Title-less

Due to some issues with resources (I’ve been having difficulty finding lodestone/magnetite)- we’ve stepped away from physics from a few weeks- and Willow is doing a block on medieval history. The block has been very interesting so far- we’ve been using Charles Kovac’s book ‘The Age of Discovery’ for the basis of the lesson. There’s been a progression through the stories of Jesus based off the progression of Rome and monks creating beautiful works telling Jesus’ story.

This is Willow’s painting of Jesus’ birth.

And her illuminated letter.

Gabriel thought he’d have a try too.

A castle design.

This week we progressed onto Islam and Judaism, and did some Islamic patterns.

Willow also did some writing- both creative and factual- she’s currently working on a story about viking times, and she also wrote a page about Albert the Great.

Gabriel has just come to the end of a block on ratios and fractions, and will be doing his final block of the year, on the Norse myths. We are planning a play for our final week, which will be fun, as we haven’t done a play in quite a while.

Gabriel has also progressed nicely through his cushion and should be finishing the lion soon.

We’ve been a bit disappointed to find this week that The Herdsman has closed it city shop, due to lack of popularity. It seems good quality food hasn’t really taken off here quite that much. Seems like it’s a good decade behind Adelaide- I’ve been quite surprised by how progressive Adelaide’s food culture is by comparison. I will have to get out to Organic on Charles more often over the summer.

Week one- Class 6 and 4

It’s lovely to be sitting in the quiet after a very busy week this past one. Since Saturday we’ve been so busy doing all sorts. We headed to Womadelaide again last week, and saw some fabulous bands, had lots of fun dancing and ate some lovely food. Strangely this year, we didn’t see that many of our friends, normally we almost spend more time socialising than seeing bands, this year was the opposite- despite lots of our friends being there. Musically we particularly enjoyed the Allan Kelly Quartet, Imelda May, Amadou and Mariam and Hanggai. Willow found Imelda May a bit loud, but decided she(Imelda May that is) was ok, after she autographed the CD we bought and was very chatty and friendly.

School wise we started on geometric drawing and Norse myths. The geometric drawings have been very popular, as has the geometry book we’ve been reading. It puts the development of geometry into a very entertaining story form.

We started with some simple geometric drawing this week using a compass, pencil and ruler. Initially there was a circle, then the sixth division of the circle by circles, and finally the sixth division of a circle into hexagons.

Circles

Circles into sixths

Circles into Hexagons

For our Norse Myth block this time, we are reading two texts- The Children of Odin by Paudraic Colum again, which I love and Norse Mythology by Charles Kovacs.

The book progresses in a more chronological order of the story, and it seems to nicely complement the Paudraic book, in that they offer different details. So far this block we’ve been busy writing in runes and drawing the gods.

Our first craft project is almost complete too! It was just a little taste into making a toy figure – a little mouse. I’ve finished mine, I did a tiny orange one for Arden. Gabriel’s is sewn together, but in need of details and Willow’s is part was along. It was a nice taster for Willow before she starts planning her toy making project starting next week, Gabriel will be onto cross stitch instead.