Term 3 2022

During our winter break, we started, and finished this 3,000 piece "Where's Wally?" jigsaw puzzle.

Arden and Irving finished their weaving. Arden's was done on an inklette loom, and Irving's a lap loom.

Since Arden has done quite a bit on biology before and is also inclined to doing lots of physical activity, we pulled out my massage books from when I was studying, and learnt a little about massage, reflexology and essential oils.

The Directory of Essential Oils

The Complete Book of Massage

Irving designed and hand sewed, embroidered, and appliqued a cushion cover for himself. This project last a little while as he built up the patience to keep going, and he developed more speed as he got better at it.

Damien took Arden and Irving off to Wild movement to learn about making spoons using fire.

As part of our chemistry block last year, Arden made soap from a base of lard and lye.
Just finished.

And curing.

There was some experimenting with bending glass, and copper wire.

Since Arden is interested in aviation for his WW1 studies we read "The Red Baron", unfortunately we watched the movie too! We do not recommend it at all- the story veered far too much from the truth for both Arden and I. We also watched the movie "Fly Boys"- which was about the first American aviation pilots who flew with the French, before the US joined WW1. Some of this movie was also apparently inaccurate, however we used it as a starting point for further research.

"Joyeux Noel" has been a favourite around here for our WW1 studies. It is the history, of the Christmas Armistices, where the Germans, French and Scotts, decided to lay down their weapons and celebrate together. It's also worth watching the research they did to make the film- they were very attentive to detail, and brought in some very interesting facts- such as the execution of a cat, who was seen to be a spy!

We also bought a double distiller to experiment with making our own essential oils.  Trying out making Pine.

The result....

And a bit of sewing....Floral shirt for Irving

term 2-highlights

Well this has been a bit slow.  I was all set to post this months ago, and our computer was unco-operative and then I didn't get back to it.  Life with two teenagers and two children just got a bit hectic! 

A beautiful afternoon at Pelican Point with some home education friends.

Working on cursive with Irving.  I've been teaching cursive in class 1 since I read about the benefits.  I do also teach print, but I try to focus on cursive in our lessons.

Form drawing- making a circle from freehand lines.

Constructing an icosahedron, as part of our learning about the Platonic solids.

Our fire shaped tetrahedron, helping to remind us that the tetrahedron's element is fire!  And adjacent, our tetrahedron die.

Some fun with sketching mathematical patterns after watching Vi Hart's youtube channel .

Some fun activities from "Earth, Fire, Air, Water".. The zaptrapp was a favourite.  Simply make a face on a piece of paper, half wrap it on an orange, and roll him along.  Arden and Irving had a lot of fun racing their oranges.

Looking at the tension of water, by floating a pin on its surface.

Floating and sinking a stone with a balloon.

Found this beauty whilst out collecting flowers to press.

And these beautiful tiles on an old building in our local area, whilst out collecting firewood.

All ready-  with our Denk firebowl, Arden and Irving keen to try cooking on it!  So setting it up with this idea in mind.

And our evening fire.

Crafting- Irving's knitting fork work, turned into fairy light decorations.