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.

 

April Hols

Quite some time ago I meant to do a post about our activities and outings during our April break.  Somehow this year just seems to be flying by, and I’m not getting on here very often.  Here are some moments….

What happens when escalators are being installed, and I am travelling with Arden and Irving….a mini physics lesson.  We spend quite a bit of time examining the inner structure of the cogs and wheels.

 A beautiful day catching the train across the Swan River.

Skateboarding and scootering our way down to the Swan River.  Followed by some tree climbing for Arden and Irving.

And some reading.

Arden made us some home made gnocchi.

Working on refurbishing a Bart Simpson skateboard.

Arden making hot chocolate with cinnamon topping.

Stool repairs.  We all spent a bit of time working on various repair jobs around the house.

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.

Term 4 in a Nutshell

This term has seen us doing a broad range of activities as we wrap up our planned school work for 2016.

A large part of Arden’s activities have involved looking at fibres, how they’re made and making a piece of clothing.  We’ve done work with wool and cotton this  year.  Spinning our own wool using a drop spindle, and using the wool to know with.  Arden is currently knitting Christmas decorations.  He’s also done some weaving this year, and has spent much of the year, sewing pyjamas by hand.

Our spun wool drying.

Jammy top in progress. (I just need to finish the buttonholes for him now!)

One of our other themes, has been looking at buildings and structures.  Damien and Irving and I all head out to visit the Old Mill, and take a look around the building, as well as see how they used to mill grain there.  We had been to the Old Mill before (when we first moved to Perth) however at that time Damien was so busy with work that he was unable to come with us.

Grind stone at the Old Mill

Appreciating the Swan River from the South side

We also visited Woodbridge House in recent weeks, a beautiful old mansion, and we were quite sad to see how few are left in Perth and how under appreciated that they are.  Sadly Woodbridge House’s lattice work and paint were in poor repair, and given how many beautiful homes of this style, Damien and I grew up surrounded by and visiting, being from Adelaide, we were sad to see that this house, being unique in its style in WA, was not being appreciated for its story by enough people.

Stopping for coffee at Woodbridge House.

Arden and I have also being doing some work with a dip pen, in the aim of supporting him creating beautiful print and cursive.  I found with Gabriel that the friction of the dip pen was useful for slowing his writing, and enabling it to come out clearer and crisper.  I thought that this might also be helpful for Arden, and it certainly worked!  I am thinking that we might focus on using a dip pen most of next year, and also do some drawings with it.

Dip pen writing

Dip pen sketches by Arden

Dip pen sketches by me (left and right handed- I’ve been learning to write right handed whilst helping Arden with his writing.)

Willow has spent a bit of time filming the youtube series, “Focus” that she will be in, this term, as well as doing a lot of music preparation for her audition at WAAPA last week.  She’s also taken a bit of interest in making make-up and has made her own lip gloss recently.  She’s been continuing with learning to use the sewing machine, and recently made her own bra.

Willow’s sewing.

Whilst Willow was busy with filming and hanging out with Damien, Gabriel, Arden and Irving and I, headed out to Perth heritage days festival, and toured some of the historic buildings around the city.

Government House (the Gardens were beautiful!)

The old Palace Hotel

And Gabriel and Arden took a ride on an old fire truck!

Gabriel has been doing a lot of studying of WW1, and this past week he and Willow went to the Spirit of Australia ANZAC exhibition.  He has also spent quite a bit of this last semester studying transport, and it’s evolution.  We picked up a model 4cylinder motor to construct recently and are in the early stages of construction.

Working on the engine model.

Attaching the cylinders to the crankshaft

Gabriel also had an opportunity to do a metal smithing class, which he was very please about!  He’s been asking me where he could do jewellery making for a while, and we felt lucky to finally find somewhere.

Gabriel’s metal work

I’ve been doing a lot of sewing recently, and it seems that in recent years I’ve discovered my passions; rock and roll/rockabilly dancing and sewing!  I’ve been loving sewing since I’ve made friends with my machine ( we were a bit at war to start with…)

Jammy shorts for myself.

Irving in his new jammies.

A cushion cover

Pockets for pants!

The pants the pockets belong to!

Irving getting fast and splashy on his balance bike.

A new space craft for Benny!

Australian Ringneck eating flowers in Midland.

And finally another cow in Perth’s cow parade.

Winter Works

We had a lovely long holiday break in the middle of the year following on from the success of previous years since Irving’s birth.  Last year we took 4 weeks, but this year we took 6 again, given that we found that, that amount of time seemed to benefit us all the most in terms of feeling refreshed for the second half of the year.

We started the official holiday break with a visit to Winterland in the Cultural Centre and a session of iceskating.  Damien took the older kids along, andI hung out with Irving  and some friends.  Everyone was pleased with a surprise visit from channel 9,meaning they got to be on TV and bonus skating time!

Arden has been doing quite a bit of nature study this year, and we’ve spent quite a bit of time bird watching in our local area.  Swan River is one of our favourite places for a walk, and Arden has been enjoying watching out for water birds.

Each week for the last four years we’ve been doing a home education session of basketball.  Currently we head out to a session at Leederville, and over the years it has become our ritual to stop off for a coffee on the way home.  Recently one of the lovely staff at La Veen, made Gabriel a special hot chocolate.

During the holidays I booked Willow, Gabriel and Arden into a session of pottery at the Fremantle Arts Centre.  It was our first time there, and unfortunately for Arden and I, it absolutely poured the day we went.  Other than that everyone enjoyed it and found it quite beautiful.  We are yet to pick up the finished works.

Fremantle Arts Centre.

