Gradually getting into the swing of things.....

 So we began some structure learning at home in mid February, when the weather cooled off a bit.  I have been quite slack about making a full plan, but given we're part way through our "year 6" plan and I've been doing this so long, I  knew what I wanted to start with this year, and that was Greek Mythology.  So so far that has been Irving's and my main focus.  We started with a review of the Ancient Greek we were learning at the end of last year, and Irving has progressed onto lower case, and we've also been writing up some names of the Gods and Goddesses.  Last week we moved onto a bit of copper work, making some square shaped bowls (next time I'm hoping to do round ones) and this week I'm thinking we'll do some watercolour painting.  We've also been reading Padraic Colum's books on Greek Myth. (The Golden Fleece and The Adventures of Odyseus)

Gabriel turned 23 at the beginning of this year!

Funny to think that I started this blog back when he was 6!

Working on some watercolour painting inspired by reading Greek Mythology

Padraic Colum's "The Golden Fleece"

Copper work- Irving's on the left, mine on the right.

Irving working on his bowl.

We have also started onto some geometric drawing, which Irving is finding quite easy.  TBH I was not at all surprised by this, as he was always keen to get involved with compass and protractor when Arden was doing geometric drawing, and every now and then since he was about 5, he would go and get the tools out to draw up some circles.

After Ancient Greek studies we moved onto some physics, using Roberto Trostli's Physics is fun.  I still really like this book- the experiments are easily achievable at home, and we get good results from most of them.  The one below involved currents being created by different pigments so that it was possible to see how they flowed through the water.



We also started up some maths and grammar, but not a lot, as with it still being Summer time, I prefer to ease into that sort of work.  We have however been doing a lot of swimming, and enjoying spending plenty of time in our pool.

Arden has been at TAFE now since the beginning of Feb- studying a Diploma in Aviation Management, which he is enjoying.  Technically this is his year 12 year and thus he is at the end of his home education journey.  And so unless something very odd happens, I feel I am definitely down to just home educating one child.  Arden disagrees, on some version of this, and claims that he is not finished til the end of the year!

Irving and I have also been out and about for some excursions.  Last week was the maritime museum, and this week was Samson house in Fremantle.  We're onto a set of history excursions with the national trust- last time we did these as family weekend outings, so I'm looking forward to doing more in this manner.

Samson House in Freo

Pirates of Penzance is a family favourite around here- especially post Willow, Damien and Gabriel performing in it with the Gilbert and Sullivan society.(https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2015/05/pirates-of-penzance.html)  At the time Arden was quite small- maybe 7, and Irving was about 18months old.  We've listened to the music regularly over the years, but Irving certainly didn't remember the performance, so most of the family headed off to see the Western Australia Opera perform it, with our homeschooling group.  Overall it was excellent.

Now that I'm a little less time poor, I've gotten back into the habit of making fermented foods regularly.  Mostly beet kvass and sauerkraut, but a few others too from time to time.  This one was combined with paprika, and the current one is with apple.  So delicious!

Hard waste time was in March again this year, and we came across a few interesting things along the way.  We did bring home the two coffee machines- apparently there's often not a lot wrong with them, and since Irving is interested in repairs they're on our list of things to do.  I'm hoping we might get to them in the next few weeks, as well as cleaning out a coffee grinder and dismantling some scanners.  Irving has already become our printer technician, when Damien's out at work.

Arden has taken quite an interest in Formula one racing over the past year or so, so we had to get out to grill'd for an Oscar Piastri burger.

Thornton's eggs took me back to living in Glasgow, and particularly reminded my of a little Willow, who loved all things unicorn, and who is part of the reason that our blog is Unicorn Education.  :)

A few of Willow's unicorn crafts can be found at these links.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2011/08/at-home-in-perth.html

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2013/08/change.html

Western Australia- shipwrecks, and progress

Gabriel's latest block is Geography in Western Australia- we've spent quite a bit of time looking at shipwrecks and explorers, as well as settlement in Perth and how this affected the aboriginals this week. Over the weekend we're hoping to get to the Shipwreck museum in Fremantle.

Willow's come to the end of her first block for this year, and we planned her next block -wish, wonder, surprise (English)- last weekend. It will be interesting to see how she finds it- she has two texts to read- a modern one, Harry Potter, and an older one, The Princess and the Goblin, so she can get a sense of the difference between writing a narrative and a descriptive. There will also be a bit of poetry reading- sections of Idyll of the King by Lord Alfred Tennyson.

horse by Arden, on the blackboard


Star and heart shaped scones- baking with Arden


Geography of Western Australia is Gabriel's current block




Gabriel's form drawing- straight lines and pick up sticks




Willow's rainbow, as part of geography and nature


Apron for Arden- almost finished


Willow's final perspective picture for the block

First week of Class 5 and Class 7

We're in the middle of a rather hot spell, but fortunately we had some cooler weather for our first few days of school last week. I've been wondering how we'll manage with Willow running through her work independently, and Gabriel and Arden and I working together. Pleasingly it went very well. Willow worked through her planned work over 4 days, whilst Gabriel and I did school stuff over 3, and I have a planned activity (painting, drawing, modelling, cooking, home loving) for each day of the week for Arden. Arden loved it, and Gabriel really enjoyed doing the kindy stuff with Arden once he got into the idea of it.

