Tom the public speaker

Tom's school holds an annual public speaking competition for each year group.  Tom came home a couple of weeks ago and told us he needed to write a speech........by tomorrow.  His chosen topic was "All dads are weird" and with a little help from Jules he came up with an excellent speech which got him through to the next round.  The second round involved the top 3 from the 4 classes in his year group performing their speeches in front of all their peers and Tom was delighted to be in the top three.  The last round involved writing a speech in one hour at school without any help and performing it in front of his peer group.  This time he chose the topic "Why siblings are annoying", clearly a topic very close to his heart as he won!  And received a certificate and a shiny medal.  He now has to present his speech in a special school assembly but he's quite relaxed about it as he now likes public speaking.  After a difficult start at Pittwater House he's really settling down and we've noticed a huge increase in his confidence which is one of the reasons we sent him there.  

I persuaded Tess to come and help me on the Uniform Shop at nippers on Sunday morning which she enjoys.  Despite the sunshine there was a very cold wind so it was quite a challenge keeping the merchandise from blowing away.  Tom again did really well with his new board and his swimming is getting much quicker now that he's doing squads twice a week.  

 Tom paddling and Jules on water safety

Tess went off with her friends after nippers so Tom, Jules and I went to Chica Bonita for lunch time burritos.  We thought of you Robert!

I've mentioned before that I've been trying to make the kids lunch boxes more interesting because they occasionally get fed up with sandwiches every lunchtime and I'm quite sympathetic to that.  I saw these gorgeous bento boxes online and had to buy them.  We opened the parcel one morning after I'd made lunch for both of them but they insisted on repacking their lunches in the new boxes. There was still a sandwich involved but apparently it tasted much better in a super cute bento box!