 'school work' in sight!  We'll be doing a lot more of this baking over the school holidays - particularly with Christmas approaching and plenty of yummy sweet recipes around to try!

Do your kids bake and cook?  What yummy dishes have they made you, and what parts do you still need to help them with?


Dumb ways to die – kids Metro advert


Well done to Metro trains Victoria!

Dumb ways to die has caught the eye of kids and parents all over the world and made them talk about how to behave around level crossings and also trains and train stations.

There is also a website...


Whilst you have to question the common sense of running onto train tracks, equally eating super glue.  OMG really???
The cute animations keep kids watching, the ‘get stuck in your head’ tune will stay with you and the overall message is don’t be stupid.

I am all for any way of helping kids follow the right track (pun intended!) and if this stops one kid from going onto train lines or electrocuting themselves with a toaster, it has done it’s job.
Anyone who says it is just sensationalising and encouraging doing stupid things should stop there.  To me, natural selection has a place to play and anyone who puts their head in a grizzly bear’s mouth, will definitely not be using the internet and probably doesn’t have that long a shelf life.
I am also sure there is a lesson for those homeschoolers who could pause the clip at the end and test their kid on the crazy monsters and how they have died.

Go Metro, Melbourne I am looking forward to travelling on your trains soon.

For those in wet areas such as us in Cairns, North Queensland, this is the other animation with a message that should go viral!
Don’t play in pipes and drains


Take care, stay safe through the holidays.

Euan