Time Constraints

I must admit that now that we have come into Irving's 4th year of life I was hoping that I would have more time to post on this blog a bit more regularly, and some of the time I can manage it, and other times this year, I feel like we are off doing something, supporting Willow on her uni experience or having family time.  We are finally on our winter break, and it is lovely to be able to take it a easy for a bit, and also enjoy the very mild winter that we have been experiencing.

Arden and I did some history walks around the city, earlier this past term, including an art deco tour of Perth and a Boom and Bust trail. 

Fabulous art deco building on Wellington st, was once a school.  We had a chat about going to school in such a beautiful old building, and talked about trying to imagine all the girls leaving school  (it was a girls' school).

We liked this gate.

We imagine that it once went up the hill, and to St. Mary's cathedral, but now it is barricaded and looks into the carpark!

We enjoyed a few coffee stops on our outing...part of the fun IMO.  Matcha lattes have been going down well around here!  :)

This was a nice surprise.

We discovered this hidden garden on our walk, on the way to trying to find the back view of Bishop Hale's house.  Even after living her 6years now, the city still has some unexpected surprises.  It did feel a bit like an elite hideaway, given that it is tucked down the back of bank offices, and was totally deserted since it was the weekend when we went through.

And at the very back of the garden, we could see Bishop Hale's house, which is now a restaurant.  Made us wonder about what other beautiful homes might be once been along the terrace and in the area.

We had been intending to get to Tranby house during this last block, but that still hasn't happened, and so will sit on my to do list for a while I imagine.  The last block that Arden did was focusing on animals, and some of their processes.  Arden did a bit of study on cuttlefish (I had not idea they were so fascinating- can change colour and shape!), Giraffes and Siberian tigers.  Plus we had some discussions about humans and sex and babies, and he did a self portrait. For Sex and babies we are big fans of the BBC's Human Body Series, and Willow and Gabriel grumble now when I show it!  I used it twice as preparation for the kids for home births (the younger two were born at home), as I like that it gives a bit of insight into birthing at home and avoids the horror stories that some women experience (which IMO is not a healthful introduction to birth and babies for small people).

Arden's self portrait.

Arden managed to finish his embroidery project and I need to help him to create it into a pillow now, and we took a break from formal maths, as he is a bit ahead, and we spent some time looking at the Wooden books mathematical series.  He also has been spending some time getting familar with his new wooden piccolo.

Gabriel has been working on doing some sketches of Games Workshop miniatures for his  art this term.  He will be progressing on to modelling and designing his own.  His sketches are coming along beautifully.

Gabriel has been improving his time management and we are now discussing his progress twice a week.  Beginning of week to see what he's up to,and at the end of the week to review his progress.  He is currently working on writing in the style of an epic, and is also planning an essay on the Trojan War.

Arden and Irving and I went down to WAAPA to see Eneksis in their free lunch time concert, we saw some of it, however Irving was finding it a bit difficult to settle this time.  A lovely lady, kept an eye on Arden so he could watch all of it, and then we spent a little time in the nearby park again, and we took a look at the fish pond.

Irving has been taking a little interest in writing and numbers, and is starting to get a bit easier to play games with.  Turns out he is quite adept with mazes too!
Some copywork by Irving.

Damien and I went down to see Willow perform in WAAPA's Life as a Cabaret performance recently.  She only had a small part as a volunteer and diploma student, but it was fabulous to get to see her in a show again, and doubly fun as it was probably the first child free wedding anniversary Damien and I have had since before Willow was born....though as she pointed out not quite child free!  She has also been doing a lot of drawing, and writing now that she is on  holidays, and has recovered from her weekend volunteering at Supernova.

This is a recording from Oratorio, when Willow performed in it earlier this year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsY1YDIpBLs

Willow's drawing

 
Willow has finally made it in Australia!

I was a little tempted to buy Willow this baby bib.  At the time of her birth I did not like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Damien found the name in an old story....sadly he doesn't know where!  Anyhow at the time of her birth there were very few Willows ( we liked that it means liberated in old English), and now she keeps being asked if she was named after Willow on Buffy, and unfortunately for her it was just not the case! 

