Somme snow at the Olympics

Dear Pop,

Thank you for your blog posts. You have asked a lot of questions about the Olympics!

1.  Find Rio de Janeiro on a map.

2. What is the name of the country where we find Rio?
Brazil

3. Ask Mum or Dad if they know where Olympia is.  Where is it?
Greece


4. Search "ancient olympic games" on the web and find which games were played when it all began.
Foot race, chariot race, discus, jumping, running with armour (called the 'hoplite'!)

5. Do they play rugby in the 2016 Olympics?  How many players in each team?
Yes, and they play with 7 players on each team.

6. If you go to the Olympic Games one day, what sport do you think you would like to play?
Football and running. I would like to be a swimmer too.

7. Ian Thorpe.
Swimmer. At the Olympics he won 5 gold medals, 3 silver medals, and 1 bronze medal.

8. Dawn Fraser.
Swimmer. 4 gold and 4 silver Olympic medals.

9. Shane Gould.
Swimmer. 3 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze Olympic medals, all at the same Olympics (Munich)!


10. Murray Rose.
Swimmer. 4 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze Olympic medals.

We read your other blog post about the 100th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme. The Somme is very squigly, and it is very long, and it is in France. We don't know yet why there were Australians fighting in France. France is a long, long way away, even with a plane it would take a long time to get there.

We are going to the snow on Sunday afternoon the 14th of August. We are going to snowboard there; it's a birthday present for me. I'm having lots of fun, or I had lots of fun. Rugby season is now over.

Evie does ballet now. She loses her ballet slippers every week. Luckily she also finds them most weeks. She is very good at ballet.

The Olympic Games 2016

Hi Tully.
The Olympic Games are held every four years and this year the Olympic Games are in Rio de Janeiro.
1.  Find Rio de Janeiro on a map.
2. What is the name of the country where we find Rio?
The name of these games comes to us from a place called Olympia.
3. Ask Mum or Dad if they know where Olympia is.  Where is it?
4. Search "ancient olympic games" on the web and find which games were played when it all began.
5. Do they play rugby in the 2016 Olympics?  How many players in each team?
6. If you go to the Olympic Games one day, what sport do you think you would like to play?
The following Australian athletes won one or more Gold Medals in their sport.  What sport did they play?  Can you find out the year in which they won a medal?
7. Ian Thorpe.
8. Dawn Fraser.
9. Shane Gould.
10. Murray Rose.
You can find most of the answers on the internet or you can ask Mum or Dad.

There will be some exciting sports to watch and some amazing performances by people from all over the world.  I hope you enjoy watching the Games in Rio over the next two weeks.

Love from Pop

Hi Tully.
Tomorrow is 1st July.  Exactly 100 years ago a huge battle began in France called the Battle of the Somme.  The Somme River is in France.  It was part of a war called World War One, although sometimes called "The Great War", that lasted for fours years.
You have some distant relatives who were soldiers in that war and some of them fought in the Battle of the Somme.
Your task (should you decide to accept it) is to find the Somme River on a map and to ask your Mum and Dad why Australian soldiers went all the way to the other side of the world to fight in a war.
In Canberra there is a building called The Australian War Memorial.  It was built after WW1. Perhaps you can go there sometime.
Bye for now.
Love from Pop

Dear Pop

Dear Pop,

I'm 8 on the 13th June.
I finished my reading book after years of working through it. I can read all of the Hungry Bear books, which are fun books about a bear meeting a polar bear and meeting a flea, and wanting to sleep.
We're going to Wellington Caves on Saturday.
We're going to do a play of Peter Pan in my Drama class. We go to Drama on Mondays.
I'm now playing rugby union. I scored one try in my fourth game! I really like my team, and tackling.
We moved the rooms around and I have my own room now. Now, Eve is in the top bunk, and Finny is in her cot with the wall taken off. They are sharing a room now. When visitors come, they have to sleep in my room because there's no guest room now. Mum and Dad are starting a new business and they are using the extra rooms for work. I will sleep in bottom bunk in the girls room when visitors come. You should come visit us soon. Tell Mama G to come too.
See ya!

Experiment of Bread

This is the dough after we mixed it.

Me and William made bread with Dad. The first thing we did was make a flour. We did lots of careful measurements with the scales. Me and my teaspoon made each measurement exactly right. Once the flour was made we cracked eggs and put them in our measuring jug, and we topped up the jug with water. We added the eggs and water to the four, along with raw sugar, salt, and yeast. Then we mixed and mixed until Dad said, "that is enough mixing." After we mixed the dough it was stick, and would stick onto your fingers. A little while later however, the dough had a smooth wet-ish top but was still a little sticky below.

Then Dad offered, "do you want to make cake or go and play?" Me and my cousin chose 'go and play'. We played a made up game that we made on Wednesday. I put some cuts in the top of the loaf, and Dad cooked it.

This is the dough a little while later.

It tasted tasty, maybe a little bit too floury. It looked like a big bun, not a loaf.

Hello again Tully.

I can see that you are not in the habit yet of looking at your blog to see if there is a new post.  Never mind.  We can work towards that.  Another thing that we can work towards is you learning to type. Then you can write or type your own posts and we can talk via this blog a bit more often.

So, how about you tell me what you would like to discuss and I will post something that fits with your interest.  What do you think about that idea?  Do you think you could type your suggestions for our discussion?

Pop

Hi Tully.

I like all those maps you posted.  Perhaps you can teach me how to do that.  I am a bit slow when it comes to computer skills.

