Recent Work and Events

I visited the anthroposophical shop last week to stock up on work books, get a gift for someone and get modelling wax (largely this was due to Arden being co-operative whilst we were there). We are heading to Perth to live in a few weeks, and I have no idea if they have an anthroposophical shop there, so stocking up on basics before leaving seemed like a good move, plus I really like the lady the manages the shop at present, so it was nice to have a chat to her about our plans and homeschooling.

Gabriel has started on his next cross-stitch project. He designed his first one based around animals and crystals, and his second design was on knights and dragons. He'd like to sew both of them by the end of the year- at this stage it seems like a lot of work, but he's getting much more consistent with his sewing. He has started on the first part of his animal cushion, which consists of four panels with different images.

Willow is still working at her stuffed toy project, and at this stage is drawing lots of horses, her drawing has improved immensely over the last few weeks, and I think after a few more weeks of drawing it may be time for her to move onto planning how she will make her toy horse.

Willow had her final singing lesson tonight with her choir before we move, and has one final flute lesson and a flute concert this weekend. Her singing concert was a couple of weekends ago, and as usual was a success. This time Willow had a shared 'solo' part which was exciting for her. She loves singing on stage, and was really pleased to get the shared part in singing 'Maria' from 'The Sound of Music'.

Both kids have been doing a block on maths- Willow business maths and Gabriel fractions. But our usual bookwork, has fallen to the side this week, as the kids had a visit to Mt Gambier to see their cousins there. They had a fabulous time and have been talking non-stop about wrestling, basketball, frogs, computer games, and goats amongst other highlights of their stay.

There's quite a bit to do round here, with getting ready for the move, but gradually things are getting done. We've got a couple more things to sell, or throw out, and boxes are getting packed - so that's good, we need to find a home there and catch up with friends before we go. I've already contacted their homeschool community and on first impression they seem very friendly, but my plan at this stage is to have a rather low key term so that we can get to know Perth at a more relaxed pace.

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2025

So there was no anthroposophical shop here, but there was a nice shop associated with one of the schools at one point.  Eventually I accepted to get the resources here that I needed to order them online.  So many of these things that I like are difficult to get or do in Perth.  And whilst that door is closed off here- unless we travel to the South of WA, there are other interesting things that I enjoy here.  Perth IMO is a much more extroverted place, than Adelaide, and I have found it interesting that so many of the things that I miss from home, are quite easily found by visiting the small towns of the South.

Heading to  Southern Aurora Steiner shop.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2011/10/southern-aurora.html

Before vanishing, the shop became "The Honeyclock".

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2012/02/last-fortnight.html

We took a while to settle into friendships here, which I somewhat expected, I had a similar experience when we moved to Glasgow, but I found it much more challenging then, as Willow and Gabriel were so small and I didn't have a sense of how long that process could take.  With the move to Perth, I was quite patient about it, but Willow found it a bit tricky, and it was only when we started music classes at Cottage institute, do we start to find our sort of people.

Settling in to Perth, and starting at Cottage Institute with Willow.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2011/09/over-last-few-weeks-weve-been-out-and.html

craft, class 4, music and new books

In preparation for our woodwork this term, I decided that now Arden is bigger I could sit down and do some woodworking myself. And so I've made a start on carving a wooden egg using a rasp and pocket knife. So far it's coming along nicely.

My plans for class 4 have also been completed. There's little variation from the first time around with Willow, but there are a few new things, and slight variations where I've found some better sources of information, in time for my planning.

Classes this terms include suzuki flute for Willow, singing in the second concert choir for Young Adelaide voices and suzuki violin lessons for Gabriel. Both of them will also be doing a bow making workshop, which sound very exciting IMO.

I headed to our local anthroposophical store recently and picked up a couple of good books, and am awaiting a third. So far I've found the first one very helpful for craft.

Will Developed Intelligence.

The next one I bought with some of the geometric drawing in mind.

Making Maths Meaningful


Lots of interesting reading.

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2025

The long bows that they made.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2011/04/onto-block-two-and-recent-activities.html

Nearly the End

We've been so busy the last few weeks, but mostly it has been fun. There's been a few unpleasant bits- house inspections and the sort but activity wise, but we've all been really enjoying this end of the year.

Willow had being doing some cross-stitch, and doing a beautiful job. She planned her picture using graph paper and has been sewing onto her aida cloth. Gabriel has been giving it a bit of a try too. Initially he found it a little tricky, but after some other sewing felt he would like to have another try, and slowly it's starting to come together.





We made angels at our Waldorf co-op recently, and that was great fun too! Lots of beautiful work by everyone.



We also got out to a circus skills workshop. The people running it were fabulous, and the kids had an amazing time. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it's taught them some great balancing skills, and I suspect also how to trust and be more confident. And within that theme they had their end of year performance with Young Adelaide Voices. Again the confidence is amazing- coping beautifully with being up in front of a large crowd- and it was really evident how much they've both grown up this year to see their performances. Last year Gabriel was still very dreamy, and this year he's definately settled into his roots.

We're up to our last chapter in "The Children of Odin" by Padric Colum. Tomorrow we're up to Ragnarok- the Twilight of the Gods. It's sad to come to the end of the block, but exciting too. It's been fascinating learning about runes, and how to draw celtic knots and all about the different gods and goddesses. But class five looks challenging in different ways for Willow and me. Woodwork is meant to be more serious next year, and then we need to look at a few different ancient cultures- Egypt, Greek and some others. Plus our form drawing is now heading into geometry. Quite exciting stuff. Of course I'll still be doing form drawing as Gabriel is still doing that next year, but it is really becoming evident that we're heading into more advanced study and that feels good.

