Chaos (Mar 2017)

I was thinking about the idea of the terrible home ed day when everyone and everything seems to go wrong, and generally as a parent one feels ill or out of sorts.  Largely this came up, because yesterday was a mini-disaster, that fortunately I was able to laugh at by the end of.  And just that I think we need to know that to be human and to be feeling creatures means that sometimes it all goes up end, but that is by no means a reflection on who we are.  We are a work in progress just as are our children, and if we feel like a failure, it is likely because we ourselves are still caught up in the schooling external evaluation system and indoctrination that we received.

So on that theme I thought I'd run through one day last week.  First of all I awoke feeling grumpy and out of sorts, and couldn't shake the feeling easily.  I came into the living room, to find that Willow and Gabriel had just left for the opening of H&M (they were hoping for free breakfast LOL!) and that they hadn't finished their jobs from the night before.  Instantly felt grumpier, but straightened kitchen anyway, and asked Arden to help finish off putting the vacuum away.  Decided I better have a shower and a quiet meditation of the feeling to see if I could shake the uneasy feeling that I had.  Irving wanted a shower, so I did this with him.  Felt surprisingly better (currently I'm using a technique from a book that I love called "Compassionate Touch") decided that we should go out for coffee. 

Everyone gets ready, we do times tables on walk/skateboard to the cafe.  We order a croissant, brownie and biscuit to share and a hot chocolate for Arden and Irving each, and a matcha latte for myself.  The Perth mint has a fire alarm, and we watch the evacuation from the cafe, later we see the police leave.  Both the boys try the matcha latte.  We contemplate the flavour of the biscuit (choc and almond) and try to guess the ingredients.  Arden photographs his drink to put online.  We walk/skateboard home.  (This involves Arden skateboarding properly and Irving sitting on his kicking along.)

-

2025

Oh that seems tame to how I ended up in a few years time....I discovered around 2020 that I had sleep apnea, after I had a tooth break, I had it extracted, my teeth shifted, my bite would no longer meet, and I ended up with heart palpitations and my balance completely off!  (I was really glad to have read a lot about dental health, so that I knew that's what caused it)  I found a new dentist who helped to fix my bite, and within the day, my balance was completely resolved....however I wondered about the apnea, and after some research I found a dentist that said it  could be cause by an iodine deficiency.  Well in my case he was right, and very quickly the apnea cleared up.

So my disturbed sleep for quite a number of years, made our home ed experience quite a bit more chaotic, as I just struggled to stay awake during the day.  I was also regularly experiencing neck pain, and this was causing problems with my sleep too.  And combined with taking on too many things to do during the coming years, approx 2018- 2023, much of that time is a bit of a blur, similar to when I had two toddlers, too much to do, and irregular sleeping patterns.

That said, we've always had a great, learning experience, with lots of interesting things to do and learn, so it didn't change that.  It just meant I was taking naps pretty regularly during the day, weirdly I seemed to sleep better then, and if I'd had a dreadful nights sleep we'd take the day off, or one of the older kids would help the younger kids with their learning.

Week One

We started our at home learning this week, sadly not missing the worst of the heat (might have to re-evaluate this for other years, where the Jan/ Feb season is mild...) and so far have had a pleasant start, though none of us are keen on humidity so yesterday was a bit ordinary.

Arden and I are reading Norse myths by Padraic Collum and doing a study of runes and some celtic knots right now.  We' re continuing to use a dip pen for writing, and Irving has been loving trying out the dip pen too.

We've also started onto some embroidery for craft.  Arden enjoyed hand sewing last year, and although he's quite good at knitting, he isn't very keen on it so far.  (We still have a cushion decoration pattern to finish from our wool spinning last year.  :/ )  We've watched a few youtube videos on embroidery, and have made a start on making him a cushion for his bed.  His plan is to embroider snakes, stars and his name on it.  He has drawn his design onto his pillow and sewn his name so far using Holbein stitch (an up and back running stitch).

This weeks sewing; Arden's embroidery, pink and spider bag for Irving, green bag for me.

Start of Irving's embroidery up close.

Received a pile of vintage ricrac off ebay!  Love that it's all cotton, and almost none is synthetic!

We have a very eclectic taste in clothes around  here...dating back to DH and my days in the alternative scene in Adelaide, and this has continued as a family trait now that we home educate.  So on that theme Arden was very pleased to receive these floral sneakers (we bought online, and they use Korean sizing, which turns out is not the same as the EU sizing it appears to use) which were for Willow, but were far too small for her.

