End of Term 1

Our first term was very full, and filled with lots of interesting outings and activities- this term is looking to be similar so far!

Irving’s pottery class has been going well, and we even started watching “The Great Pottery Throw Down” to compliment all the learning in the class that he’s been attending in Guildford. It’s also become a bit of a thing, to stop and look at interesting pottery shops.

Picking up a cute pot after pottery class.

And cute fish.

We continued on with Norse myths learning to write in Runes, drawing and painting some of the Gods and characters and reading Padraic Colum’s version, and also reciting “The Poetic Edda- Voluspo”, as well as reading some of “The Viking Tales” (we’re big fans of Norse Mythology here!)

Irving’s and my paintings.

Irving’s,my and Arden’s work.

Norse Reading.

Arden has been reading “The Greek Treasure” by Irving Stone, because we really enjoyed his book on Michaelangelo, this one took us awhile to get into, and Arden is still finishing it. It became much more interesting to read when Henry Schliemann discovered Troy. It’s possible to virtually view some of the Schliemann’s discoveries on this Russian Museum’s site.


Arden finished the term looking at the way different aspects of the world are integrated together, doing some reading,writing and watching “Brian Cox’s Forces of Nature” series. We finished off with looking at the Gaia theory, and the idea that the Earth is a living complete organism.

Irving looked at local Aboriginal culture, and we learnt about how the aboriginal people cultivated the land, and how that knowledge had been suppressed in our culture, We listend to Bruce Pascoe’s tedtalk on this topic. We also read February Dragon, by Colin Thiele. A fabulous book the illustrates so well, the ever present danger of bushfires in Australia.

Hard waste collection happened again, and this time we found a vintage coffee table- it appears to be one of a set of nesting coffee tables originally. Irving and I are hoping to spend some time on it, repairing it.

Irving enjoyed our steam group this term and there were lots of interesting lessons on anatomy, and was complimented at home with watching “Operation Ouch” on some of the topics we covered- including the hand and it’s joints, the brain, the heart, the bladder, the kidneys.

One of the completed activities from our Steam group.

Towards the end of term, we attended our first home school sport’s day for the family. Arden was too old to participate, but acted as assitant coach with the Team captain, and joined the parent’s races for some of the activities. Though the kids were keen to have him join in the parents versus kids, tug of war. Irving had a great time doing all the activities- three legged races, egg and spoon, relays. The only down side was it was the last very hot day of Summer and the first very hot day, we’d had for a week or so, so we were all struggling in the heat a little. Much fun was had at the end, with water fights, to cool off!

Damien, Arden and I headed to ECU Joondalup to find out about their aviation course, and to see their open day generally. We had a good chat with a couple of the lecturers there, and saw the flight simulators in action. Arden used one, and very nicely took off, flew and landed. It was interesting for me to see, because I had only ever seen his first home education session on a simulator, some years ago, where he needed a lot of help. After his years in the flying club at Bull Creek, he really knows what he’s doing.

Arden’s lemon tree is doing very well.

Okonomiyaki by Arden.

New shorts for Irving.

Black and white sesame balls.

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.

 

Break Time

The Summer break always goes quite quickly and with interstate visitors, a rather cool start to Summer and a few events, my planning for this year has not happened yet!  Usually I like to do it, at the end of the previous year, and then take a look the week before we start “planned” work.  Fortunately we won’t be doing any of that for a few weeks…well except a few home ed classes, so I still have a bit of time for my planning.

Gabriel will be starting TAFE tomorrow, which will be interesting, as it is his first experience of systemised education.  He has done plenty of courses, and home ed classes and volunteering over the years, but he is my first home educated child who has not been schooled.  So far I think he’s been learning a lot about how disorganised that these systems and places can be!  😀

We’ve been off to Fringe a little this year, swimming (in our pool and at the beach), relaxing at home, doing jigsaws, playing pool and pokemon, building lego and for me, quite a bit of sewing- the younger two wanted some “Hawaiian style” outfits!

Willow started a new job, as an operations assistant for a small local business.  Turns out all her volunteering to moderate on message boards was very helpful!  She was working in a local cafe last year, but was frustrated by the irregular hours and shifts, and the new work is suiting her interests and experience much more.  She has also started a basic ballet classes for adults with WA ballet which she is loving.  Currently she is also flyering for fringeworld.

So this year I am back to home educating two students.  yr6 and yr1.  At least for the first half of the year.  We will have to see what the second half will hold for Gabriel’s yr 12.

Left over pics from last year…
Silhouette drawings with home made almond charcoal.

And in regular black charcoal.

Reading on Greek Myths.  I love Padraic Colum.  He is one of our favourite children’s mythology authors.

Another favourite author.  Read this to Arden for our botanical studies this year. 

One of Arden’s cactii flowering.

Some of my recent reading. 

I’m also re-reading Harry Potter for some lighter Summer reading.  Gradually getting through it…onto book 5.  I also read “The Trial” by Kafka, after Willow, Gabriel and Damien went to see a performance it by WAAPA students, at Spare Part Puppet Theatre.

Making multi-coloured beet kvass and butter.

Christmas lights and rides around Perth. 

Arden received and built this excellent model of Leonardi’s bridge design, on Christmas.  He also got a model hyrdapault.

I made this snake outfit for Irving!

And Arden has a cat outfit.

Gabriel needed some jean repairs.

Covered one stool, that I found in hard waste last year!  The navy blue corduroy is a huge improvement.

Finally some fun on my birthday.  Rolling and running down a hill!

