First Half of the Year!

Well I didn't mean to be so neglectful of this blog this year, but it turns out that I have.  We've had a very full year.  So I'll give a bit of an update starting with term 2.  Arden and Irving both continued with iceskating and music classes.  Arden was also busy with fencing, airforce cadets, and youth flying club whilst Irving and I took up the homeschool classes with Joy of Wood.

Arden continued to work independantly on a range of topics- including aviation studies, maths, science, and english, as well as joining in with activities that Irving and I were doing as it suited him.  Irving and I spent some time reading "Legends of Hawaii" by Padraic Colum and doing some painting, as well as doing various cultural studies.

Irving working on some handwriting styles.

Owl paintings -Arden's, Irving's and mine.

Irving and my toolbox, made during our woodwork classes.

My spoon partly made in our classes and finished at home.

Our spoons

Elastic band gun- our last item made in class.

Irving and I have done a lot of gardening this year,  He has been very interested in herbs, and is interested in any sort of gardening generally.  He decided that he wanted to make his own herb book, so we found a journal and cut out alphabetical tabs and  he's  been making notes as we grow different herbs.

Irving's herbal book.

As usual we celebrated winter solstic with an early morning fire and a cooked breakfast on the flames, including damper cooked in the embers- everyone's favourite part.

A good friend - The Whole Cake made this lovely cake for Irving's 11th birthday.  She is a naturopath and has a lovely herbal garden and knew that Irving was interested in herbs, and so she came up with this fabulous cake.  He was very pleased.

I have been continuing to work on various designs for my redbubble store  and French cakes and pastries have been a big theme.  I've been taking a painting and coffee break most weekends, and partly painting what I see and trying to do so quickly, so that my coffee is still somewhat warm by the end.  It has been an interesting experience!  There's also a bunch of my paintings inspired by Padraic Colum's "Hawaiian Myths" here.

 

Our mid year holidays were pleasantly refreshing and in Arden's case quite short, because he applied to TAFE again. He was accepted into a cert 3 in Ground Operations at Jandakot TAFE adjacent to the airport.  Irving and I had our usually 6week or so break, in which I was expecting to have to do lots of activities with him, but it seems he has finally developed enough interests that he enjoys indepedently, and so we had a bustly and relaxing break.

Welcome to 2024- Four Months In!

The first term is almost finished, and Summer is on the way out fortunately.  Every year I look forward to Summer, and every year, I'm glad when we get to March, and the weather is more comfortable!  This year Irving and I have only been doing formal learning since the beginning of March, although Arden started a little earlier- given that he's up to his final years of schooling.

Irving did vaccswim classes for the whole of January down at a local beach, and continued with Nippers for the rest of the summer.  He also won an award at Nippers - for embodying the clubs values- which was a lovely surprise.

Working on rescues at the Beach.

Paddle boards waiting for action.  This was Irving's favourite activity this year.

Coastal walk after swimming lessons.

I got into having Kombucha Spiders over the Summer.  I was partcularly pleased with the colour of this Dragonfruit hippie kombucha.

We continued with some of the same classes we've been doing previous years, and we had a few adjustments too.  Both boys are continuing with music classes, and they are also doing iceskating again.  Arden is continuing with his flying related activities- the youth flying club and airforce cadets.  We went to a few Steam sessions this term- I had organised the activities- but we had quite a bunch of things going on this time, so we got there rarely.  We did really enjoy the outing to the Royal Perth hospital museum and to AQWA, right at the beginning of term.  Arden has also taken up fencing.

A day at AQWA.

Entrance to the Royal Perth Hospital Museum,

Some historic treatments- antiphlogistine amused us as a name for a product.  Phlogistine for a bit of reference.

Arden practising fencing.

Arden was offered a place in a TAFE course, but decided to turn it down as it wasn't his preferred preference.  He's been gradually working through Khan academy trigonometry and physics, and is intending to return to "Life of Fred" now that he has some of the basics of trig sorted out to support his physics education.  We've both been reading "The Iliad" for his English this year, and he's working through his Basic Aeronautical Knowledge- Aviation Theory book.

Irving and I have started off the year reading "The Voyagers" by Padraic Colum and using that as inspiration of painting.  This year's painting  themes so far have been to paint within or  using a circle, and also painting in black.  Irving has also been interested in learn lettering and calligraphy, so we've been using "The Voyagers" chapter titles, as inspiration for writing in a fancier style.  Ocassionally Arden has gotten involved in our art sessions and done some drawing,  and Gabriel is interested in art generally, so he's also done some painting with us.  By the end of the term we had moved onto reading "Hawaiian Myths", also by Padraic Colum.