Tomorrow is Australia Day.  On 26th January we remember the first Europeans who came to settle in Australia.  They came to Sydney in 1788.  That's 228 years ago.  You will see many people waving the Australian flag to celebrate.  Here is my challenge to you.  Can you draw the Australian flag?Can you see that there is another flag in the top left corner of the Australian flag?  What is the name of that other flag and where does it come from?

Love from Pop

Geography With Pop

Hi Pop,

I can't believe that we have so many countries in our blood! Here is a picture of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales:

 

I enjoyed your visit, and visiting you as well. 

From,

Tully (hug, hug, hug)

Hi Tully.  I had a lovely time visiting you recently.  It is a very long drive from Canowindra to Buderim, isn't it!  You must have thought the trip might never end.  "Are we there yet?"

One good thing about my long trip was that I was able to visit some other people along the way.  On the way to your place I visited my Auntie Betty at Port Macquarie, my cousin Jeff at Wauchope, and my Dad (Poppa Dennis) in Sydney.  Then, on the way home I visited Poppa Dennis in Sydney again, some of our friends in Maitland, Mama G's Auntie Barbara at Nambucca Heads, and another family friend at Sawtell.  Can you find all those places on a map?

Poppa Dennis' badge.

Hello again Tully.  Do you remember this morning that you found a little badge on my desk and you brought it to me to ask what it was.  I said that it was a badge which my father, Poppa Dennis, wore on his uniform when he was a pilot for TAA.  You can see the badge in the photo above his left hand side breast pocket.  The aeroplane in this photograph is a Fokker Friendship, also known as an F27.  Sometimes I was able to fly with my Dad in the cockpit of one of these planes. This photograph was taken in 1960 at Canberra airport.

My First Blog

Hi Tully.  This is my first post on your blog.  I look forward to reading your posts.  I also look forward to helping you with your education.  For example, there are many things we can learn from the past.  Some people say that experience is the best teacher but often experience gives us the test first when we haven't even had a single lesson!  Better to learn from someone else's mistake than make the mistake ourselves because some mistakes can be painful or embarrassing.  But enough of that for now.
Let me tell you a little bit about you.
My Dad (Poppa Dennis) was born in London and my Mum (Mimi) was born in Sydney.  Mum always told me that her family (the Gillespies) were Scottish.  Imagine my surprise when I found out that I am more Irish than either English or Scottish!  So if I am a bit Irish and a bit English and a bit Scottish, so are you!
Before we get into any more history, what about some geography?  Can you find England, Scotland and Ireland on a map?

cubes

We looked for cubes in our home. It was easy at the start but then it got harder. Every time we found something it got trickier, they looked like a cube but it wasn't, it had rectangles instead. Cubes are very fussy. They only have squares.

Bed-Time Story of Transformers

Once upon a time there was this little family that was always doing jobs to tidy up their house. One day, like every day, they were tidying up, but this wasn't a normal day because their son found a little thing, and he didn't know what it was. Of course, it had names on it and it was blinking. He went over to his dad to show him to it, and his dad studied it for two years.

Then, after those two years, he found out what it was. It was a camera, made by fourteen scientists. They thought they could go take some pictures, but thing was it was made by a bunch of bad scientists. They were scared of everyone, so they made that camera to video someone, to video a person's life. They were turning good, they were making a bunch of robots, and their names were Heatwave, Chase, Boulder and Blades. Then when he finished, he took them over to that family, and their name was Burns. The son turned his name from Jacklyn to Cody, and the dad changed his name too, let's just take it as Tom.

While they were figuring it out, Cody decided to hop in one and test it out around the block. On his ride he met Dr. Morocco. Lucky because he hopped into Heatwave and he squirted and smashed. Boulder came over too, to check it out. Then it all started into a giant fight with more bots. The more bots got bigger and bigger as Dr. Morocco tried to get his machines to go bigger. Then the police had an idea, they went to the jail and Boulder smashed through the wall, then Dr. Morocco came but they wrecked the cage they needed and that plan was wrecked.

So that came up with another idea. They would do it the wrong way by putting the hole onto a more-bot and Dr. Morocco and then they would put a big piece of metal in front, and Dr. Morocco and his bad team got very hurt. They slept and slept for 1300 years. And then they all discovered what was it.

The Adventure of the Bombs

On Saturday night we were getting ready to go out. And Mama G, my grandmother, squeezed in the back, and my dad drived. We got to Fort Scratchley, and we had a really good time. It was a bit cold but I had a jumper, and we had some cake for dessert, and we watched the guns fire.

We listened to the band, and we did a few fun things. My dad and me went exploring. We saw some little cannon balls.

There was a big light, and I thought it was pretty cool. They shone the light on the flag as it went down. I thought it was a pretty interesting music. And this is a strange part, because we had to stand up.

This is Tully talking. If you want to send it to other people, just send a message to them saying, "write TullyShark blog on the computer." We hope you enjoy this message.

The adventure of the cards.

I made a special card for my little sister Evie and I thought she was pretty funny. I cut out pictures and then I pasted the on. Then for my cousin William's I stuck on water balloons. Not for decoration. I put them on because I thought he could play with them with Elli. I hope he shares them.

Mum has made a special card for me and I think I'm going to enjoy it. I hope we make cards every afternoon on this day.

We went for a shoe hunt for Eve. She was a bit whingy.
Then we walked to the post box and posted the letters.
Then we walked home and we're waiting for Dad. I drew a picture of the post box and a house with smoke.

The Adventure of the Quilt.

I have had lots of fun making this quilt with my mum and I helped do some ironing and cutting and sewing and I really enjoyed it.
This is Tully's Shark Blog.