I have finally finished sewing myself a bag, and now have 2 nice bags!  For years and years, I've had fairly sad bags for carrying all sorts of children's treasure, and as with my decision to be clean with my fourth child (no more smudgy marked pants for me!), nice bags seemed to be in order...even if they do still end up with interesting collections!

Bag no. One.

Bag number two

I also made another bra recently, and am thinking of trying a silk one next.

This past week has seen us busy giving the house a clean over, celebrating Irving's 4th birthday and heading off to see Shaun Tan's "The Arrival" performed by Spare Parts Puppet theatre.

Candles and Cake for Irving's birthday

Wandering through UWA on the way to see the Arrival.

Enjoying the mild winter at Elizabeth Quay with the family.

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2025

Irving has just done a series of Shaun Tan classes at the Literature centre.  We have gone out of our way, over the years, to attend various activities that relate to him, as he is such an interesting artist, and storyteller.

Some other posts with Shaun Tan related excursions.

Tales From Outer Suburbia.
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2013/10/journeys.html

Rules of Summer.
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2017/10/fishes-family-learning.html

The Arrival again.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2017/07/winter-break.html

Hilariously I am back in a needing new bags stage.  All of my lovely bags started falling apart and I have had such a busy year, that I have not made any effort to do anything about it.

Ruby and Willow- Writing

This last month has been very hectic for Willow, and has seen her perform in Iolanthe, recover, and spend a very intense weekend running around after celebrities as a volunteer at Perth's Supernova.

Now that the excitement of all that has worn off, and she has finally been to the bank to open a new bank account, Willow has published her first short story, simply entitled "Ruby".

Basketball week 1

This morning Willow and Gabriel went for the first basketball training session, with a group of homeschoolers. It was a bit early for us, as we tend to be rather casual, in the mornings, but Willow and Gabriel loved it, and I really like the coach's technique, it very much reminded me of Willow and Gabriel's swimming instructor in Adelaide. Warren (the basketball coach) talked and explained about ideas, and how to apply the ideas to playing. It seemed to me to give a more cohesive feel to the instruction.

 Over the last couple of weeks we've been working on a variety of things around here. Gabriel finished his local history-geography block, and has now moved onto Ancient history. We've been doing lots of map drawing with both of these blocks, and had some fun outings with the geography block. Last weekend we headed down to Rockingham, and caught the ferry to Penguin Island. It was amusing to see quite a few people walking from the mainland to the island- although apparently one needs to be careful of the tide. Plus the island was covered in seagulls! They were everywhere- and nesting- so they were not happy to have humans around, and there was often a lot of squawking. We saw one wild penguin, which was lucky, as they are usually out fishing during the day.

View from Penguin Island

A seagull

Map of Atlantis- Gabriel's ancient history block- discussing the search of Atlantis is it a myth or is it real?

Japanese Imperial symbol- Gabriel's form drawing

Willow has been working on her 'wish,wonder and surprise' block, so there has been lots of reading and lots of writing.

 She has also been completing some knitted chooks for her circus teacher, who ordered some from her, the weekend Willow and Gabriel had a stall at city farm.

Otherwise there has been some snowflake making for her geometry and nature block- not that we ever see snowflakes here.

And she's been notating a musical piece we've been listening to on youtube.

Otherwise, we've been rather busy, as there have been quite a few organised activities. Willow and Gabriel spent a day at City Farm, last week, for their school holiday activities. There were all sorts of things happening- mosiacs, wood work, circus skills, gardening, cooking. Both of them enjoyed the range of activities- and Willow came home having learnt to mosiac, and Gabriel came home with a wooden drum, that he made.

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2025 

Not all that long after this Willow started volunteering at City Farm, helping out a local artist.

One of the mosaics she worked on is in this post.
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2012/06/happenings.html

She also volunteered at Supernova as a mid-late teen.  She got some great life experience out of these opportunities.  Including volunteering at the Melbourne Supernova in 2019.  She ended up being a PA for various celebrities for a few years, and she really enjoyed the role.  It seemed to help that we had a been a significantly media/screen free family, as she didn't really know the celebrities and so wasn't star-struck by them.