Yesterday we had another house meeting in which we discussed we rounded off the first wellbeing pillar. During the housemeeting we learned about stress. Through a video we learned what stress is. After the video we discussed things that can cause stress, such as not understanding, schoolwork and pressure. After discovering what gave us stress the children listed things that can help then manage stress: reading, doing exercise, watching TV, drawing… That last one we put into practice when doing a drawing meditation. We listened as someone guided us through connecting pen with paper and our bodies with our minds. The perfect end to our evening. 

Watch a short video here!

Furthermore we selected our first primary House Captain. Matvei has been chosen as our House Captain due to his good behaviour, kindness, homework ethic and being responsible and joyful. 

Here’s how the progress is going. This is a little project that Liam has been putting together, he was recently gifted an old skateboard and has had the lovely idea to upcycle it and try to sell it to raise money for charity. On our way through this journey Concha Blanca Boarding House was kind enough to gift us 2 more old battered skateboards. We got straight to work at sanding them down to strip all of the old paint off and we spent this afternoon getting very artsy! The children all came up with their own designs and the did a great job!

Here are the steps we took…

After a morning filled with activities, some went horse riding, others running or boating, we spent the afternoon in Geneva. The children enjoyed roaming around in a few stores and playing in the park. One of the stores gave Liam a skateboard deck, which he wants to paint and turn in to a complete skateboard. We also payed a visit to an exhibition about happiness in the Quartier Libre SIG. After all this fun, there were a lot of sleepy faces on the bus.

After talking about healthy food and good sleep, in this weeks wellbeing session we talked about screen time before bed. We talked about the effects of screen time on our physical and mental health. Because of these effects we decided to not watch TV anymore for an entire week. There were screams of shock in the house when we announced this, but the children came up with some nice alternatives for the evenings. Next week we will paint, play hide and seek, boardgames etc. instead of watching TV.

Today after school Mikaela and Zhiyu’s Grade 4 teacher Miss Cooper came round the house to visit us. Miss Cooper was super helpful with the children’s homework and was impressed when the children showed off their bedrooms, the house and the big garden!

Thank you for coming round to spend some time with!

We arrived back to the Boarding House this afternoon after a fantastic weekend. We are all very exhausted from such an active weekend in the mountains and the children are having an early night so they can be rested and ready for school tomorrow.

• Mikaella joined me in the climbing activity and did a super job! She managed to do indoor climbing and outdoor climbing. At the beginning she was a bit hesitant and it took her a while to feel comfortable on the wall. After she was comfortable, she was up and down enjoying herself a lot.
• Nicholas thoroughly enjoyed his activities this weekend. It has been a great experience and a nice way to bond with students from different Boarding Houses. We spent a lot of our time with the 2 Middle-school Houses, the boys from Concha Blanca House and the girls from Old Portena House, Nicholas mixed really well amongst all the children. On his Acrobranche activity he had fun and Mr. Max who went with the group explained to me that he had a little fall (completely safe and no injuries) but that it didn’t dent his confidence and he continued to enjoy himself.
• Zhiyu really impressed us all this weekend, not only was he helpful, polite and kind to others but he showed great team spirit and was really brave in his mountain biking activity. He was praised for his bravery from his Activity Leader.
• WOW – What an incredible weekend for Liam! He has come back saying that it was the best weekend ever. He joined Mr. Rob and a group to do the overnight hike to Glacier 3000. This is such an achievement and he is very proud of himself as we all are super proud of him for having such great positivity and spirit.
• Matvei went with Nicholas to the Acrobranche activity and said his favourite moment of the whole weekend was when he had a pillow fight with Zhiyu and Nicholas on Saturday evening after the disco!

Today Zhiyu and Liam were visiting the beautiful city of Lausanne. They took advantage of this excursion to share some unforgettable moments of real friendship.

Because of the holiday, we had some more time today to play in the house. We spent the late afternoon and evening playing some board games