Term 2….

This year keeps on rushing on, and I keep meaning to post more regularly on here, though we just seem to have a constant flow of activities and interests going on that these days journalling our learning on here is not the priority it once was.  Particularly as I now have a sense of understanding and confidence in where a home education journey leads.

And so here are some highlights from our second term this year.

Making a ladder for a fairy house.

Runes from the Viking exhibition at the Maritime museum.

Working on watercolours, with a particular focus on mixing greens.

WASO concert.

Learning to rollerskate.

A favourite read around here- George MacDonald’s at the back of the North Wind.

 

 More watercolours- this time exploring Arden and I were exploring red, whilst Irving did his own thing.

Working on geometry.

Woodwork.

Pyjamas for Arden.

Amazing autobiography on life in the North Territory.  “We of the Never Never”.

ROKR clock project.

Dying with tumeric and repairing a vintage dress.  Experimenting with mordants and getting various shades of yellow from the tumeric.

The old entrance to the Subiaco oval.

 

Art, reading and life

This year we started the year with some painting.  Largely focusing on complimentary colours and how to mix them from after images.  We picked up some new Stockmar paints, as we were getting a bit low.  The book “Colour Dynamics” offered great inspiration and the idea for trialing mixing the colours we could see as after images.

Mixing after image colours.

Our stockmar paints.

Painting together

A selection of Irving’s paitnings.

A selection of Arden’s paintings.

 Veil Painting- stages….

 

 

 

  

A selection of my paintings.

Veil painting – transforming

Paintings on display.

Complementary colours in nature.

We also took a look at Jenny Hocking’s book “The Palace Letters” after coming across it at the library.  Arden and I heard about the letters regarding Gough Whitlam’s dismissal last year, and decided it was worth reading about.  Some of it was a bit dry for his level, but a significant amount of it was filled with intrigue and so as a book for us to read together it worked very well.  For more pleasureable reading we all read “Wind in the Willows” together.

Creating a cork board gradually.

We did some first aid again this Summer.  Arden and Irving’s turn this year.

Since we were in and out of lockdown during this time, we adjusted our usual start to the year, which is March, did painting took some time out again and “started” for the year.  Given that we do a lot of natural learning and interest led learning even during our structured time it didn’t hugely impact the beginning of the year.  As we always start gently as the heat can oftentimes still be oppressive in March.

This year we hired a car and did some weekend driving around Western Australia.

The Pinnacles.

Two Rocks

Crystals in the Caves at Yanchep.

Cervantes

Mandaring Weir.  Quite a big deal in Western Australia, where a lot of the state is desert.

The coast.

 Arden and Irving really enjoyed getting out and seeing a lot of the places that they have heard about.  Gabriel came along for abit, unfortunately Willow was busy for a lot of the weekend- so we were mostly a family of four for the weekend.  Something that is more common these days as we transition into a family with adults.  Sometimes all of us, sometimes 4 and sometimes 5.  It is interesting being able to experience the family in different ways as we transition into new ways of experiencing family life as a multi-generational family.

Dragonflies were studied for a bit, when we came across this one.

Arden had an opportunity to be photographed as a schoool student for WA maritime museum.  First time in a school uniform.  😀

Irving was making mobius strips.  We seem to have phases with them!

Some interesting reading on the English language.  Everyone enjoyed this!

Arden’s jeans being patched to get every last bit of life out of them, until they are too small!

Summer 2021 and slow starts….

 This year has seen us be much more relaxed into our educational year than most.  We generally start our at home structured activities in late Feb early March.  This year our brief co-vid lockdown saw us make the decision to do two weeks in Feb, take another month off, do 3weeks and start the more structured part of our schooling in the April Holidays. 

We had our usual hectic start to the year with Jan and Feb covering four birthdays.  With all the bowling we did last year, we headed off ten pin bowling for my birthday this year.

 

 A pleasing find in the Op shop- some fire king mugs.

 

 We drank a lot of pineapple, mint and ginger juice with sparkling water during the summer.  Freshly made and very refreshing!

Santa brought us a 3000 piece Lord of the Rings puzzle this year.  Everyone did a little, but really it ended up that I did most of it. 

We spent quite a bit of time on the Swan River.

This was an interesting insight into a potential future looking Perth.  From an exhibition at the State Library.

We read George MacDonald again- he is a family favourite.  As is this book- “At the Back of the North Wind”.

Irving in recovery after a fun time at the park- there’s no place like a cold floor on a hot day it would seem!

Sewing jammies.

Family walk through John Forrest National Park.

 

Term 4 and Summer Break

 Term four saw us getting out and about along the beach and river a bit.  Arden had a chance to try sailing at Hillary’s Yacht club, and would probably like to do more, but so far time has not fallen into place to make this happen.  We had planned to do a few beach walks this Summer, but we only managed that once, and it was a hilarious day filled with misadventure- including the shark siren going off and us not getting to have a swim.  We also did a short walk along the Swan River to Fremantle.

Swimming and sailing at Hillarys.

First time to City Beach.

Heading to Freo.

We met some homeschoolers at AQWA- somewhere I’m always hoping to get to more often!

Working on painting ships.

Working on breathing exercises in our shading/ drawing.

Working on Rose Windows as we progressed through our history studies.

A favourite book around here, and one that we only bought because JK Rowling apparently loved it.  The Little White Horse.

Geometry- Arden’s followed by mine.  24 division of the circle and connected to every point.

Arden’s pie.

Birthday and giant jigsaw puzzle of Mars.

Making jeans last. Possibly *too* long….

Re-covering a stool and giving it a second chance at life.

Winter Term 3

 As co-vid lockdown receded and we thought about our coming year, we decided to try to continue with a slower pace of life for at least the short term.  Sadly Arden’s favourite activity- iceskating – came to an end as our preferred iceskating rink closed during lockdown.  We decided to go and trial an ice hockey session; just after having enrolled to do ten pin bowling.  The ice hockey went down well.  As did the ten pin bowling.  We had enrolled in the teenage class- Irving had said he wasn’t interested  in doing ten pin, but by mid term he was part of the teenage class and loving it.

For quite some time we have attended plenty of arts events- Fringe, Festival, Ballets and Operas.  Due to co-vid we decided to slow down on this and take the year more slowly.  We did still get to a few local gigs, but much fewer classical performances.  Historically it was Willow who had expressed a particular interest in these, and as she had not been home educated for about 3yrs, it seemed to make sense to redirect our time.

Enjoying a piano concert in Government House’s gardens.

We had a lot of fun doing chemistry in our kitchen using  “The Wonders of Waldorf Chemistry” as our guide.  It was interesting to try some of the experiments that I didn’t get to with the older kids- such as burning sulphur, and also to have some trouble with experiments I expected to work, because we had done them before.
 

Making charcoal.

Attempting to burn charcoal.

Burning some different items-including sulphur, which has the blue flame.

Acids and Bases.

Our reading- King Arthur and the Knights of the Round table by Llancelyn Green, and The King of Ireland’s Son by Colum– which we did a series of paintings about.

Paintings by Irving. (All paintings are inspired by the King of Ireland’s Son.)

Paintings by Arden.

Arden’s painting on the left, and mine on the right.

My paintings.

Our first carrot from our balcony garden.

Cable socks for me.

Repairing Gabriel’s satchel with berry coloured velvet.

A new quilted blanket for Gabriel; made from an old cotton blanket, his old comforter and cotton and cotton flannel.