Finding a new Rhythm.....again

 So we started our term in March, after quite a busy summer spending time at the beach, and down South celebrating my birthday and getting to know Aurelia.  I've been contemplating our flow and our rhythm over the last while and wondering how to find a way that works for Irving and I. I'm hoping to really simplify things, and have longer periods of time for us to do some projects together at home.  

Although Arden was at TAFE for the last 18months I've only really considered him finished home ed, with the end of last year, and so I've only really been considering what home ed could look like with just one child since late last year.  So I've been tentatively adjusting the rhythm that I've used for the last 13 or so years, since Irving was born, and I had to juggle four children with my time.  

We have had many different flows over our time as a home educating family.  Our first year we used a kit, from a Steiner school, that was very much in the style of school.  We worked in the mornings that year.  Initially we were home educating in Glasgow, Scotland and we had a lot of friends there, and so the afternoons were play dates.  We headed to Paris for a couple of months, and afternoons were for exploring the city.  Finally we went back home to Adelaide, where we followed a similar routine until Willow went back to school.

When we settled back into home schooling, we had 6months before our 3rd child was born and we were in what I called baby rhythm.  Following the baby's cues as to what our priorities would be each day.  We didn't worry too much about holidays, we just did things as it suited us, and that continued until we started doing a few classes, and we decided it was nice to have the down time.

Now I'm trying to go with how Irving and I want the day to flow, so that we can harmoniously in a manner that suits just the two of us.  I'm finding it's working quite nicely to do our new topic at the beginning of the day, and leave the maths and english to the end, and then flow the other things that we are doing amongst that.  We still seem to end up with music starting our day, which is how it has been for a very long time.  He's really interested in learning foreign languages, and we are currently learning French using Michel Thomas, and online programmmes.  So we have a tendency to end our day with watching something in French.  So far I've been enjoying the fluidity of our days, although our current topic- Chemistry is something that Irving is *very* interested in, and occasionally it has felt like it could take over the whole day!

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Some extra reading on how we've structured ourselves over the years.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2015/10/timetables-part-1.html

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2015/10/timetables-part-2.html

Coming to a Close and New Beginnings

 We had quite a busy finish to the year, and a very exciting start to 2026  From our very full holidays we had a fairly full term- with incidental events appearing and classes to get to.  We started off with our moderator in the first week,which went well, and that was us again til next  October. 

We finished off some English studies using Beowulf and Stephen Fry's "The Ode Less Travelled".  Interestingly Irving really got into doing the poetry, and it was really helpful that Stephen Fry had time limits for all the exercises.  It seemed to help him from getting overwhelmed, as he put all his attention into being quick!  He enjoyed finally getting to hear Beowulf, as the older kids have all talked about the story, and we have a boardgame version of it.

We moved on to the end of the Roman Empire, and interestingly Irving didn't find it as interesting as the older kids.  He was much more interested in Ancient Greece.  We also started reading 1434 to complement the topic, which worked nicely as it has a lot of discussion about where did various knowledge come from, and encouraged us to look more deeply into history.

We also read "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" this term, and Irving really enjoyed Jules Verne's writing style and his creativity with science, and how he explored and expanded on the ideas of his era.

We put in some artwork into the Darlington Arts Festival.  Irving, Gabriel and I put a piece in each, with Irving deciding to submit one of his copperwork pieces from this year.

Irving's bowl up close.

Irving's bowl on exhibition.

We had continued to make open back rings in various styles during the remainder of the last term including using rouge to polish them by hand.  We had not done this with any of our earlier pieces and Irving decided that he was going to prioritise that for his exhibition piece.

                                  

Gabriel's butterfly- above the
 exhibition sign

His piece up close

This reminded me of the first time we did an art exhibition.  We had homeschool friends in Adelaide, who ran a cafe, and they invited all the kids in the community to exhibit their work in their cafe.  That was Gabriel's first time exhibiting.  He was probably about 8.

My turtle

My abstract watercolour piece.

Since then I've been working on boats, whilst Irving has been learning to sail.

We finished our coppermaking off for the year with some engraving.  Including engraving rings....I seem to have neglected to photograph Irving's engraving.

in the vinegar pickle

  


We head to the Perth Gem and Mineral show- Irving was very interested in the Rubies.

We bought a guitar making kit a few years ago for Damien to work on with Gabriel, but for various reasons he never got around to it.  One of the things he wanted done was a pattern on the neck of the guitar- since Irving and I have done a bunch of woodwork in recent years I have made a start on it.

We've been working on Perspective drawing.  This book is really fabulous for explaining how to.

Working on perspective drawing together.

The homeschool Christmas market was a great success again, and Irving was starting to get the hang of running a stall and thinking about what sells and how he needed to manage it.  This year he was selling plants, and pendants (left over stock from last year) and his new addition was home made Scottish Tablet (it's like a crumbly fudge).  

We're back at nippers for another Summer season.

We cleaned up and unwanted delonghi kettle- it was starting to look rusted inside and we suspected it was scale build up from Perth's iron heavy water.  Turned out we were right, after a lot of descaling- it cleaned up nicely and we now have a lovely new kettle.

Just because I really liked the latte art, and I think I've found my new favourite drink- hot black sesame latte.

Our final home ed excursion for the year was to the fisheries department.  We learnt a lot and Irving had an interesting time doing his first dissection.

Working on lego models.

Finishing off the year and beginning eventually too we had a couple of birthday highlights.  First of all Arden turned 18......and around the same week finished his Diploma in Aviation Management and finished off airforce cadets.  It was a very eventful week or so for him!  So he had an eventful 18th by starting the day with skydiving.

Here he is landing after his dive

Whilst we were off at Jurien Bay we stopped at the beach for a swim.

the water was lovely

Final stop for the day was Lancelin, where we all went sandboarding.  We'd meant to do this before, and it kept getting delayed.  We had a lot of fun and I'd definitely go again!

And the final birthday news is that there is a new member of our family!  Willow and her fiance, have welcomed their first child....she was meant to arrive in December, but made us all wait out for almost the very end of New Year's day.  Her name is Aurelia, and everyone is very excited about her arrival!  Although there might be some people feeling that they are a bit young to be uncles!