Some of Gabriel's recent knotwork.
A selection of Willow's recent geometry
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Geometry, Ancient Rome and Celtic Knots
A drawing by Willow, of a bust of Livia, from ancient Rome.
Some of Gabriel's recent knotwork.
A selection of Willow's recent geometry
Some of Gabriel's recent knotwork.
A selection of Willow's recent geometry
Long term home educator- up to my 21st yr (2026). Steiner inspired with child led home education. Three finished and one is middle school ranged. Based in Western Australia.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Endings and Beginnings
Gabriel is just coming to the end of his first block on fractions. He's been really enjoying. Initially he was finding it a bit tricky, and I started to wonder if it would suit him better if I introduced the new concept and let him sleep on it, so the ideas had time to settle. It has worked brilliantly, he's gone from being irked to being pushed into new ideas to totally embracing each concept.
In terms of maths I largely use the jump curriculum, but still remain steiner inspired. I've found this really helps me to keep on track with us getting through all the maths work that needs to be done, and also breaks down the concepts well to enable me to explain and teach them better. I generally 'get' maths, without needing the extra steps so this has been very helpful for me in teaching it, and recognising that there are steps that I may not have thought need explaining, but do for some people.
Willow has started the second half of the Ancient Rome block. We've been using Charles Kovacs' book on ancient Rome.
I like the way he presents the book, and the ideas that are brought forth through it. Some of the ideas around Christianity are very conservative IMO, but they have brought forth some useful discussions during our lessons.
"The Myth of Ability" by John Mighton is the original book that I read on the principles in the JUMP program.
In terms of maths I largely use the jump curriculum, but still remain steiner inspired. I've found this really helps me to keep on track with us getting through all the maths work that needs to be done, and also breaks down the concepts well to enable me to explain and teach them better. I generally 'get' maths, without needing the extra steps so this has been very helpful for me in teaching it, and recognising that there are steps that I may not have thought need explaining, but do for some people.
Willow has started the second half of the Ancient Rome block. We've been using Charles Kovacs' book on ancient Rome.
I like the way he presents the book, and the ideas that are brought forth through it. Some of the ideas around Christianity are very conservative IMO, but they have brought forth some useful discussions during our lessons.
-
2025
I've used JUMP- Junior Undiscovered Maths Prodigies for all the kids now. I actually think it is really brilliantly put together and it has helped me with my instructions for almost everything, enabling me to think about the idea that maybe there is a misalignment in concepts between myself and my child, and trying to work out how to remedy that.
I actually think that this was one of the books and programs that has really helped me understand better the idea of being a learner, and what learning and progression looks like in children and people, and probably most importantly that everyone can understand maths, with the correct guidance.
Long term home educator- up to my 21st yr (2026). Steiner inspired with child led home education. Three finished and one is middle school ranged. Based in Western Australia.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Cushion Design and Horses
Gabriel's cushion design.
Willow's drawings.....
Willow's drawings.....
Long term home educator- up to my 21st yr (2026). Steiner inspired with child led home education. Three finished and one is middle school ranged. Based in Western Australia.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
My reading..........
For some strange reason in recent years, it has become a habit of mine to read two books at once, alternating chapters from time to time as it suits me. So presently these are the two books I'm reading.
Cure Tooth Decay
So far this goes into things I'm aware of but also refers to a few other dentist's work that I was not aware of. Seems to be a nice addition to the books we have on healthful eating.
Sugar Blues
I'd been wanting to read this for ages! And so far it is really interesting, he writes in quite an illustrative manner which makes for very easy reading IMO.
And just because I also liked this one, from a while ago, here's a third book.
Eat Fat, Lose Fat
There's some lovely recipes in this one, we've been making the coconut ice-cream. The kids have been making it mostly by themselves, with my aerating it with my fork LOL!
Cure Tooth Decay
So far this goes into things I'm aware of but also refers to a few other dentist's work that I was not aware of. Seems to be a nice addition to the books we have on healthful eating.
Sugar Blues
I'd been wanting to read this for ages! And so far it is really interesting, he writes in quite an illustrative manner which makes for very easy reading IMO.
