Term 3

We have had a few family things going on around here this past term, and so I seem to have taken fewer pics than usual.  Irving has been continuing along learning to read and write, and count and all the usual things that little people do, which in his case includes experimenting with instruments, paper cut outs and working out how things work.

Arden has been continuing along on latin, using Lingua Latina, learning about Ancient Rome, Hawaii and the Polynesian nations, and geology.  We've almost finished knitting socks (Irving has been learning to knit too) and he's been learning to sew on the sewing machine.

This game has ended up being used quite creatively for various constructions by Irving.

 

 

One variation of the game.

Flower Pressing and decorating candles.

Arden progressing through his knitting.  One sock down, one sock to go for both of us.

Constructing platonic solids out of modelling wax and tooth picks.

Woodwork with the "Joy of Wood".  Using traditional tools.

A dice by Arden, out of wood, and a dice by Irving out of aluminium.

Working on some handsewing- beanbags and a scabbard.

Arden working on designing a harmonica bag for his first machine sewing project.

Some of my sewing.  Pyjama repairs.

Learning to do bound buttonholes.


Finished!

Turning jeans into a skirt with fringe.

Arden's cooking- checkerboard cookies.

Streusel.

Some of our garlic harvest.  We've also had tomatoes and capsicums and potatoes this year.

Our drawings from reading "Red Riding Hood"
Irving's.

Arden's.

Mine.

Out enjoying the Winter Light's in Brookfield Place.

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2025

I've been repairing the socks that I made that year, earlier today, they've been very comfy for around the house, but need a bit of attention to the soles to keep them going a bit longer.  My sewing and knitting pile is currently a bit ridiculous and I'm gradually getting through it. TBH there's a few too many loose ends around here and one of my goals is to finish up a bunch of things this year.

Tomorrow we start back at our woodwork classes for term 3.  Continuing on our lund stools.

Term 2 part 2

Towards the end of the term we spent a month looking at poetry, in different styles and learning about metres, and how to understand them.  Arden and I worked together to come up with the our own poems in the various rhythms. 

We have a few poetry books at home, but I figured we needed a greater variety for this, so collected some more from the library.

The poetry books we used.

During this time we were also reading Beowulf. 

Plus we ordered a denk fire bowl to use in the colder weather.  It doesn't really get cold in Perth, just overnight, so we got up early on Winter solstice and made a small damper to bake in the embers of our bowl.

It got a bit stuck to the aluminium foil, but was still delicious!

We were playing hopscotch whilst out and about for a while, after meeting a lady who drew up a game of it for us!

Arden recently finished reading Hemmingway's "Old Man and the Sea".

We read "Tom Sawyer" earlier in the year, and we used Kovacs' "Ancient Rome" as well as Emily Frenkel's version of "Aenas" for Arden's first block on Ancient Rome.

Third time around we are using "Lingua Latina" for Latin.

Irving and I had been working on some cursive, helping to build up his familiarity with the alphabet.

Irving experimenting with celtic knot patterns.

Irving and Arden working on geometry.  Irving likes to join in, so he does the bits he can manage.

I'm still working on this,just recently traced the quilting image onto it, unfortunately it won't be ready til next winter! (I'm sitting under it right now!-2025)

Irving is starting to get the hang of skateboarding.

term 2-highlights

Well this has been a bit slow.  I was all set to post this months ago, and our computer was unco-operative and then I didn't get back to it.  Life with two teenagers and two children just got a bit hectic! 

A beautiful afternoon at Pelican Point with some home education friends.

Working on cursive with Irving.  I've been teaching cursive in class 1 since I read about the benefits.  I do also teach print, but I try to focus on cursive in our lessons.

Form drawing- making a circle from freehand lines.

Constructing an icosahedron, as part of our learning about the Platonic solids.

Our fire shaped tetrahedron, helping to remind us that the tetrahedron's element is fire!  And adjacent, our tetrahedron die.

Some fun with sketching mathematical patterns after watching Vi Hart's youtube channel (sadly her channel is now gone, but if you google her, some people have cross shared her posts- 2025)

Some fun activities from "Earth, Fire, Air, Water".. The zaptrapp was a favourite.  Simply make a face on a piece of paper, half wrap it on an orange, and roll him along.  Arden and Irving had a lot of fun racing their oranges.

Looking at the tension of water, by floating a pin on its surface.

Floating and sinking a stone with a balloon.

Found this beauty whilst out collecting flowers to press.

And these beautiful tiles on an old building in our local area, whilst out collecting firewood.

All ready-  with our Denk firebowl, Arden and Irving keen to try cooking on it!  So setting it up with this idea in mind.

And our evening fire.

Crafting- Irving's knitting fork work, turned into fairy light decorations.