This week were finishing with a nature block- hopefully some cooking tomorrow, and maybe a couple of outings, and a concert for Damien on our last day. I am looking forward to the end of year, a good rest, and a new start of class 3 and 5 next year.

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2025

Norse Mythology has become one of my favourite topics over the years.  All the kids really love the stories.

Norse myth with Gabriel.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2011/11/busy-times-ahead.html

With Arden
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2017/08/english-instruments-and-floral.html

With Irving.
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2023/08/term-1.html

Singing in the Heat

Summer has returned here with a vengeance, and deserted us again. And I hope it will stay in the pleasant range of weather for a while, rather than being excessively hot again. It would be even better if it could be a pleasant summer this year. Had enough after 46degrees earlier in the year.

So Willow and Gabriel had their choir singing in the Pageant again this year, right in the middle of the heat. Fortunately it wasn't over 40 and so not too awful. Arden and I had seats in the VIP stand, and a great view of the pageant. We were quite lucky. Damien's boss offered them to us the night before the pageant.

There was a brief respite from the heat when we caught up with our Waldorf co-op. One of the mum's organise making dragonflies out of beads it was a great activity. Everyone here has been keen to do more craft activities with beads now.

Returning

It's been a very long time since I've posted on this blog, but since I'm now starting another blog on making money, I decided to reconnect to this one and make more of an effort.

We moved house and are now living on top of a hill! But still very near to Adelaide. The move was a bit mad, but it has been worth it- living in North Adelaide is much more community orientated than Unley. It has been nice to find somewhere to live in Adelaide, that I like, since our return from Europe. I had been struggling a bit to appreciate the place since returning. And recently another market has opened, the community market at Grange is lovely, and a great place to spend this time of the year at, if one heads to the beach too.


We've had quite a busy year with our homeschooling activities, and amazingly it's heading towards the end. We've nearly finished class 4 and class 2. Our craft activities have been all quite successful. We all made fabulous wooden swords, and I am feeling much more confident in our ability to do woodcarving. Willow has nearly finished knitting one sock (with second to follow next year). Hopefully she may finish the sock now rather than reading my post! ;) But perhaps she's too busy giggling. So in the course of Willow knitting socks, I also have learnt to knit socks and am currently up to my third pair- one for each child.

Gabriel learnt to purl this year, and next year will see his first real knitting project. Quite an exciting step forward! Our final selection of craft for the year is cross stitch, which is being enjoyed by all presently.

Activity wise has seen lots of interesting things happen here. We've started our own Waldorf Co-op, which meets fortnightly, and is looking for a few more people but establishing itself gradually. Willow went for a sail on the One and All, which was fabulous apparently and took a year to occur. It was a beautiful mild day for it, which was great considering the last cancellation was due to excessively hot weather. Willow and Gabriel can both swim reasonably well now, after 6months worth of lessons with Ken Richter, who is an amazing swimming teacher and currently everyone is back to Young Adelaide Voices for singing- with the Pageant coming up soon. There is not quite as much excitement as last year about the Pageant singing performance, but everyone is still looking forward to it.





We also headed to Melbourne for a holiday and had a great time. Our first holiday away since returning to Adelaide. We flew with Tiger airways and whilst the flight was fine, the terminus in Melbourne was quite amusing. It was basically a gigantic padlocked carport. Very odd indeed. We had a few eating destinations requested by the kids, which we headed to. One was Wagamama, we ate there regularly in Glasgow, and Fifteen. The guys had been watching Jamie at Home and decided it would be good to go to his restaurant in Australia. We all had a bar meal. It was really good, and has inspired Willow and Gabriel with their cooking.

And now it looks like Summer is here, so things are starting to wind down and yet get busier at the same time. Lots of fun end of year Christmassy things to happen!

Activities

We've been very active round here the last week with all sorts being planned and happening round here.

Willow and Gabriel's cousin Dale came for a sleepover last week, so there was much excitement and late night chatting for that. Whilst that was going on I managed to finish making Gabriel's felt slippers, and I was really happy with them, since it was my first try. Willow wants a pair now too.

We celebrated the Spring Equinox last night with a lovely dinner, and a candle making ceremony. We had collected and pressed flowers for it months ago which we pressed into the wax. The candles were melted in hot water for a minute, the flowers were pressed in, and the candles were put back in the hot water again. We're probably in need of practise to get a really nice finish, but we were satisfied with our results.

This week there are some interesting things to try, so we've booked in for the Butterfly Plants session at the Botanic Gardens, and the Art Gallery is doing a workshop on Screen printing, so that should be good too. We were thinking of trying Cirkids this term, but everyone now is keen to try Young Adelaide Voices, so we're off to their trial evening before making a decision. Willow would like to try horse riding, but that may have to wait til next year, if we do the singing. And finally we're all planning to give Scottish dancing another try, we really enjoyed it before, but I was anaemic for part of Arden's pregnancy, so we only did it for a little while before stopping. So many things to do!

Plus presently we've been weaving and learning about fabric's and making fabrics, and clothes, in our current homeschooling activities. The weaving projects are quite simple at this stage, and for our first sewing project we're going to handsew Willow a pair of pyjamas- still early days in the pattern but it should be very interesting!

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2025

This was the beginning of our singing journey with Willow!  It's so interesting to look back at it, and feel satisfied that we achieved her goals for her education with performance.

Willow did  a few Gilbert and Sullivan performances over the years.

Pirates of Penzance
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2015/05/pirates-of-penzance.html

Iolanthe.
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2016/06/iolanthe-has-take-over.html

She also learnt to play violin and flute, did a lot of musical busking, learnt a variety of dancing styles- ballroom, swing, rockabilly, rock and roll.  

Instead of completing year 12- she studied a Diploma in Music industry (classical voice) at WAAPA-the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.  There's a small discussion on her acceptance into tertiary education here.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2017/02/