A Wicked Week

So Willow has come to the end of another block, and Gabriel and I are getting through his local history work. I was hoping to have picked up a copy of Kovac's Geology book before Willow's block, but it didn't arrive in time, so we made our way through the block without it. Fortunately it didn't matter, we stocked up on books from the library and visited the crystal collection at the SA Museum. There's quite a good selection there, and it was great for getting a feel for the way crystals grow, and the fact that each has it's own very distinct shape.

Since it's been history month, and Gabriel has been looking at local history we've been trying to get out to lots of activities. Last weekend there was a re-enactment of the opening of the Institute building on North Tce, so Willow, Damien and Gabriel went along. It sounded very interesting. Apparently originally the opening went for 5hrs with thousands of people there wanting to come in, and there were bits of modern technology(for the era)being demonstrated, and not working very well. We've also been continuing doing the Engineering tour of Adelaide via a guide from the Adelaide city council- this week we were looking at the water system.

Willow and Gabriel also headed to Wicked this week. Apparently it was fabulous, and Willow keeps telling me that I need to go and see it.

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2025

I never did buy the Kovac's geology book.  Given that it was combined with astrology and he was in the Northern hemisphere, I think I decided that it would likely not be a very useful resource for us.  TBH I don't love his books, but they do give a nice starting point for research, discussing accuracy, and discussing changing knowledge over time.  It's so important, to never trust one resource, especially in this era, and I like to start that conversation fairly early when we study history.

Well I have seen Wicked the movie now- we went to see it with a bunch of our home schooling friends as an end of year outing last Christmas.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2024/12/closing-on-another-year.html

Chilly Autumn Rain

We are having some lovely Autumn weather at the moment, and all of us are enjoying the change of seasons. There are many lovely leaves lining the streets, and it is a lovely time to be out walking about.

We've had some interesting outing in recent weeks, and some lovely work has been done. We visited Urrbrae house and did a tour of the Urrbrae wetlands. Willow and Gabriel were given names to match the era of Urrbrae house, for their visit there. Willow was called Harriet and Gabriel was called Clifton. (The year for their vist was meant to be 1892). They both enjoyed the morning, pretending to be school students back in that era. It would be interesting to visit again, as the kids were divided into different groups, and each group had different activities. There were also a group of ladies and gentlemen and a group of servants.

Gabriel has now finished his first piece of embroidery for the year, and since the weather has been busy changing and we're also getting out and about a bit for his local history block, we made pinwheels as an interim craft activity. Here is Gabriel's pincushion.


Willow has finished her first block on Ancient Rome, also had a small block on the Australian Govt- examining the different levels of it and will be onto studying geology this week. We bought some sculpey and made our own mini aquaduct, using it. I had been hoping to do a tour of the town hall, but they are not happening at present. Anyway here is our mini aquaduct.


Gabriel has just started learning about the local area and doing local history, and fortunately it's history month here, so there are lots of interesting things happening. We've done a tour of the local train station, are going to tour St Peter's Cathedral, and attend a reopening of a building in the Victorian era (everyone is really looking forward to this, as they will be getting dressed up). We've also picked up some of the local council's guides and have been following these too.

Finally just because I really liked these. Here's a couple of photos from Gabriel's animal block- a beeswax giraffe and sculpey zebra.

Craft Projects

Our main craft projects are currently underway, and we have all been very busy. Gabriel has started his first cross stitch project for the year- a pin cushion. He was bursting to go straight into a larger project (as Usual) but after this smaller one, we will look at designing a cushion cover for him to cross-stitch.

First stage of designing

Second stage designs- and the one outlined in red, is the cross-stitch pattern

Gabriel's project in progress

My design for a pin cushion.

Meanwhile Willow is into the early stages of her planning for making a stuffed toy. She's busy modelling wax horses, working on getting a good sense of shape for the horses she's making and developing her skills of observation. It's also interesting for her (and me) in that I'm largely leaving the project to her. I've discussed the goal (making a realistic 3d soft toy animal), and given guidance as required, but I'm leaving her to direct the project and what she does during her craft session.

Here is some of her work so far- all of these have been made in one afternoon.