We tend to think that it's important for young people to be able to wear the things that they like without judgement.  It seems to DH and I that many kids feel that they are "wrong" as boys or girls, because they've been told (from a very young age) what girls and boys are "allowed" to be (by parents, teachers, advertising, television, film, computer games,etc) and then this confuses them about who they are.  "I must be a girl if I like dresses...",  "I must be a boy if I hate dresses and I hate pink....".  This is social conditioning in its worst form IMO.  Parents need to defer judgement, and support their kids to try things, without passing judgement on what their child likes or dislikes.  The child's likes or dislikes are not what makes them a boy or a girl, it just makes them human, and a person needing acceptance and love.  If we could all choose to accept each others tastes in superficial aspects such as appearance, I think we would find many more creative and happy people and children in the world.

Gabriel has been getting into managing his own timetable this year, and without Willow around, as she started at WAAPA this week (the earlier two weeks were orientation) it has been quite quiet whilst we are working, and I feel a little like I have a bit too much time to be aware of what he's doing!  So I'm attempting to make a concerted effort to be disinterested.  We've written him a vague outline, and I really want to get in the habit of having a weekly discussion of where he's at.  Probably at this stage, I will head towards a daily review building towards weekly.

Willow has been finding institutional learning interesting after a decade out of the system.  There's aspects of it that she is loving, and aspects that are a bit challenging (mostly social related so far).  I think she's enjoy the out and about aspect of it, despite the social challenges (giggly girls, immature behaviour,etc).

A few highlights from the end of our break!

Tower of books by Arden!

Irving doing some photography through the screen door.

Reading together.

We also got to a couple of shows in PIAF, and PIAF's opening.  Damien took the older three to see the Wintergarden, and I took them to see O A Lang Pho.  Everyone particularly loved the second one, which was a Vietnamese circus, and Willow came out saying that, that is the sort of circus that she would prefer to do.  The Wintergarden got mixed reviews from the family, but was generally considered acceptable.

New Year, Mild Summer, High School Graduate

We've had a busy Summer so far, and have been enjoying the time off, and the unusually mild weather.  (It has been nice to do some indoor activities this Summer-usually we spend most of it out and about!)  We have still been getting out to some Fringe shows, and on the weekend we made it to Opera in the Park.  We're probably midway through Fringe by now, and we're looking forward to getting to see some shows at PIAF also.

Willow discovered that she passed her aural and theory test for WAAPA, at the end of last year, when she was offered a place in their course, and her ECU portion of the application was formalised at the beginning of this year, so she's all set to start a diploma in Classical voice this year.  (We're all just a bit excited about this!)  It feels really interesting to have come full circle with one child now, and to have some idea where we are going with the others.  (Our first full year, was 2006 we were travelling, then we were back in school for half of 2007, and mid '07 we started home ed permanently, with me starting this blog, in an evolving form in 2008.)

Self portrait by Willow.

This last Christmas, Arden helped Damien make a Christmas pannetone bomb, using our favourite Perth icecream, ChiChos.

I've been doing a bit of sewing over the Summer, and have received a few sewing gifts.

I made this vintage pattern skirt out of green sateen.

And later I made a matching halter top with green ricrac.

The inside is purple floral, and I can reverse it if I like!

New sewing book and vintage pattern.

New Cushion cover.(and Irving's feet!)

Willow and I both had our birthday's over January.  She had treacle tart as her "birthday" cake and she's now 17.

And we got cute number star candles for my cherry cake.  (I felt a bit lucky that cherries were still nice, usually my birthday is late for good cherries!)

Gabriel and I have been using "Switch on your brain" again, to support him with improving his spelling.  It is one of my favourite books, and works along the same lines as many brain gym activities.  We first used it when he was about eight, and had a lot of success with improving his focus.  Recently I realised, that whilst he reads quite well, he hasn't worked out the spelling patterns of many words, so we've been spending some time working on this, and we've been supporting it with the exercises from this book.

Gabriel finally made a successful batch of bokashi, out of coffee grinds.  We're looking forward to using it in our composting bin!

Waiting for the bus to musicianship last week.  Classes are back!  And a bit of balancing fun.

 A bit of beach weather.  And a sandcastle moat.  (working on our physics.)

 

 And unusually cool rainy weather.

 Making match box cars.

First model with tacks.

Second model with wire axles, and modelling wax tyres.

-

2025

I have such pleasant memories of Willow being accepted in to WAAPA, we were both super excited.  She had a fabulous year studying there and getting her Diploma, and she was sorry to miss out on a place in the Bachelor the following year, but she accepted that maybe it was better to do something else for a while, and return to music later.

That next year she worked in a cafe, and she felt unappreciated for much of it, and found that difficult.  The following year, she got the opportunity to do a short stint in admin( it was meant to be three months), where Damien, her Dad works, and because she did such a great job, they kept her on and kept giving her more and more work.  So now she works as a team leader in online payment fraud management.

Term 4 Madness

Somehow I've managed not to post anything about what we've been doing this last term, though I do partly know why.  For some reason google is not logging Gabriel out of his blogger account, and so I am unable to log in.  Though last week Damien suggested I use a private window and so here I am.

