Ben's Blog

Last week, Ben finally had his Sports Day. It was rained off the first day and then the second date that the school had pencilled in ended up clashing with the year 6 induction day’s at their secondary schools! Good planning by the school. Not! So it finally went ahead a week and half later and even then the start had to be delayed due to a heavy rain shower.

As Ben is in KS2 now, he had a whole day of activities although he didn’t take part in all of them due to the shear number of children in KS2. We had a rough idea of what he was going to participate in but weren’t really sure until we turned up and followed him around. Due to the delay in starting, it seemed that all the teachers were confused and didn’t know what was going on where and at what time, so we basically had to find out for ourselves. Eventually, we found Ben in the playground as he was taking part in the Netball, as there were too many people wanting to do Football. Bit of a shame really but he did very well playing Netball, although he wasn’t playing for the entirety of the games as they had to rotate as they still had too many people down to play. He did well though and tried his best! 😉

Once this had been completed, it was time for the Cross Country race with the course starting on the field and then going around the front end of the school before going to the back playground and around and then back to the field to do two more laps. Ben hadn’t really shown too much interest in this before but he was excellent and had a brilliant race. He ended up coming 8th out of about 64 children which was really impressive and made both Kelly and I feel very proud! Even his friend who won said how well Ben had done. 😉

After this event, it was lunch time so we went home and had some food before going back up in the afternoon for the individual sports. There were lots going on but Ben only took part in the standing jump, torpedo throw and the relay. He did do very well in all of them though.  We then had to wait around whilst all the running races took place before the headmaster announced the winners, who ended up being Lynher, which is Ben’s group! So they won both KS1 and KS2 sports day’s this year!

Ben was a bit tired out after but couldn’t rest as we had to dash off to swimming straight after school, but he had a good and fun day and did very well in all the events he took part in, especially the Cross Country race! Well done, Ben! X

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A few weeks ago, myself, Ben and Aaron went out for a bike ride from Plym Bridge to the tunnel past Bickleigh Viaduct and back. They both did really well and cycled all the way there and back to the car which turned out to be about 8 miles. 😉 Kelly and Coby were at a party so missed this little trip!

Bike Ride

Then a couple of weeks ago, we all went out for a bike ride from Yelverton to the Tunnel before you get to Tavistock. This was good fun as only I had been along that stretch of Drake’s Trail before, so the scenery was all new to everyone else. This ride turned out to be about 6 miles and was quite hard coming back as we had to go up the big hill to get back to Yelverton which saps the energy out of you. Again, Aaron and Ben both cycled all the way on there own (apart from pushing the bike up the hill!). Coby enjoyed himself in his trailer but it made Kelly struggle a lot as he is a lot heavier than he was so I think we will have to change things and get his trailer strapped up to my bike instead for the next trip!

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In Ben’s class, they have a mascot called ‘Ratty’ who is basically a rat puppet.  All the children are allowed to take him home for a weekend, along with a diary to fill in. You then have to write about what Ratty gets up to during his stay with you. This last weekend, Ben had Ratty so he took him down to Gramps’ house for a BBQ and also did some Lego with him. See below for some pics of what Ratty got up to with Ben. 😉

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The weekend before last, we went camping at Monkey Tree which is at Goonhavern, just outside of Perranporth. We happened to choose the hottest weekend of the year as the temperature was around 30 degrees the entire time and our tent was not shaded at all, so we were in the sun continuously which was just way too hot.  Luckily, there was a swimming pool onsite that was included in our stay, so we lounged around in that 3 times over the weekend. Coby had been asking loads since we went Glamping to go camping again, as he just loves it! Ben and Aaron also love it as well so were very excited!

We went with Alex, Josh and Caleb again and also Nan Nan and Pops turned up in their caravan and Mike came as well and stayed on the Saturday night. It was Witney’s birthday on the Friday, so they all came over for a BBQ on the Saturday evening for tea. Ben, Aaron and Coby had a great time playing with their cousins on the scooters and playing hide and seek. We also went down to the onsite park and they all had fun on the swings, climbing frames and trampolines.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather, although it could have been a bit cooler, and Monkey Tree was a lovely place.  There was an arcade on site (although with mostly outdated and well used machines) which we all had a play in, crazy golf, a couple of restaurants and a shop. They also had evening entertainment on which was for all the family.  We couldn’t really fault it really, and the price was very very good as we got a deal on Groupon. The food that we had was very nice. We had a takeaway from the onsite chippy on the Friday night and the cod and chips that I had (and curry sauce!) was delicious. As mentioned, the weather was terrific and it actually stayed fairly light in the evenings until almost midnight! Then the stars came out and it finally cooled off a bit!

We all had a wonderful time over the weekend although it was very very hot trying to put the tent down on the Sunday afternoon. It was scorching!  Coby was also tired out by now and actually fell asleep in the car with the AC on! The boys all enjoyed the park and the swimming pool, where Coby was jumping in practically on his own. It happened that one of Aaron’s friends from school was also staying there that weekend, so Aaron was very pleased to be able to play with him in the pool.

We would definitely go back again and would recommend the place to anyone, especially if you can get the discount!

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On Wednesday, during assembly, Ben got a certificate and badge for completing 30 hours of activities outside of school. It was for the Children’s University initiative to try and get children doing stuff outside of school. Ben had been taking it to football training and other clubs (out of hours school clubs) and getting it signed for a long time now, but finally reached the 30 hours last week during football training. I am not sure how many hours needs to be done to get the silver award, but I guess it must be upwards of 60 hours! Good luck! 😉

Bronze Passport Award