Closing on another year

 This past term seems to have flown by and also to have been filled with a wide range of entertaining activities both at home and out and about.  What at first impression seemed to be going to be a quiet term ended up very busy.

We started off the term doing some geography- in particular looking at the areas extending out from Australia- Asia and New Zealand.  Our corresponding reading was "1421- The Year China Discovered the World" by Gavin Menzies.  Since Irving had taken to sailing, he was very interested in this book, because although it is a mixture of geography and history, it is written from Gavin Menzies viewpoint of being a submarine Captain.  As part of our geography studies we headed to Cottesloe and  checked out the sundial again.

The Cottesloe Sundial

Instructions for reading the Cottesloe sundial.

We managed to get to sailing a few weeks this term, despite the fact that sailing collided with Nippers.  After a chat with nippers, a decision was made to go sailing whenever a comp was happening with nippers, as Irving was happy to miss them.

Boats waiting for competition time.

My sketch of a catamaran.

With this new found love of boats, Irving got into building a boat from lego, machine sewing the sail and working out the ballast to get it floating.

Pirate ship with sails.

In the sink working out the ballast.

After nippers one day I made may way up the coast to our fishmonger, and had oysters.  Such a beautiful spot to stop.

At the beach for our nippers session.

Irving loves all sorts of old things, and he loves the idea of repairing them, and he had become captivated by the quill set below in a local shop in the city, so with some birthday money and some savings he saved up and bought himself this set.  He's been working on his handwriting with it fairly regularly.

Irving's homeschool market stall this year  included a few things left from last year- pottery items, a treasure bag, the plants he was preparing, and after a visit to the gem exhibition, and some handiwork with my old jewelry tools, some pendants.  We also had a very busy kitchen the day before, as he was busy making brownies.  The brownies were definitely the most popular product.

An example of one of Irving's pendants.

Practising his stall set up.

Our last main topic for the term, was Ancient Greece.  Irving had recently gotten into reading Percy Jackson and Rick Riordan had written the intro to the Greek Myth's book we had so I figured he'd find that a bit interesting too.  We read Roger Llancelyn Green's Greek Myth's first this time (we're going to read Padraic Colum in the beginning of next year.)  Since it was coming to the end of year, I took it as an opportunity to watch a couple of old movies- Jason and the Argonauts, and Clash of the Titans.  We also watched the Channel 4 series, "Home Greek Home", so he could see a bit more of what Greece is like.  Plus because he's interested in languages we did a short youtube course in Ancient Greek, where we focused on learning the alphabet.

Irving's Ancient Greek

My Ancient Greek Alphabet

Our woodwork term  had a delayed beginning and so we only ended up  with four classes this term.  We were  working on making bread boards and butter knives.  I just finished my board before the end of term, and Irving was still progressing on his.  He is doing an interesting design of a little mouse popping out of the board, that he came across in a woodwork book, that was bought for his birthday one year.

My rustic cheeseboard.

We had some excitement last week at sailing with our first experience of a lithium battery fire.  A rentable scooter was pulled out of the river, and the water caused the battery to catch alight.  Given that this is a hazard of lithium batteries, I was glad to have the experience during the day, with lots of helpful people about.  It was interesting to see how the powder extinguisher only partly quelled it.  Eventually it was taken onto the sand where it waited for the fire brigade.

Scooter on the sand.

We had a bunch of fun one off outings this term too.  One of our friends organised an end of year movie session- so we headed off to see "Wicked".  I wasn't expecting much, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.  The cinema had been upgraded too, so we all had excellent comfy reclining seats.  Then another friend arranged two educational sessions- one at the Perth Mint, and a Zookeeper 101 day, at the Perth zoo.  We had done the mint tour a bunch of times before, but Irving really enjoys the melting and setting gold session, so it was worth it.  The zookeeper 101 had a bunch of interesting behind the scenes activities- including cleaning out the kangaroo enclosure, feeding the lizards, and getting to see the storage areas for some of the animals meals.

