Term 1 Highlights

This year so far, has been very full, and thus I have managed to neglect this page rather badly!  We tend to start the year a bit more slowly and relaxedly, spending a lot of time outdoors and doing activities, and whilst we did this, we didn't spend quite as much time as other years.

Arden flying his balsa wood plane.

Wandering around the Perth Hills.

Foraged some pears!  :)

We started this year with some colour painting, and focusing on what the colour expressed/felt to us.  Everyone came out with different ideas

Yellow finished.

Blue.

Green.

Orange.

Then we progressed onto modelling and drawing shapes.

Spheres.

We've been reading Uncle Tungesten, by Oliver Sacks, as a family this year, and it has led to some interesting spontaneous science.

A well-loved copy of the book!

Experimenting with burning string, to see how the idea of the first filament came about.

There was an attempt to dissolve chalk in vinegar, but during this process (the chalk *didn't* dissolve) we did more research and discovered modern day chalk, is actually gypsum.  Thus the lack of dissolving was explained!

Building out of blocks is always popular here!

Working on prisms.

Trying out a flight simulator.

Irving spotted this mysterious door way at the Perth mint- hard to see in this pic, but there are stairs and no door.  So we wandered in, and had an impromptu history lesson.  Apparently the door used to be the way they brought gold into the building, but eventually they stopped delivering it that way, and they bricked in the door.  Best bit, is that there is still a padlock on the gate!

Moving onto some Chinese calligraphy painting.

A beautiful sunset on a train ride home from the beach.

And some craft- Arden and I have been doing a little crocheting again this term, working on dishcloths.

Plus I finished a quilted skirt for the winter.  I'm looking forward to being toasty warm.

Otherwise Arden and  I have continued to work through our JUMP maths program.  He has taken up journalling in the mornings. Plus our final new section of work for the term was starting on Gilgamesh and learning about Mesopotamia.  We still have a little more to do on that theme.

Gabriel has been doing latin this term, WWI and WWII history studies, English-so far with a focus on grammar, Maths, and Art- currently he is working on 3D modelling using blendr.