The 2013 Annual Homeschool Athletics Carnival

A couple of weeks ago my boys had the opportunity to participate in the Annual Athletics Carnival that our Homeschool group organises every year. This year I was lucky enough to be the main organiser of the event. This kind of event is something that I enjoy being able to do seeing as I originally attended University to become a Physical education primary school teacher. I never completed my degree so it's wonderful to have the opportunity to work in my area of passion after all these years!

The children had an amazing day. We had to postpone the first proposed date due to bad weather so it was beautiful to see the glorious sunshine and such perfect weather conditions on the day it actually went ahead!

We started the day with a welcome introduction, some stretches and a warm up run around the oval. It was clear from the start that some of the kids were going to be quite competitive and others were there for the fun and social aspect. It was so heartwarming to see the older children being so helpful towards the younger children, especially consider the varied age groups we had participating on the day. We had boys and girls aged from 2 to 14 yrs of age in separate groups for the field events at the start of the day and then we all came together for the running events after lunch.

We even had a mini tuckshop set up in a big tarp tent selling mostly healthy treats. The kids thought this was such a novelty and happily spent up their pocket money on muesli bars, popper juices and organic lollipops. It's great to give our kids similar experiences to what they would have if they attended a standard school. I know I have very fond memories myself of school sports days, running around bare footed with friends and collecting ribbons along the way!

The event itself was held at the Little athletics field and we had access to all their equipment and a fully lined running track, throwing area, etc. We had 3 main 'sports teachers' on the day, myself, Sigrid and Mel. I really couldn't have done it without their help. Anne-Marie ran the tuckshop and Bianca took some great photos of the day for us. Together with the help of several parents the day was a great success and one we all look forward to seeing our children enjoy again next year.

Below are some of the photos taken on the day. My eldest Bailey can be seen in the green t-shirt, my second son Dane is wearing a blue t-shirt and track pants, my third son Ehren is wearing a yellow jumper and my youngest son Fraser was wearing a red/grey/white striped shirt.