Linc makes a short speech at his focus assembly

So damn proud. The kid was a mess at his pre-school end of year dance, but was fantastic today when he stood up in front of his whole school and read out a short speech for his class Focus Assembly. He was a little champion (don't forget, he READ out a speech - his reading skills are coming along so quickly)... The speech was about the Ngunnawal people and bringing forward a cloth and a didgeridoo, which makes no sense to me; but who cares, he read it and did a wonderful job.

Lincoln excels at school and dances on the soccer field

Lincoln is continuing to expand his amazing reading skills backed by his own enthusiasm and his Mum and Dad, who continue to read to both kids every night. However, we can't help but feel he is being handicapped slightly by his school teacher not recognising how advanced his reading is (in comparison to the other kids in his class - which we know for a fact as Mum helps other kids in his class with reading twice a week!). He apparently failed his sight words on Friday as he got one wrong (!) which we can't believe as he really does know them. Anyway, Mum is upset and wants to meet with the teacher, but Dad thinks that as long as we're challenging him with reading new things at home that it doesn't really matter... time will tell.

Another amazing soccer match today, with Linc even scoring a goal (which was actually disallowed as the ball had gone out of bounds just before hand)... Linc still thinks he scored a goal, and he was so excited! Poor old Carter gets a little bored, but his time will come!

Lincoln joins the Gungahlin United Football Club!

Following in his Dad's footsteps, we have signed Linc up to play Soccer! Dad played for about six years for the Belwest Wombats and Belsouth Foxes(?) with Grandad coaching - Dad played the position of Goalkeeper most of the time (from memory!). Linc will play for the U5 Strikers who are part of the Gungahlin United Football Club.

A rough start to the season weather-wise, with a chilly seven degrees combined with constant rain; we weren't well prepared, as Linc was dressed in nothing but shorts, long sleeve t-shirt and football top...he was freezing..but he still put in an AMAZING effort, chasing the ball down, running with it, kicking it and generally enjoying everything about the game! We'll get him some thermals and gloves methinks, that should improve his comfort levels. Unfortunately the game goes from 10-10.30am, so every second weekend, Mum may miss the finish of the game as she starts work at 11am...

Unfortunately a couple of Linc's team-mates were absent; their loss was felt even more-so as two of the kids that did show up acted like little brats (edit: I did have a different word there!), crying and carrying on - they would not even go on the field. So it ended up being three vs six, and you can imagine how that went with the other team completely enveloping the ball at times. But as stated, Linc was AMAZING - he listened to everything the coach was saying and succeeded in making life difficult for the other side - he even saved a goal at one stage! The coach is obviously a volunteer - he works for Southern Cross Ten - and did a pretty good job, considering!

So the immense feeling of pride well and truly overshadowed the cold, the rain, the forty million other people that showed up, the distinct lack of organisation (i.e. how about some signage showing which field was which) the complete and utter lack of any proper car-parking (we had to take two cars and ended up parking on a muddy median strip; but there was simply no other choice). AND there were no oranges at half-time. Out of everything I still can't get my head around that; what kind of coach doesn't bring ORANGES! I guess we'll do that next week...

It was 3 vs 6; the kid on the far left was being... difficult...

Yes, this kid was playing with an injury - good on him! That's Linc's coach in the background