Ben had his school report earlier in the week and it is amazing! His teacher, Miss Bowyer, has marked him as above average for nearly all sections (only 1 is he a the normal level for his age), and she expressed in the report how proud she is of what Ben has accomplished in Year 1. WELL DONE BEN!! (we are now going to buy him a little treat as a reward 😉 )
Last Sunday, Ben had his grading for his Orange belt (8th Kyu), and he passed it easily. Well done Ben!! 😉
Orange Belt, 8th Kyu
After completing 4 lessons of Stage 1, Ben has now been moved up to Stage 2. This basically means he can do all the basics in a pool, such as blow bubbles, have water poured over your head, use a ‘noodle’ to swim unaided. Â Unfortunately, the Friday session that the boys go to doesn’t run a Stage 2, so we have had to move swimming days from Fridays to Mondays. So yesterday, Ben had his first Stage 2 lesson, which he mostly enjoyed but was worried when they let them loose in the main pool. He obviously couldn’t touch the floor and had no aids, so he was a little scared I think! He will get used to it though, with a bit more experience.
For completing Stage 1, he got a certificate and a badge, so I got him to put on his swimming gear and pose for a pic! 😉
Just over a month ago, we took Ben and Aaron to Tavistock swimming pool, for a taster swimming lesson. It was only for 30 mins but we hoped they would be fine and we could get them to learn to swim. Â They both enjoyed it, so we signed them up for weekly lessons, and they have now had about 5 proper lessons each, and are progressing really well! They both have proper swimming hats and goggles, so they look the part.
Ben has joined another club outside of School now, called Bike Club. It does exactly what the name suggests and is a Cycling club, whereby he has 5 sessions in the school grounds to help him get better at cycling. He has to take his bike and helmet for each session and they practice different manoeuvres. In his first session, the instructor was getting all 12 of them to cycle in a figure of 8 around some cones – that made for very interesting viewing and there were even a couple of crashes!
He hadn’t ridden his bike properly for several months, so the seat had to be adjusted for him and the tyres pumped up. He started off a bit shakily, but once he got into it again, he was bombing around, although he does need to use his brakes a little more! (He nearly crashed into a fella in front of him at one stage! 😉 )
Ben enjoyed the 1st session of this and is looking forward to the next one on Saturday.
 