And just because I also liked this one, from a while ago, here's a third book.
Eat Fat, Lose Fat
There's some lovely recipes in this one, we've been making the coconut ice-cream. The kids have been making it mostly by themselves, with my aerating it with my fork LOL!
-
2025
Lol, I know the answer to this now! Homeschooling with lots of kids-I'm trying to train myself back into one book at a time! I find it so easy to get through the reading that I'm doing with the kids, but by contrast my own reading has slid to the side. A lot of this is to do with the kids having so many different activities once they got older, and having less quiet time in the evenings, as they started to stay up later and later! This started for most of them at about 12 and impacted Damien's and my quiet time to get things done, much more than having babies (eventually that is- once we got the hang of doing the baby thing!).
At the moment I am reading "Portal" by Yolande Norris-Clarke. It's on freebirthing and blissful birth. So far it is interesting, and she is more extreme in her views on medicalised birth than I am, and she very much reminds me of the wonderful midwife that I had for Arden's homebirth, in her passion about how damaging the medicalisation of birth can be. Other than that I very much have agreed with what I've been reading so far, and it seems to be looking at offering an interesting insight to birth as a transcendental experience.
Long term home educator- up to my 21st yr (2026). Steiner inspired with child led home education. Three finished and one is middle school ranged. Based in Western Australia.
Recent Work and Events
I visited the anthroposophical shop last week to stock up on work books, get a gift for someone and get modelling wax (largely this was due to Arden being co-operative whilst we were there). We are heading to Perth to live in a few weeks, and I have no idea if they have an anthroposophical shop there, so stocking up on basics before leaving seemed like a good move, plus I really like the lady the manages the shop at present, so it was nice to have a chat to her about our plans and homeschooling.
Gabriel has started on his next cross-stitch project. He designed his first one based around animals and crystals, and his second design was on knights and dragons. He'd like to sew both of them by the end of the year- at this stage it seems like a lot of work, but he's getting much more consistent with his sewing. He has started on the first part of his animal cushion, which consists of four panels with different images.
Willow is still working at her stuffed toy project, and at this stage is drawing lots of horses, her drawing has improved immensely over the last few weeks, and I think after a few more weeks of drawing it may be time for her to move onto planning how she will make her toy horse.
Willow had her final singing lesson tonight with her choir before we move, and has one final flute lesson and a flute concert this weekend. Her singing concert was a couple of weekends ago, and as usual was a success. This time Willow had a shared 'solo' part which was exciting for her. She loves singing on stage, and was really pleased to get the shared part in singing 'Maria' from 'The Sound of Music'.
Both kids have been doing a block on maths- Willow business maths and Gabriel fractions. But our usual bookwork, has fallen to the side this week, as the kids had a visit to Mt Gambier to see their cousins there. They had a fabulous time and have been talking non-stop about wrestling, basketball, frogs, computer games, and goats amongst other highlights of their stay.
There's quite a bit to do round here, with getting ready for the move, but gradually things are getting done. We've got a couple more things to sell, or throw out, and boxes are getting packed - so that's good, we need to find a home there and catch up with friends before we go. I've already contacted their homeschool community and on first impression they seem very friendly, but my plan at this stage is to have a rather low key term so that we can get to know Perth at a more relaxed pace.
Gabriel has started on his next cross-stitch project. He designed his first one based around animals and crystals, and his second design was on knights and dragons. He'd like to sew both of them by the end of the year- at this stage it seems like a lot of work, but he's getting much more consistent with his sewing. He has started on the first part of his animal cushion, which consists of four panels with different images.
Willow is still working at her stuffed toy project, and at this stage is drawing lots of horses, her drawing has improved immensely over the last few weeks, and I think after a few more weeks of drawing it may be time for her to move onto planning how she will make her toy horse.
Willow had her final singing lesson tonight with her choir before we move, and has one final flute lesson and a flute concert this weekend. Her singing concert was a couple of weekends ago, and as usual was a success. This time Willow had a shared 'solo' part which was exciting for her. She loves singing on stage, and was really pleased to get the shared part in singing 'Maria' from 'The Sound of Music'.