Arden finished his tafe course this term, and also turned 17.  We headed out to ifly to do indoor skydiving for his birthday.  Just the five of us, as Willow had things to do in Manjimup, and couldn't get up here for the day.  I was a bit nervous about trying, but I was prepared to have a go.  Irving was also nervous.  Arden did a high flyer, but the rest of us stayed low- unsurprisingly he loved it, everyone else enjoyed it, and I was amazed to discover that I really enjoyed it too.  It has got to be one of my favourite aspects of home ed-trying things that I'm not usually interested in, and then being surprised at how my expectations vary from the reality of doing them.

Icecream cake and icecream for Arden.

I've been plodding away on my redbubble store, aiming to get a significant amount of designs on, after doing some research into how to get my site profitable and self sustaining.  So I achieved that goal after a very busy few months, and for now I've given myself a bit of a break from it.  It certainly has helped with how many views my shop is now getting.

I have bought my range of Irish Myth's myth mugs now.

My Irish Myth's Mug set

I bought a few of Irving's design's as gifts for family members for Christmas, after buying this one for our family, and really loving the simplicity of the design and how lovely the love heart looks at the end of the mug.  Irving's mug is here on his red bubble shop.

Irving's love heart mug

Since I've spent a lot of this year at Something French, in the city here, having a coffee and painting their patisseries, I decided to let them pick a picture and frame it as a gift.  They picked this one. I was so happy with how it looked in the black frame.  I also have it on my red bubble store.

My strawberry tart painting framed.

Finale

Term one is over again, and has disappeared very quickly as usual.  We seem to have a much more relaxed rhythm this year, which is lovely, three days of school work at home, one out, and one day off.  Willow is following her own timetable this time, and getting herself to most of her out of home activities.  She's had a busy term, and is enjoying rehearsing for her latest performance with Gilbert and Sullivan; this time they're doing "Pirates of Penzance".  She has been finding herself a little too busy, with her school work, music practise and circus teaching, and we have been trying to find a nice balance so that she has time for her own interests.  Currently she's madly knitting half her friends fingerless gloves!

Willow working on making herself a pillowcase.

Gabriel is now working through his second block of the term: geometry, unusually we started with geography this time.  Looking at the poles and North and South America.  Currently he's working on making a stuffed toy zebra and planning the pattern for it.  He's also decided that he wants to learn the unicycle at circus, and so has been focusing on that as his main skill.  He also passed his first jujutsu belt grading recently, so that was a bit of an exciting moment for him, and he's already planning for his next grading.  (Willow meanwhile is hoping to delay grading her next belt for as long as possible!  She likes being better than what her belt suggests.)

Gabriel's map of Antarctica

Sketching a Zebra

Arden and I worked together on lots of interesting symmetrical pictures for our first block for the year.  Some were painted, and some were using filed pieces of wax crayons that were then melted; we also did some work on his printing and cursive during this time.

Mix of symmetry works done during our form drawing block

I have been busy doing some more craft, and am gradually getting through some projects, as some things start to get easier to do again, now that Irving is getting bigger.  I'm onto my third pair of tap shorts, and have finally made Irving a Christmas stocking, and done a little bit of work on Arden's (which was fraying around the edge.)

The lining!

I found this book in David Jones for only $10.  Was a great surprise :)

We have just finished reading "The King of Island's Son" by Padraic Colum, and have really enjoyed it.  We started it when Gabriel was doing grade 2 but for some reason never finished it. so it was nice to come to the end.  We've now moved on to the "Celtic Wonder Tales" for story time, and Arden's main lesson story is Aesop's fables, whilst Gabriel is reading 1421 and Willow is reading HMS. Ulyssees.  As a family we are reading "The Princess and the Goblin" by George Macdonald- he and Padraic Colum are two of our favourite authors around here.

We had a fabulous time going to many events during Fringe and Festival time- there were a few bonus surprise outings (Arden got free tickets to a show, and we made a last minute booking into a yo-yo class), as well as planned in advance outings to see the Swing Revue.  Damien took Willow and Gabriel off to see Madama Butterfly, and we also attended some baroque orchestras and an education session on Baroque music(which was fabulous and lots of fun).  Last but not least, I must mention the giants, as they were certainly a high point of the festival.  We were very spoiled with them spending quite a bit of time in our park across the road!

The giants asleep.

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2025

I just read 1421 again last year with Irving,  I wasn't sure that he'd be that interested in it, but because he loves sailing, he found it very interesting.

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

We're considering reading Gavin Menzies follow up book, 1434, later this year.