A Quiet Day at Home

We had a wonderful, quiet day at "home" as the younger Barnetts went to school, work and lunch with friends. Katherine had a fun lunch with some American moms with children at Redlands School.

The routine with the school is complicated and different for each one of the boys depending on the day. Some days are the whole uniform with blazer, tie, serious black shoes and knee socks. Some days are the sport outfit of knit shirts, shorts, and sneakers. Each one carries a heavy backpack which Katherine says frequently has nothing but a note from the teacher in it. We talked this morning about breaking the rules and leaving them in the kids lockers. They are supposed to walk out the door carrying their backpacks and also are supposed to wear their blazers all the way home. Seems like silly and unnecessary rules- especially when the backpacks are  empty and the temperature is 95 degrees.

Playing Sorry with Ethan

Yesterday- Thursday- Bill and Katherine had a conference with Ethan's teacher about his extremely advanced reading ability, so Katherine brought Ethan home and returned to Redlands to meet Bill. Ethan is in a class of 12 Kindergardeners so the teacher should be able to pay attention to each child and their different abilities.  Ethan and I had great fun playing Sorry and then Jenga. 

Jack plays the cello

Jack and Michael arrived home on the bus after Michael had Tennis and Jack had musical theater. Jack came in lugging a cello. Teachers at the school encouraged him to bring the instrument home to see how he liked carrying it. Students must learn either the violin or the cello in the 3rd year-which is where he is. We wondered if the teachers try to  push the boys toward the cello and the girls toward violin. Sure was a big load for Jack to carry.  We think he thought it would be fun until he had to carry it home on the bus. 

After all the activities and the conference everyone was home by 5:00 except Bill. The younger boys played while Michael worked on a big project. The design of this house is great with much space for together fun and space for private studies and work.

Bill got home on the bus about 6:30 and we ordered Thai for supper.

After dinner we enjoyed watching the Sydney Skyline. We were hoping for a photo of the huge flying foxes that sail by. We saw a couple but they were too fast for the photographers. There is always tomorrow to try again.