Welcome to 2024- Four Months In!

The first term is almost finished, and Summer is on the way out fortunately.  Every year I look forward to Summer, and every year, I'm glad when we get to March, and the weather is more comfortable!  This year Irving and I have only been doing formal learning since the beginning of March, although Arden started a little earlier- given that he's up to his final years of schooling.

Irving did vaccswim classes for the whole of January down at a local beach, and continued with Nippers for the rest of the summer.  He also won an award at Nippers - for embodying the clubs values- which was a lovely surprise.

Working on rescues at the Beach.

Paddle boards waiting for action.  This was Irving's favourite activity this year.

Coastal walk after swimming lessons.

I got into having Kombucha Spiders over the Summer.  I was partcularly pleased with the colour of this Dragonfruit hippie kombucha.

We continued with some of the same classes we've been doing previous years, and we had a few adjustments too.  Both boys are continuing with music classes, and they are also doing iceskating again.  Arden is continuing with his flying related activities- the youth flying club and airforce cadets.  We went to a few Steam sessions this term- I had organised the activities- but we had quite a bunch of things going on this time, so we got there rarely.  We did really enjoy the outing to the Royal Perth hospital museum and to AQWA, right at the beginning of term.  Arden has also taken up fencing.

A day at AQWA.

Entrance to the Royal Perth Hospital Museum,

Some historic treatments- antiphlogistine amused us as a name for a product.  Phlogistine for a bit of reference.

Arden practising fencing.

Arden was offered a place in a TAFE course, but decided to turn it down as it wasn't his preferred preference.  He's been gradually working through Khan academy trigonometry and physics, and is intending to return to "Life of Fred" now that he has some of the basics of trig sorted out to support his physics education.  We've both been reading "The Iliad" for his English this year, and he's working through his Basic Aeronautical Knowledge- Aviation Theory book.

Irving and I have started off the year reading "The Voyagers" by Padraic Colum and using that as inspiration of painting.  This year's painting  themes so far have been to paint within or  using a circle, and also painting in black.  Irving has also been interested in learn lettering and calligraphy, so we've been using "The Voyagers" chapter titles, as inspiration for writing in a fancier style.  Ocassionally Arden has gotten involved in our art sessions and done some drawing,  and Gabriel is interested in art generally, so he's also done some painting with us.  By the end of the term we had moved onto reading "Hawaiian Myths", also by Padraic Colum.

A couple of Irving's paintings.

One of my paintings.

A bunch of Irving's, Gabriel's and my paintings from our block.

Working on lettering.

Irving finished off his hand sewn pyjamas with a little assistance.  He has been wearing them most of the Summer.

Irving has also taken an interest in baking, so we've been trying to ensure to fit in a weekly bake.

Hot cross buns for Easter.

We're learning French this year so we've also been trying some French baking.  These are called Langue de Chats.

Off listening to Bluegrass Parkway- a local Bluegrass band.  Over the Summer.

One of our favourite shops in Freo, Compendium closed down over the Summer, and I was lucky to find Gabriel this excellent TinTin tshirt in the closing down sale.

We haven't found the Perth Festival or Fringe particularly engaging in  recent years.  In fact I'd say the Perth Fringe is just outright boring these days.....particularly the Pleasure Garden...it has turned into a very bland bar in Russel Sq.  That said we did really enjoy this wetland and lighting installation in the old Carillon City, as part of the Perth Festival.

We found a witchety grub in one of our garden balcony pots!

Irving and I have been plodding along making some designs for our redbubble stores.  This design is off mine.  Here is a link to Irving's store too.  He'd love some support, if anything catches your fancy!

I'm now part way through another Harry Potter jumper, this time for Gabriel.

By the time I got to adding the pics to this post, the next term has already begun!  I had planned to do more posts than last year, but we've been busy out and about so much that it's not happened!  We had a particularly busy April break, as we had family visiting from Adelaide, and we were out and about being tour guides with the family.  Arden also did a cyber security course in week one, and we were out a lot last week with friends.