Both kids have been doing a block on maths- Willow business maths and Gabriel fractions. But our usual bookwork, has fallen to the side this week, as the kids had a visit to Mt Gambier to see their cousins there. They had a fabulous time and have been talking non-stop about wrestling, basketball, frogs, computer games, and goats amongst other highlights of their stay.
There's quite a bit to do round here, with getting ready for the move, but gradually things are getting done. We've got a couple more things to sell, or throw out, and boxes are getting packed - so that's good, we need to find a home there and catch up with friends before we go. I've already contacted their homeschool community and on first impression they seem very friendly, but my plan at this stage is to have a rather low key term so that we can get to know Perth at a more relaxed pace.
-
2025
So there was no anthroposophical shop here, but there was a nice shop associated with one of the schools at one point. Eventually I accepted to get the resources here that I needed to order them online. So many of these things that I like are difficult to get or do in Perth. And whilst that door is closed off here- unless we travel to the South of WA, there are other interesting things that I enjoy here. Perth IMO is a much more extroverted place, than Adelaide, and I have found it interesting that so many of the things that I miss from home, are quite easily found by visiting the small towns of the South.
Heading to Southern Aurora Steiner shop.
Before vanishing, the shop became "The Honeyclock".
We took a while to settle into friendships here, which I somewhat expected, I had a similar experience when we moved to Glasgow, but I found it much more challenging then, as Willow and Gabriel were so small and I didn't have a sense of how long that process could take. With the move to Perth, I was quite patient about it, but Willow found it a bit tricky, and it was only when we started music classes at Cottage institute, do we start to find our sort of people.
Settling in to Perth, and starting at Cottage Institute with Willow.
Long term home educator- up to my 21st yr (2026). Steiner inspired with child led home education. Three finished and one is middle school ranged. Based in Western Australia.
Reading
We've just started reading the Aeneid.
I wondered if the kids might find it a bit complex, but so far, it's fine and they're really enjoying it. I think after reading about Ulysees and the Trojan war, they're finding the Trojan perspective quite interesting.
I wondered if the kids might find it a bit complex, but so far, it's fine and they're really enjoying it. I think after reading about Ulysees and the Trojan war, they're finding the Trojan perspective quite interesting.
-
2025
We read the full adult version of the Aenid at this time. I wondered if it was too dense for them, but everyone seemed to enjoy it and find it interesting. With Arden I cam across a kids version of the Aenid- called Aeneas (by Emily Frenkel), and I preferred that for this age.
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2019/09/term-2-part-2.html
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2019/09/term-2-part-2.html
Long term home educator- up to my 21st yr (2026). Steiner inspired with child led home education. Three finished and one is middle school ranged. Based in Western Australia.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Leonardo da Vinci
This past weekend we attended the Da Vinci's Machines Exhibit. Overall I found it interesting, and the kids enjoyed it, although it was a little overpriced, compared to similar exhibitions I've been to. That said the machines were great, and it was nice that some of them were able to be used- Arden certainly enjoyed trying them out. He was rather taken with the leverage model- he kept pulling the rope and letting it go, so that the weighted bag would drop rather heavily.
We've had a rather busy past week, with the da vinci outing, and also a visit to the zoo again- spent a while watching the pandas eat this time, and a performance at the Grainger studios of Peter and the Wolf. Plus Damien has been offered a job in Perth, so plans are ahead to move in about 5weeks. Quite a lot to do, but we're all looking forward to the move.
We've had a rather busy past week, with the da vinci outing, and also a visit to the zoo again- spent a while watching the pandas eat this time, and a performance at the Grainger studios of Peter and the Wolf. Plus Damien has been offered a job in Perth, so plans are ahead to move in about 5weeks. Quite a lot to do, but we're all looking forward to the move.
Long term home educator- up to my 21st yr (2026). Steiner inspired with child led home education. Three finished and one is middle school ranged. Based in Western Australia.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)