Jack's homeroom chant

Before Chuseok we had Spiritual Emphasis Week.
It is a time where we stop classes, we have a band and guest speaker come to the school and we focus on spirituality and each other.
Part of the time is to build our community.

Here is an activity that Jack's homeroom group did.
They created a group Hakka.
Jack was a real leader in this activity.

Molly and Jack at Touch Rugby

EARLY Saturday morning, I (Alison) travelled with Jack and Molly to our sister school GSIS (11/2 hours away) for a Touch Rugby tournament.

Jack was playing his first Middle school sport and Molly in her first competitive game.
Jack and his friend Ethan have played Touch since third grade now and were a lethal combination together. Jack scored 2 tries and had at least 10 assists for tries. He is a fit guy and did not slow down for the whole day. He consistently played dummy half for his team and was always there to make the quick passes to his running centres and wing players.

Molly was a bit nervous, but once started you could not wipe the grin off her face.
She loves to run and scored a great try with her pace. She also played dummy half a lot- the girl likes to be in control of the play!
Molly also won the sportsmanship award!

The first couple of weeks

Day 1 looked something like this:

On the first day of school, we had the whole school from Pre K to Grade 12 come together for a welcoming assembly and a time of praise and worship to start the school year.
Molly was part of the elementary praise team to lead worship on this day. She is right in the middle with the long legs that seem to go on forever!

On Friday Molly was named "Student of the Month" for August for her Grade 3 class.
Peter was able to make it to the assembly to see her receive her award.
She has made such a great start to the year despite having the disappointment of her best friend leaving at the last minute. She has showed courage to get over that, make some new friends and get on with the business of learning and working with her new teacher.

Jack has been busily getting involved in school activities as a Middle Schooler.
He has joined the band and has to audition with his trumpet to see if he makes it in. He has a new trumpet which we bought after being continually frustrated with the hire trumpet that spent most of it's life at the fix it shop. So now as a 6th Grader he has a laptop and trumpet to care for...Yikes!

He is also playing Touch Rugby and is travelling to Suwon near Seoul for a tournament on Saturday.
The little blighter is pretty quick and agile now and is scoring tries often in his games.
Molly is also playing her first games and after an unsure start has decided that she really does like to "run fast" with the ball. (Have you seen the length of those legs).

Jack is finding the new pace of Middle school challenging, though he is really working hard to be organised, get to class on time and to get his homework done. He is enjoying some of the new freedoms associated with secondary school too. I am teaching him PE this year and he really is a caring student in the classroom who tries to help others to be better. We could not be more proud of the start he has made.

Fortunately we still have plenty of time for good kid fun in our house!

Making a plane launcher.

He still likes to build stuff!

A new school year begins...

Well here we are in August, madly preparing for another school year.
It is hot and humid in Korea this year and we are certainly feeling it as we prepare ourselves and new staff for the return of students on Monday 12th.

Today we helped Jack register as a Grade 6 student in the Secondary school. He had to have lots of forms signed, medical checks so he can play sports with the older students, he received his locker and schedule... and only now needs to make sense of it all.

It was kind of a big day in the Pearse household... first child out of Elementary school. (and Dad in a tie at work too!)

Being mentally healthy- banishing Debbie Downer...

During some late night tennis watching and restless nights sleep, I have been reflecting on some of my messages to students throughout the year. Particularly in terms of the holistic health messages I "preach".
In grade 6-10 Peter and I have tried to develop units of work that focus on Physical, Social and Mental health, while integrating Spiritual Health also into each unit.
I really feel like I should practice what I preach a little more...

So my goal for the holidays is to nurture my mental Health through some very specific strategies.
Being grateful can help mental strength tremendously, but telling students just to be thankful is often not enough... Same goes for myself.
So my strategy is to banish the "Debbie Downer" who sometimes rears her ugly head. She is the voice that complains in my head and out loud too.
This week I challenge myself to not complain about my life... Food, traffic, time, circumstances, weather...

This week by not complaining I will open up my heart and head to being more grateful... Which will be a future goal.
Can I make it?
Can I go for the whole week without complaining...
I'll let you know how it goes

Vacation time

It is Summer holidays (at least in Korea anyway) and after spending a week relaxing, cleaning and packing up in Korea, we are in Australia.
Peter is currently in London on a leadership conference, so Jack, Molly and I are enjoying(?) the welcoming Adelaide weather.
We have made a bucket list of things we want to do during the holidays.
So far we have crossed 2 off- making ice cream and seeing Monsters University. Both have been fun!
We have been doing a lot of reading, table tennis and walks too.

These little guys had snowy hats in February

Today Jack and Molly fiddled around with an app on my iPad called Toontastic. Below is Molly's first cartoon she made. We have since worked out how to get the characters to move with the story.

Molly's early birthday

It's become a tradition to celebrate Molly's birthday with her class before we leave for the Summer.
This year Molly had lavender cupcakes and we did a photo booth with her friends.

Here are some of the pics we took.

Molly and Aylin

Molly and Lily

Molly and Dohyun

Molly and Tavin

Molly and Arthur

Molly and Miss Bechtold

The whole wacky Grade 2 class.

I have no words...