Irving turned two in the holidays and we celebrated with a rose petal and poppy seed cake.

Willow and I went to a green wood working class and learnt to split a log and make a spoon from scratch.  These are our finished pieces.  Willow refers to hers as a caveman spoon.

This is my second spoon in progress, I haven’t quite totally finished it, as I need to pick up some sandpaper for the finishing touches.

Some of Arden’s form drawing in action.

Arden making geometric shapes from his JUMP maths.

Willow making kitty pancakes.

Arden’s first attempt at crocheting.  Learning to make a chain.

Irving having a go too!  😀

Arden crocheting in action.

First projects completed dishcloths by Arden and myself.

Next crochet piece, a pentagon.

Mine in progress.

The start of an afghan that I’m knitting ( this has been a bit delayed by a need to concentrate on the pattern and Irving being a bit too busy)

 Purple cords for Irving.

Christmas, Holidays and 2013

Well we’ve had a busy Christmas/ New Year season as expected, though not as busy as last year.  Arden turned five at the beginning of the holidays, and we had a lovely family dinner to celebrate.

The Perth Christmas pageant was on 15th December, and Willow managed to walk the whole way on stilts, which was quite a feat given that she’d only got the hang of them a couple of weeks before.  (The walk in the pageant was 6km!)  The pageant was at night this year, and I thought it was much nicer than being at a daytime pageant, where it frequently ends up being far too hot.

Damien had a couple of weeks off over Christmas, so we went on a few outings, that we’d been meaning to do for a while.  The first one was an outing to Hilarys to visit AQWA, and have a swim.  The underwater walkway, was liked by all, except the moving floor made Willow, Gabriel and Damien feel a bit ill. We also finally got to Perth Zoo (everyone loved the giraffes, zebras, and orangutans), and Damien took Willow and Gabriel out sailing on the Swan River again.

We also are celebrating Willow’s 13th birthday today.  We’ve spent a fairly quiet day at home, but will be having an afternoon tea out at Koko Black later in the week.

I’ve got my homeschool stuff planned for the year, I did most of it before Christmas, and it was nice just to be able to set it aside and forget about it.  Our plan is to start in Feb this year, with some part time school, as we’re expecting baby no. 4 in June.  I’m also going to do class 1 part time with Arden this year, to cover the govt requirements for pre-primary.  I’d prefer to wait til he’s but given timing and how interested he is in learning to read, I feel quite ok about doing class 1 over this year and next.

The last Fortnight

So next week we’ll be onto grade 7, grade 5 and kindy-at-home for Arden. I’ve spent this evening arranging Gabriel’s first block, and helping Willow plan hers. So looks as if we’re all arranged. I’m looking forward to having extra time with Arden, and I’m hoping that Willow will find her way, with directing her learning.

We headed out to the Steiner shop at Bibra lake again last week, this time going via Fremantle. It was certainly a much more pleasant journey. Since our last visit, the shop has also renamed itself, and is now called ‘the Honeyclock’,after a giant honey filled egg timer they sell. I do like the shop there, and we had a pleasant time looking around at all the different items. I picked up a blackboard, duster and chalk, as well as some main lesson books, pencils, modelling wax and a book by Padraic Colum, ‘The boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter.’ The blackboard has gone down well with everyone, and it was quite amusing watching everyone wondering about how to use the duster!

I also picked up a glockenspiel last week, it’s probably the nicest quality instrument in the house. It has a beautiful resonance. I’m hoping to make quite a bit of use of it with Arden. Damien also bought us a keyboard, to help Gabriel and Willow out with their musicianship classes. Everyone is quite taken by it. Damien and I have been practising daily, Arden likes to changes it to drumming and use it as a drum machine, and Willow and Gabriel have just been generally trying out tunes on it.

Gabriel has turned ten, and our birthday season is over til next Summer. It was pleasant to just make it a family affair this year. It’s the first time we’ve done that, so it felt a lot less busy, which was very nice. Willow and Gabriel went busking at the Perth Cultural Centre, and we also came across the Red ball Project, on Gabriel’s birthday. Everyone found the giant ball quite fun.

We also headed to our first homeschool outing for the year, off to the Naturaliste Marine Discovery Centre. Willow and Gabriel enjoyed the class, and whilst they were busy doing that Arden and I got to pat some sea creatures in a rock pool, at the centre, amongst them was a cat shark, sea urchins, star fish, and sea cucumbers. We had a swim at the beach at Hillarys after, it is quite an interesting set up, enclosed in from the ocean, by the marina.

Hillarys Beach

On the beach theme, we headed to Cottesloe last week, and were chased out of the water, by the life guards, setting a siren off, for a shark warning. A helicopter had been following it up the coast, til it was too near to the swimmers. Apparently it was a hammerhead. I suggested that it was nicer just spotting dolphins in Adelaide, but the kids were just as impressed by the shark idea.

Finally Willow went out last weekend with Damien on a catamaran. They both headed out onto the Swan River, for an hours worth of sailing. Willow loved it and Gabriel will be going this weekend, with Damien.

Looking North across the Swan

And I’ve finished carving my egg! I polished it with beeswax today, and I’m quite happy with it.

Everyone else’s are also progress nicely, and now I seem to be also making one for Arden!
L-R: Egg for Arden, Willow’s, Gabriel’s and mine.

We do seem to have been very busy recently! And actually there has been more happening- circus class have started again, and both the kids have new bikes, and Damien and I have been discussing Codex amongst our food oriented community. We have had a very lovely Summer here, getting out and doing lots of things, but I am glad that it’s starting to feel cooler. Even if that means the temperature is in the high 20’s during the day, and high teens overnight.