A couple of Irving's paintings.

One of my paintings.

A bunch of Irving's, Gabriel's and my paintings from our block.

Working on lettering.

Irving finished off his hand sewn pyjamas with a little assistance.  He has been wearing them most of the Summer.

Irving has also taken an interest in baking, so we've been trying to ensure to fit in a weekly bake.

Hot cross buns for Easter.

We're learning French this year so we've also been trying some French baking.  These are called Langue de Chats.

Off listening to Bluegrass Parkway- a local Bluegrass band.  Over the Summer.

One of our favourite shops in Freo, Compendium closed down over the Summer, and I was lucky to find Gabriel this excellent TinTin tshirt in the closing down sale.

We haven't found the Perth Festival or Fringe particularly engaging in  recent years.  In fact I'd say the Perth Fringe is just outright boring these days.....particularly the Pleasure Garden...it has turned into a very bland bar in Russel Sq.  That said we did really enjoy this wetland and lighting installation in the old Carillon City, as part of the Perth Festival.

We found a witchety grub in one of our garden balcony pots!

Irving and I have been plodding along making some designs for our redbubble stores.  This design is off mine.  Here is a link to Irving's store too.  He'd love some support, if anything catches your fancy!

I'm now part way through another Harry Potter jumper, this time for Gabriel.

By the time I got to adding the pics to this post, the next term has already begun!  I had planned to do more posts than last year, but we've been busy out and about so much that it's not happened!  We had a particularly busy April break, as we had family visiting from Adelaide, and we were out and about being tour guides with the family.  Arden also did a cyber security course in week one, and we were out a lot last week with friends.

End of term

 This term has been a bit unusual with  Arden being at TAFE, and Irving and I doing two days of home based activities without him.  It made the dynamic quite different, given that it's the first time that I've only had one child to work with.  

Overall Irving and I had a very busy term- with our STEAM group, going to see Mary Poppins, music classes and pottery.  He also started doing Nippers on Sunday, and with how active that is, he was prefering to have a quiet Monday.

Our at home learning this past semester has involved Steiner grade 5 work, and we read a picture book version of Gilgamesh by Bernada Bryson and studied some of the early cultures of the world- with a particular focus on the Mesopotamian region.

Collecting mulberries

Waiting for Mary Poppins to begin

Pottery at home.

Irving's pumpkin head for Halloween.

A model sailing ship Irving bought on a day out in Fremantle.

Nippers and hanging at the beach.  In case you're not Australian Nippers is swimming/ surf life saving training for kids.  They get to swim, paddle board, run and do relays amongst other things.  We've never done it with the kids before, and tbh I think it is one of the best sporting activities that we've ever done.  The club is very supportive, and everyone is getting behind every other member of the age group and encouraging them through some rather tiring activities.

Irving working at the sewing machine, making treasure bags to sell at the homeschoolers' Christmas market.

Market stall on the day!  He only sold a few things at full price, and then he sold a few at a mark down towards the end of the market, and then he got into bartering.  Given his place in the family, he's become quite good at negotiation and persuasion, and so with bartering he was in his element.  He came home with a nice array of goods from some of the other stall holders.

Irving, Damien and I went out to see the Christmas light up by ourselves this year.  Willow was down south,  Gabriel headed home as he had an early start with work, and Arden was at airforce cadets.  Gabriel joined us for dinner beforehand, and it was a pleasant evening with just the three of us.

Our next book to read "The Phantom Tollbooth"

Arden had an interesting term at TAFE and completed his cert 3 in aviation (remote pilot) easily.  He enjoyed the course, and after some discussion we reconsidered our plans for his year 11 and instead of being home educated for the first semester we are looking at another TAFE course.  This time he's looking at engineering.  For now he has put in an application for a couple of courses, and we're waiting for January to hear back.

Otherwise we decided to read "The Iliad" since Arden is interested in the classics.  We have both just started and will continue to read this over the coming year.  We are up to our last 20 pages of "Tragedy and Hope" by Carroll Quigley and hope to finish tomorrow!  It's been a bit of a challenge at times reading it together, and it does feel great to be finishing!

Arden also just completed his first year with the airforce cadets, and  has graduated to the next level.  He loved this year and is looking forward to more activities next year.  He also just passed another Japanese jujutsu belt gradings, and is finally into the adult belts!

We had a lovely relaxed end of year movie session with some home ed friends last week, when we went to see "Wonka"!  It was a great way to finish the year and now we are taking it a bit easy.