Our final term has been filled with all sorts of interesting outings and experiences, and this week (where Arden is on holidays, and Willow and Gabriel are finishing up) has been a little more relaxing and busy all in one.  Arden turned 9 on Monday, and we headed out to Petition for breakfast to celebrate.  Damien headed off to work, and we went to Elizabeth Quay for a walk, where we found a rainbow cow.

Gabriel, Irving, Arden and Willow with the Perth Cow!

Perth has been doing its own cow art exhibition this past 6 weeks or so, and we've been trying to get out and see most of them.  Irving has been loving it; and we were lucky enough to come across a public art painting of one,which Arden, Irving and I participated in.

The King St cow.

The rest of the week has been busy with me writing homeschool reports for our review and sewing and ballet.  Our homeschool review was this morning and is over and done for another year, and likely next week I'll sit down to plan year 10 with Gabriel and year 4 for Arden.  At this stage we're still waiting to hear if Willow will be offered a place at WAAPA; she did her  theory test and audition last week, and she is currently semi-impatiently waiting to find out!

I spent yesterday afternoon sewing myself a skirt to wear to the ballet (just finished in time) and unfortunately hadn't gotten to photograph it before Arden accidentally dripped oil on me whilst at Jamie's on the way home from the ballet.

This year's Christmas ballet was The Nutcracker, and it was quite beautiful all round.  We all enjoyed it, and they did a good job trying to cultivate the feel of a European Christmas.

Time Flying

Somehow  with all the things that have been happening recently, I've totally managed to neglect blogging.  Our holidays flew by, and saw us doing lots of different activities and catching up with friends, as well as lodging Willow's application for WAAPA, and me being a bit unwell;totally lost my voice for a bit.

In the lead up to our holidays,  Irving, Damien and I managed to have a little adventure in the lift at Perth Train Station.  The lift went down, and the doors did not open.  For a few months Irving, had been wondering about the telephone button in the lift.  He now knows what it does, and every time we go past the lift, he comments, "I don't like stuck in lift".

Waiting to be freed from the lift.

Arden making sandwiches for dinner, with Damien's help.

We headed out to see ballet WA, just before the break; Damien took everyone bar Irving to see Radio and Juliet, and I took everyone (again bar Irving) to see Romeo and Juliet.  Radio and Juliet received mixed reviews (Damien loved it) whilst everyone loved Romeo and Juliet.  Willow in particular said that she's a fan of classical ballet.  Whilst everyone was out seeing Radio, Irving and I made chocolate coated pretzels, to have with icecream and peanut butter; was delicious!  I'm never eating shop choc coated pretzels again, they're much nicer freshly made and crispy!

Gabriel and I came across this cute little cafe on the way home from basketball, just before break time.  We loved their sign, and that they offer polite conversation (we both had one).

We headed to the Royal Perth show, for the second time.  We spent the first part of the day, wandering through the animals, machinery and looking at the crafts.  The second part of the day, we bought show bags, went on the rides, and watched the fireworks.  (After all the yelling I did near the sideshow, with my cold, I lost my voice.

We loved this vintage motor bike.

Goats!

We pulled out everyone's bikes to fix them up, and discovered that our selection of tyres was very unhelpful.  Need to visit the bike shop!  Hasn't happened yet.  :/  Though Irving has totally gotten into riding his balance bike.

Arden and Irving and myself, stopping for a swing.

January Follow Up

The last portion of last year seemed to be one step forward and two steps back!  December was filled with some interesting events, and some of them just ended upside down.

Our "Class Dismissed" screening never happened due to a mix up-looking into rescheduling that.  Arden's birthday was on a weekend that was cold and wet, which is unusual for here, and so resulted in all our plans being rearranged.  On the whole he took it well- as he was very much looking forward to his first Christmas pageant that day.  Instead we had a late night movie run with "Back to the Future part 2 and 3".

Willow and Gabriel performed in "Clowns vs Ninjas" with their circus school, and that was fabulous!  All the people involved pulled the show together into a really amusing and entertaining performance.  Willow had hurt her foot the night before, and still managed some of her parts, which I imagine was a great relief to all involved. 

We also had our home ed review and received our exemption for another 12months, and Willow auditioned for WAAPA, and was told that she had missed out this time around.  She's feeling philosophical about the whole thing, and is looking at it as a learning opportunity for applying this year.

-

2025

We didn't continue with circus after the next year, I seem to recall, so Arden didn't get to perform in the Christmas pageant.

When we visited WAAPA on their open day, Willow was told that it was unlikely she would get offered a place at 16, as the voice continues to develop as people mature.  We decided that it was worth going through the process anyway as it would help her to understand what to expect.

She was also lucky enough to be going there monthly to listen to lectures, as she was offered the opportunity on the Open Day.  So from about mid year 10, she would go down once a month and listen to some of the lectures.