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 4 in a Nutshell

This term has seen us doing a broad range of activities as we wrap up our planned school work for 2016.

A large part of Arden's activities have involved looking at fibres, how they're made and making a piece of clothing.  We've done work with wool and cotton this  year.  Spinning our own wool using a drop spindle, and using the wool to know with.  Arden is currently knitting Christmas decorations.  He's also done some weaving this year, and has spent much of the year, sewing pyjamas by hand.

Our spun wool drying.

Jammy top in progress. (I just need to finish the buttonholes for him now!)

One of our other themes, has been looking at buildings and structures.  Damien and Irving and I all head out to visit the Old Mill, and take a look around the building, as well as see how they used to mill grain there.  We had been to the Old Mill before (when we first moved to Perth) however at that time Damien was so busy with work that he was unable to come with us.

Grind stone at the Old Mill

Appreciating the Swan River from the South side

We also visited Woodbridge House in recent weeks, a beautiful old mansion, and we were quite sad to see how few are left in Perth and how under appreciated that they are.  Sadly Woodbridge House's lattice work and paint were in poor repair, and given how many beautiful homes of this style, Damien and I grew up surrounded by and visiting, being from Adelaide, we were sad to see that this house, being unique in its style in WA, was not being appreciated for its story by enough people.

Stopping for coffee at Woodbridge House.

Arden and I have also being doing some work with a dip pen, in the aim of supporting him creating beautiful print and cursive.  I found with Gabriel that the friction of the dip pen was useful for slowing his writing, and enabling it to come out clearer and crisper.  I thought that this might also be helpful for Arden, and it certainly worked!  I am thinking that we might focus on using a dip pen most of next year, and also do some drawings with it.

Dip pen writing

Dip pen sketches by Arden

Dip pen sketches by me (left and right handed- I've been learning to write right handed whilst helping Arden with his writing.)

Willow has spent a bit of time filming the youtube series, "Focus" that she will be in, this term, as well as doing a lot of music preparation for her audition at WAAPA last week.  She's also taken a bit of interest in making make-up and has made her own lip gloss recently.  She's been continuing with learning to use the sewing machine, and recently made her own bra.

Willow's sewing.

Whilst Willow was busy with filming and hanging out with Damien, Gabriel, Arden and Irving and I, headed out to Perth heritage days festival, and toured some of the historic buildings around the city.

Government House (the Gardens were beautiful!)

The old Palace Hotel

And Gabriel and Arden took a ride on an old fire truck!

Gabriel has been doing a lot of studying of WW1, and this past week he and Willow went to the Spirit of Australia ANZAC exhibition.  He has also spent quite a bit of this last semester studying transport, and it's evolution.  We picked up a model 4cylinder motor to construct recently and are in the early stages of construction.

Working on the engine model.

Attaching the cylinders to the crankshaft

Gabriel also had an opportunity to do a metal smithing class, which he was very please about!  He's been asking me where he could do jewellery making for a while, and we felt lucky to finally find somewhere.

Gabriel's metal work

I've been doing a lot of sewing recently, and it seems that in recent years I've discovered my passions; rock and roll/rockabilly dancing and sewing!  I've been loving sewing since I've made friends with my machine ( we were a bit at war to start with...)

Jammy shorts for myself.

Irving in his new jammies.

A cushion cover

Pockets for pants!

The pants the pockets belong to!

Irving getting fast and splashy on his balance bike.

A new space craft for Benny!

Australian Ringneck eating flowers in Midland.

And finally another cow in Perth's cow parade.

-

2025

Irving also hand-sewed  some pyjamas a couple of years ago.  His were in linen.  He learnt to use the sewing machine the same year.

Pyjamas.
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2023/10/term-3.html

Machine sewing.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2023/12/end-of-term.html

We did some Historic excursion to National Trust properties including Woodbridge House earlier this year.  Those excursions can be found here.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2025/06/gradually-getting-into-swing-of-things.html

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2025/06/we-made-it.html