New Zealand's Darkest Day

Each term for Social Studies, Shane has to do a project on any subject of his choice, and can submit this project in any form he wants. For Term 2 he has chosen to do a poster about the Christchurch earthquakes.

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A Catch-up

It’s been a while since we updated Shane’s blog. Sorry for the slackness, it’s been a busy time. Shane’s been busy too, with lots happening at school. Here are a few of the highlights:

~ He was awarded merits for his Rhys Darby project in Social Studies, and also in Latin.

~ His merit for guitar was upgraded to Excellence after he learned to play a new song without looking. When the guitar module ended for his music class he decided he would like to continue with it and so he signed up for beginner guitar lessons. Shiloh loves listening to him play.

~ The family was given a new Xbox 360. Shane had been praying for one for quite a while, so he was absolutely stoked with the new games to play. His favourite game is Assassin’s Creed (as you can tell by the theme of his blog) so he is really happy to have the Xbox so now he can play it at home.

~ Shane participated in the Language Olympics on Language Perfect. It was a ten day online event, with students earning as many points as they can by learning new words in their chosen language to achieve Gold, Silver or Bronze medals. Shane joined in with his Latin class and earned a silver medal. He came 2^nd in his class (he was a little disappointed because it was a very close second) with a score of 2875.

~ Shane has discovered PicMonkey in the last few days and has been having fun editing photos. Here are a few of his favourites so far{click to enlarge}:

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A Merit for Music

It can be difficult to get a decent photo of Shane.

Especially with all that hair.

He tends to hide from the camera, or pull silly faces, or just walk away, refusing to have his picture taken.

But he and Shiloh, they have a special bond

and when left alone, they have these special moments.

Shane has been learning guitar at school for the last few weeks.

It’s the first time in his life he’s ever picked up a guitar, and he’s taken to it so naturally he’s surprised even himself.

He’s learned to play Mary had a little lamb and Twinkle twinkle little star, by heart, in just 2 weeks.

Shiloh is absolutely overjoyed with his playing.

Yesterday he played for his teacher, and earned a merit. His first merit so far at high school.

And he’s earned the admiration of his devoted baby brother.

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Photo A Day - Day 7 - Shadow

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A good start

Shane made this necklace and the box for it in Design Technology. He has been working on it for most of the term. He completed it in class today and was pleased with the result, especially because he got a merit for it. It’s the first merit he has received for something at high school.

He also brought home his graduation report today.  At his school they are updated each term on where they stand in terms of passing or failing. They evaluate each of his classes by grading them with a percentage, and then their overall average percentage indicates whether they will graduate the year or not. Minimum level of achievement for graduation is 65%. Shane is currently sitting at 95% and is achieving at 100% for all his subjects except English and Maths (94% so still excellent), and Social Studies (75% - and we had only just discussed this class last night and come up with a plan to improve for next term).

So he is doing well, and has made a good start to the school year.

J

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My Term One Project - Rhys Darby

{Click photo to enlarge}

Each term for Social Studies, Shane has to do a project on any subject of his choice, and can submit this project in any form he wants. For Term 1 he has chosen to do an informational poster on one of his favourite people - Rhys Darby. Shane wants to be a comedian when he grows up, so he has really enjoyed learning about Rhys Darby's journey to fame. He said many times "We're so similar!" 

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Photo A Day - Day 4 - Someone who makes me happy

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Photo A Day - Day 3 - Mail

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Christchurch Trip

The day after Shane got back from School Camp we were off to Christchurch for a week for Aunty Karla and Uncle Iain’s wedding. We had a great time and the trip was filled to the brim with heaps of fun and great memories.

Here’s a few photos {click to enlarge}:

Stopped for a break in driving | Throwing stones across the river

Auryn became Shane's wee shadow 

Carving it up on the dance floor with Josh

A special dance with Nana

First time on a scooter | Waiau

Hanmer Springs

Hanmer Springs hot pools

Ahhhh soooo chillaxxxed

Shane writes:

My favourite part of all will have to be us going to Hanmer Springs. Although I felt bad for Mum and Aunty Nellie that they couldn’t go in I still had so much fun. The thing that I will never forget there would be when Neihana almost threw up in the sulphur pools. The thing I enjoyed most would be the diving with Neihana and trying to convince some random that we spoke a different language. (It worked.) the thing I was most disappointed about was not being able to eat all my fish ‘n’ chips. I don’t know why I was but yeah. The thing I hated was losing Neihana’s necklace because he went mad at me and once I found it he wouldn’t stop going on. The thing I hated most about going to Hanmer Springs was having to leave because I had so much fun there.

Thank you Uncle Charlie and Aunty Nellie for paying for us. I can’t believe you spent that much on us.

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Photo A Day - Day 2 - Colour

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