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 covid 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.

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2025

I really enjoying completing large and complex jigsaw puzzles.  I spent a lot of time doing them as a teenager and I find it quite a relaxing way to pass the time, but that 3000piece one just took up so much space and too much of my time!  Arden has just finished doing a Guns and Roses puzzle that took him a while, as it has a lot of black pieces.

We were also very lucky with covid lockdowns here, as the border was pretty much shut, it meant that we lived normally, whilst the rest of Australia or other places seemed to spend a lot of time in lockdowns.
 

Term 4 and Summer Break

 Term four saw us getting out and about along the beach and river a bit.  Arden had a chance to try sailing at Hillary's Yacht club, and would probably like to do more, but so far time has not fallen into place to make this happen.  We had planned to do a few beach walks this Summer, but we only managed that once, and it was a hilarious day filled with misadventure- including the shark siren going off and us not getting to have a swim.  We also did a short walk along the Swan River to Fremantle.

Swimming and sailing at Hillarys.

First time to City Beach.

Heading to Freo.

We met some homeschoolers at AQWA- somewhere I'm always hoping to get to more often!

Working on painting ships.

Working on breathing exercises in our shading/ drawing.

Working on Rose Windows as we progressed through our history studies.

A favourite book around here, and one that we only bought because JK Rowling apparently loved it.  The Little White Horse.

Geometry- Arden's followed by mine.  24 division of the circle and connected to every point.

Arden's pie.

Birthday and giant jigsaw puzzle of Mars.

Making jeans last. Possibly *too* long....

Re-covering a stool and giving it a second chance at life.

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2025 

Our geometry this year has come to a bit of a standstill as I have yet to get around to ordering new leads for our compasses, and it seems none of the stationery stores around here sell them.  

Winter Term 3

 As covid lockdown receded and we thought about our coming year, we decided to try to continue with a slower pace of life for at least the short term.  Sadly Arden's favourite activity- iceskating - came to an end as our preferred iceskating rink closed during lockdown.  We decided to go and trial an ice hockey session; just after having enrolled to do ten pin bowling.  The ice hockey went down well.  As did the ten pin bowling.  We had enrolled in the teenage class- Irving had said he wasn't interested  in doing ten pin, but by mid term he was part of the teenage class and loving it.

For quite some time we have attended plenty of arts events- Fringe, Festival, Ballets and Operas.  Due to covid we decided to slow down on this and take the year more slowly.  We did still get to a few local gigs, but much fewer classical performances.  Historically it was Willow who had expressed a particular interest in these, and as she had not been home educated for about 3yrs, it seemed to make sense to redirect our time.

Enjoying a piano concert in Government House's gardens.

We had a lot of fun doing chemistry in our kitchen using  "The Wonders of Waldorf Chemistry" as our guide.  It was interesting to try some of the experiments that I didn't get to with the older kids- such as burning sulphur, and also to have some trouble with experiments I expected to work, because we had done them before.
 

Making charcoal.

Attempting to burn charcoal.

Burning some different items-including sulphur, which has the blue flame.

Acids and Bases.

Our reading- King Arthur and the Knights of the Round table by Llancelyn Green, and The King of Ireland's Son by Colum- which we did a series of paintings about.

Paintings by Irving. (All paintings are inspired by the King of Ireland's Son.)

Paintings by Arden.

Arden's painting on the left, and mine on the right.

My paintings.

Our first carrot from our balcony garden.

Cable socks for me.

Repairing Gabriel's satchel with berry coloured velvet.

A new quilted blanket for Gabriel; made from an old cotton blanket, his old comforter and cotton and cotton flannel.

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2025

My socks!  I just finished repairing them to hopefully get them to last  longer.  They look quite pilled now, but they are super warm and comfy.  I also just recently got my leather boots repaired, and we were realising that with inflation to buy an equivalent quality pair, I would now be paying double what I paid in maybe around 2010 to get them.  So with the repairs I had done to them- new zips and soles and a good polish they felt like new and looked amazing.  

I have also been doing some mending repairs on the pillow case cover that went with Gabriel's comforter that had the wizard and dragon.  It is starting to look rejuvenated.