Here's a selection of work from this week.

Willow's first week of class 7

Willow's bread- baked this morning for breakfast


One point perspective


Modelling


Breathing exercises


Willow found the dark centre to the lighter edge more difficult.


Geometry




Some of Gabriel's work from our first week of class 5

Modelling



Mandala


Forms


My mandala (drawn with Gabriel for his form drawing this week)

-

2025

Arden loved the structured learning the most I think of all the kids.  He continued to want to work alongside Irving in highschool and see what he was doing too, where the older kids were more inclined to work independantly.  This was partly necessary  because I was busy with the younger two, but it was also because that was what they wanted to do.

Part 2

Everyone is feeling great about having finished off their projects.

Here's the work.

Willow's horse looking stunning.


Gabriel's cushion.


We've also been working on a play of Brynhild and Sigurd to perform for the family, and finishing off our physics experiments with a week of electricity. There's been lots of other things happening this week, so we've kept it rather low key with school work. Granny is coming to visit this week, plus there's been Willow's singing concert, the pageant and Arden's birthday.

Finishing off geometry we looked at spirals.

The logarithmic or equiangular spiral.


And the Archemidean spiral (this is my version- need to take another picture of Willow's).


I made a soaked grain swiss roll for Arden's birthday. I wasn't sure it would work, but it was fabulous, and everyone loved it.

Busy Times Ahead

It seems that we will be busy with a few end of year Christmas acitivites. One has already happened- Willow has had her flute concert, which generally went quite well. In a couple of weeks time she will have her singing concert, followed by a choir performance at Floreat as part of the community Christmas carols.

Meanwhile Willow and Gabriel have also been attending circus skill classes on Saturdays, at the market, and both of them will be part of the Perth Christmas pageant. Apparently they go around Langley Park, down near the river. Willow has been working on the stilts and is hoping to master them this week so that she can use them in the pageant.

Willow has also started musicianship lessons, with Cottage children's choir. The musicianship lessons look really interesting. The follow the Kodaly method of teaching, and the lesson is filled with rhythmic patterning- in clapping, moving, games and singing. I'm thinking that maybe Gabriel should go next year too, when we can hopefully organise music lessons for him.

This week we've finished off Willow's last history block for the year. She's just finished a story about vikings, as well as looking at the magna carta and the crusades. Next year will be interesting, as I'm hoping to have her take over arranging most of her learning. We'll do the planning together, and then hopefully she can do most of the work independantly, that way I can focus on doing more kindy based activities with Arden. Particularly towards the end of this year, he's really needed more focused attention and more activities just for him.

Gabriel has been working on the nine parts of language again this week, with a final block on the Norse Myths.

Sinfiotli baking the Serpent Bread by Gabriel.

My picture of Sinfiotli and Sigmund.


Willow and I also worked on another Islamic pattern, as well as doing a woven star in geometry.




Next week we'll be back to physics, I haven't managed to find any magnetite here with a strong magnetic force, only a very weak piece, so we won't be able to do some of the magnetite experiments unfortunately. We can do the one where we place the magnet over a pile of crystals and the magnetite is the only crystal attracted to the magnet. At least that nicely illustrates the magnetism of the stone.

Finally here's some friendship bracelets Willow and Gabriel made this week for a friend.

This is Willow's which was designed to be a book mark.


And the one made by Gabriel.

Week 1

We've been really busy this past week, doing loads of interesting things, and enjoying Perth.

We started back into school stuff with Willow doing her first block of physics. We're using 'Physics is Fun' by Robert Trostli which I've found brilliant for helping to set up how to do experiments. Last week we worked on sound, looking at instruments and sound travelling through different mediums. I was hoping that there might be a chladni plate at Scitech, but a brief search didn't come up with one, so next time we're there we'll have to see if we can find one.

Gabriel finished off his man and animal block- with some writing and pictures relating to man. We experimented with some different techniques including straight line drawing.


And using a dry brush to paint with.


Willow is sewing her horse up, which is very exciting, and Gabriel is progressing well through his cross stitch.

Geometry saw us involved in some intense line drawing this past week, but giving a very interesting effect.

Willow's geometry picture.


My geometry picture.


It's interesting the difference the colours make, in the feeling of these pictures.

Willow has also recommenced flute lessons this week, which will make us a bit busier again. And Willow and Gabriel and Damien went to the Perth Observatory which they all found interesting, and showed some different aspects to astronomy from our home studies. Whilst they were there, Arden and I ended up watching half the performance of the Ramayana at the Swan Festival of Lights- Arden loved it so much he wanted to stay.

On Sunday we made our way to Whiteman park and rode the vintage trams and Willow and I attended a french cooking class- it was a bit mad on the weekend and will be lovely to have a quieter one this weekend.