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The modelling wax strengthens the fingers and requires a lot more strength than regular play-doh, and IMO it can be really nice to alternate them for different purposes, in the early years.  Originally we had play-doh and Willow would use modelling wax at Steiner kindy.  With home schooling I found somewhere I could buy a few modelling wax colours at a time and build our collection slowly.  

There is a bit of a trick to using it when the weather is cold- using hands and breath to warm it, warm water or a candle if it is very cold.  In warm weather/hot weather it is very malleable, and so there is a lovely natural relationship to it as a material as the weather changes, and the seasons shift.

What I'm reading

"Hold on to Your Kids" by Neufield and Mate.

I borrowed this recently from my local library, after someone recommended it on a message board I use. I have found it very insightful and helpful, for understanding my kids, their peers and my journey through the schooling system. It seems to me to be a very important book for parents to read, to help them to understand why attachment to parents is more important that attachment to peers, and why we need to help our children stay connected so that they can feel our love for them.

I highly recommend it!

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2025

I still regularly recommend this book to people.  It really changed how I regarded socialising amongst age based peers for my kids, and why, even if they are home educated, it is necessary to be attentive to how the social times are playing out for my kids.

Onto block two and recent activities

Well we've finished our geometry block and Norse Myths, and have seen some beautiful work from everybody.  The geometric drawing are done with pastels, and Gabriel's picture is done using lyra pencils.

Willow's final drawing for the block.

Something by me.

Gabriel's picture of Frey.

So now we've moved onto our new blocks- Human and Animals for Gabriel and Ancient Rome for Willow. I've been reading"Wind in the Willows"
to Gabriel, and The Story of Rome to Willow. We've also been doing some reading about Latin, and I'm looking at purchasing a workbook on Latin for Willow to use. A friend lent us the Lively Latin workbook to look at it, and Willow liked the look of it, so I think I'll order a copy of it soon.

Otherwise we've had a number of interesting things happening recently. Willow had her last performance, which was at Her Majesty's Theatre. The choir, she is part of, sang the role of the bridge in Stari Most. It was a very moving performance, and beautifully done.

Then the week a before that, Damien, Willow and Gabriel went and learnt to make a long bow. All had a fabulous time, and are looking forward to the next workshop in the series- quiver and bow making and knife making.

The start of the bows.

Hard at work.

A guest.

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2025

One of the good things about living in a place that actually likes school, rather  than seeing all the negatives in it, is that there are some interesting curriculum recommendations.  Later on a friend suggested to us "Lingua Latina".  It teaches one latin via the things already familar in English.  

An example page can be seen here.
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2020/09/term-2-lockdown-and-winter-solstice.html

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.  These are all in pastels.

Circles




Circles into sixths





Circles into Hexagons





For our Norse Myth block this time, we are reading two texts- The Children of Odin by Padraic 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 Padraic 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.

Summer coming to an end

What a busy, busy time we've been having! I love this time of the year in Adelaide- there are so many wonderful things happening. We were out and about most of last week, and it's been nice to find ourselves having a quieter week this one, since we'll be doing school work again next week.

Last week, saw the Fringe parade part 2 happening. We all had lots of fun and the little people particularly attracted people's attention.

We went to three performances this year. As a family we went to see some taiko drummers and a circus act. Then Willow and Gabriel also got to see a ventriloquist. As part of our Fringe wanderings we met a lady called Ally, from Glasgow, who was selling jewellery at the Fringe. Yesterday she kindly came around and taught us to macrame jewellery, so we all have a macrame project happening now.

Gabriel's macrame bracelet


The macrame bracelet I made for Arden

Normally this time of the year, our festival outings end with a visit to Womadelaide, this year whilst we are going to Womadelaide on Saturday, the Come Out festival is happening at the end of March. Willow will be participating in the performace on Stari Most, which she is very excited about. After her performance in the opera last year, she has been looking forward to singing and performing some more.

Finally there were a few things I wanted the kids to complete before we start our school stuff next week. Gabriel has been finishing off some reading, and Willow has done well to finish her second sock. It was especially nice to see it done, as we had to unravel quite a bit of it a couple of weeks ago, after we realised that she had miscounted some stitches. She had made her sock very wide! But now they are finished and look beautiful!