May is long gone and June is fast disappearing.
May is always a crazy month, May madness is not an inappropriate name for what goes on around here. In May many of our activities come to an conclusion. They do this with end of year concerts, projects and get togethers. While this is happening spring and summer activities are starting meaning that for a few weeks at least two, but usually three members of the family were out every night of the week except Saturday. ( So naturally we had to squeeze some MasterChef into Saturdays, but that isn’t the point of this post!)
The girls had several concerts and a five day whirlwind tour of New York. I hope to get them to choose some of their favourite photos to share on the blog soon. B9 had soccer two nights a week with Andrew as one of his coaches. They both enjoyed it and did not miss a single game because of rain. May drew to a close but the madness carried into June. All three children worked hard on their various academic tasks in order to finish earlier rather than later. B9 has wrapped up and the girls are almost there. We closed our Geography course for the year by holding an Asian feast. Each member of our group brought a dish from one of the countries they had researched and the spread was impressive and delicious.
Our final art class occurred on a very pleasant afternoon spent at the arboretum, drawing whichever vista took our fancy. Outdoor education was scheduled to finish with a camp out but as the bugs were very bad it was postponed and replaced with a soccer game and potluck. We also squeezed in the last literature discussion, covering a Canadian book, Bifocal, and then met to plan for next year. We are going to run two groups next year for Junior and Senior highschoolers so I have been reading quite a few books in preparation for that. B9 participated in a read-a-thon where he had to set himself a goal for 7 weeks of reading. Each week he was sent a riddle to solve and the culmination was a party last week where Ray’s Reptiles brought along some animals native to Ontario. His favourite was the impressive turkey vulture. He had no trouble completing his target number of chapters each week as he is totally engrossed by the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.
We have been playing tennis a few times a week and everyone is improving. A13 has signed up for a Track and Field program this summer which began a week ago is held three times a week. She ran in her first meet on Saturday in the 100 and 400 metre sprints. She is hoping to get the chance to try hurdles and high jump also.
So life has been full but much has been achieved. In the next week we should settle into our summer routine which will involve a bunch of tasks and activities which we have not had time for through the year… but at a more relaxed pace, I hope.
Sentient 
I just finished reading Percy Jackson (book 1) with the boys. They loved it, then watched the movie. Lots of action so that was a hit also. Jim downloaded book 2 from the library and now we’re listening on the iPod.
Not only do we ask May and June where they have gone, but the half of 2010 that has now raced by!
As you wind down from a busy school program and prepare for the warmth and relaxation of summer, we are now experiencing the early onset of winter. Of course, I am speaking of an Australian, not Canadian, winter.
Today is the last of June and we have been told that this morning was Sydney’s coldest since 1949, with temperatures around zero in many parts of Sydney. In the Blue Mountains, we are having sub-zero mornings. For the past week, each morning has been successively colder than the previous one. As you can imagine, the heater has been burning longer each day.
Having seen something of the education program as the year commenced last September, it has been good to hear the occasional reports during the year and read of the successful conlusion of so many projects. We do look forward to reading more of the New York trip and the girls selection of photographs.
We note that you are hooked on to the new series of Masterchef. Controversy has broken out here on two fronts. Apparently some previously ejected contestants are being invited back into the kitchen – something you saw last year; and the allegation is being made that the high volume of product placement that is occuring in the use of kitchen utensils and products throughoput the program is breaching the rules covering advertizing on commercial TV. It’s probably all part of strategy to increase ratings.
As the summer builds for you, we hope you will have a relaxing and refreshing time – be it indoor with Masterchef or outdoor with all the summer activity.
ND