Beach weather

Our first few weeks of planned work have been busy and interesting.  Since the weather has been up and down and all over the place this Summer, we ended up with a cool start to our term time, and then a burst of heat.  So we took it easy again for a bit and spent a bit of time around the river and down the beach.

South Cottesloe beach

Swan River

Outside the WA Maritime museum, after visiting the Travellers and Traders exhibit.  (We were watching a container ship leave the port).

We have an old flute, that is not worth spending money on to repair, so Arden and Irving and I been doing some online study to clean and repair it ourselves.  I

Gabriel, Arden and Irving and I headed to the aviation museum for a tour last week.

I finished making Irving a bag (mostly out of scraps)…Arden is still working on his cushion.

Arden and I have been working on drawing some celtic knots.

Modelling on our balcony.

Our current reading and reciting.  Arden is learning he first section of Sigurd and Gudrun.  Willow and Gabriel learnt the epic Voluspo, but Arden was keen to do Tolkien’s version.

Arden and my modelling.  I did Odin as Vegtam the wanderer, before he gave his right eye to Mimir.   Arden modelled Thor, with Miolnir, his hammer.

Arden’s and my sketches of Odin, and Arden’s rune work.

My picture of Frigga.

Arden’s sketch of Frigga as a Falcon.

Gabriel has been working on creative writing, and is looking at planning a time line for his history studies this term before moving onto writing an essay on WW2. He’s also reading “Lord of the Rings” as his English text for this term.  We’re gradually working on some holes in his spelling, and he seems to be improving nicely, we’re complimenting the spelling sessions, with some kinesiology,  using “Switch on your Brain.” He’s planning all his time for study this year, so it’s challenging now that it’s quieter around here to remember to leave him to it!  Since Willow’s off at WAAPA and Irving is a bit more grown up, I’m noticing when he’s not working (and tending to think that he should be!) and am reminding myself that he’s got to work out how to manage his own schedule.  It was much easier to let Willow just get on with it, as I was also busy with the younger three, and Irving was much smaller.

Otherwise I’ve been getting a little sewing done, and of course cooking.  Arden in particular has taken to having his own cooking night, and is planning his night, in advance with Damien.  He made us pasties this week.  Arden and Gabriel are also very keen to eat chillis.  So I’ve made them some chilli butter this week.

Week One

We started our at home learning this week, sadly not missing the worst of the heat (might have to re-evaluate this for other years, where the Jan/ Feb season is mild…) and so far have had a pleasant start, though none of us are keen on humidity so yesterday was a bit ordinary.

Arden and I are reading Norse myths by Padraic Collum and doing a study of runes and some celtic knots right now.  We’ re continuing to use a dip pen for writing, and Irving has been loving trying out the dip pen too.

We’ve also started onto some embroidery for craft.  Arden enjoyed hand sewing last year, and although he’s quite good at knitting, he isn’t very keen on it so far.  (We still have a cushion decoration pattern to finish from our wool spinning last year.  )  We’ve watched a few youtube videos on embroidery, and have made a start on making him a cushion for his bed.  His plan is to embroider snakes, stars and his name on it.  He has drawn his design onto his pillow and sewn his name so far using Holbein stitch (an up and back running stitch).

This weeks sewing; Arden’s embroidery, pink and spider bag for Irving, green bag for me.

Start of Irving’s embroidery up close.

Received a pile of vintage ricrac off ebay!  Love that it’s all cotton, and almost none is synthetic!

We have a very eclectic taste in clothes around  here…dating back to DH and my days in the alternative scene in Adelaide, and this has continued as a family trait now that we home educate.  So on that theme Arden was very pleased to receive these floral sneakers (we bought online, and they use Korean sizing, which turns out is not the same as the EU sizing it appears to use) which were for Willow, but were far too small for her.

We tend to think that it’s important for young people to be able to wear the things that they like without judgement.  It seems to DH and I that many kids feel that they are “wrong” as boys or girls, because they’ve been told (from a very young age) what girls and boys are “allowed” to be (by parents, teachers, advertising, television, film, computer games,etc) and then this confuses them about who they are.  “I must be a girl if I like dresses…”,  “I must be a boy if I hate dresses and I hate pink….”.  This is social conditioning in its worst form IMO.  Parents need to defer judgement, and support their kids to try things, without passing judgement on what their child likes or dislikes.  The child’s likes or dislikes are not what makes them a boy or a girl, it just makes them human, and a person needing acceptance and love.  If we could all choose to accept each others tastes in superficial aspects such as appearance, I think we would find many more creative and happy people and children in the world.

Gabriel has been getting into managing his own timetable this year, and without Willow around, as she started at WAAPA this week (the earlier two weeks were orientation) it has been quite quiet whilst we are working, and I feel a little like I have a bit too much time to be aware of what he’s doing!  So I’m attempting to make a concerted effort to be disinterested.  We’ve written him a vague outline, and I really want to get in the habit of having a weekly discussion of where he’s at.  Probably at this stage, I will head towards a daily review building towards weekly.

Willow has been finding institutional learning interesting after a decade out of the system.  There’s aspects of it that she is loving, and aspects that are a bit challenging (mostly social related so far).  I think she’s enjoy the out and about aspect of it, despite the social challenges (giggly girls, immature behaviour,etc).

A few highlights from the end of our break!

Tower of books by Arden!

Irving doing some photography through the screen door.

Reading together.

We also got to a couple of shows in PIAF, and PIAF’s opening.  Damien took the older three to see the Wintergarden, and I took them to see O A Lang Pho.  Everyone particularly loved the second one, which was a Vietnamese circus, and Willow came out saying that, that is the sort of circus that she would prefer to do.  The Wintergarden got mixed reviews from the family, but was generally considered acceptable.