Winter Break!

Well unsurprisingly the last 5weeks have flown by!  We had a few jobs to do around here, in particular getting the carpet cleaned in all the bedrooms created a little chaos, but it's nice to have our home feeling refreshed after a thorough clean!  Everyone around here has jobs to do, and in some ways the little ones (Arden and Irving) are easier to direct to tasks, as Damien and I have more realistic expectations of where and how they can help, than we did with the older two, and they are accustomed to the idea that everyone has to help out to make our home feel loved and be liveable.  So we pulled all the furniture out of all the bedrooms, got the carpet cleaned and moved everybody into different rooms!  Was a bit of a job, but satisfying at the end when everything looked and felt so nice!

We headed off the Spare Parts Puppet Theatre's performance of "The Arrival", this time at UWA.  We had seen this before, but we love Shaun Tan's books and figured it would be worth seeing again.  It was the first time for Irving to see it, and he was entranced!  We had a little walk through UWA's gardens (I do love it there!)

We have an enormous old suitcase filled with lego, and I thought that it was time we started sorting it (we made quite a bit of progress but still have to finish).  The amount of blocks has been making it hard for everyone to rebuild models, so I started putting things into coloured boxes.  We managed to get one of our oldest sets rebuilt...The Knight Bus!

And whilst on the Harry Potter theme, Gabriel decided that he is interested in reading Harry Potter in Latin, and the first book arrived in the post recently!
"Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis".

We managed to get down to Elizabeth Quay for some iceskating again this year, we had been all intending to go, but we left booking a little late.  Personally I preferred the ice-skating being in the cultural centre, where we could sit and watch the skaters more easily, but the rink is a better size at the Quay.  Also we missed the very early sessions, when we could get up whilst it was still cold and feel like we were somewhere wintery!

Otherwise over the break, I've managed to get a little sewing in (working on my first pair of trousers-linen ones for Gabriel), taking in a skirt, learning about pattern drafting, adding embellishments to some pants that I had that are starting to look a bit sad!  So I've been pleased to clear out my pile a bit...still some stuff left there and a few days left, so hopefully more will get done!  Plus Gabriel's trousers aren't quite finished!  I ran out of thread, just as I got to the hems and sewing the belt loops!  :/  Gabriel and I had hoped to get through the pair he'll make during the break, but instead we're only just starting them.  On a positive not I feel like I know the process of making them well enough that it should go fairly smoothly.

Irving and Arden and I have also done a few walks, bike rides, bit of scootering and skateboarding and catching up with friends.  We'd been a bit slack with getting Arden riding a bike, he had a balance bike when small, but we hadn't got around to him pedalling, so we finally got that sorted, and spent some time alone the river.  Plus of course given the time of year that it is, we got wellies out and went splashing through puddles!

Checking out the water draining.

Puddles at the Park.

Stopping off for a drink!  (Plus had to take wellies off to be comfy!)

Umbrellas in preparation for rain, and heading out for a walk with Willow!

Relaxing in the various seasonal weather!

Home Loving

Over the years of home education, one of the things that I value most in our lives now, that was very much lacking prior our brief stint in Steiner schools, is rhythm.  When Willow started kindy in Scotland in 2004, a lot of discussion revolved around the importance of rhythm.  Part of the rhythm in the kindy, was that each day, had a particular activity dedicated to it, generally these were the sorts of activities most kids of that age would find interesting-painting, baking, drawing, modelling.  However the last one caught my fancy and has been part of our life since, home loving.

Prior to our Steiner school experience, we had always had a house work day.  The kids didn't do a lot of it, and I was rather begrudging about it, but it was a necessity that I participated in very ungraciously.  On learning about Home loving in my daughter's school, and just the fact that it could be about love, rather than work, my attitude to it started to shift.  My attitude towards my children's involvement in it also started to shift. 

At the stage that Willow started kindy, she was very much a pre-schooler, 4 and a half,  Gabriel was only 2 1/2.  Neither were at the stage of being able to do too much in terms of help clean.  But this shift in loving my home, enabled me to encourage them to love their home too.  Initially it was just simple things; such as you are finished with one toy, it needs to be packed away to get a new toy.  Later it progressed to cleaning bedrooms, cleaning walls and now we are at the stage where Willow (16years) and Gabriel (14years) both cook dinner once a week, largely manage the kitchen themselves, and are involved in general other housekeeping duties as required.  Arden (8yrs) is at the stage of graduating towards a dinner night; currently he does dinner with the support of Dad once a week.

For our family the hardest thing about this, was creating a pattern.  Damien and I had not had a home loving attitude modelled to us, so for us to model it to the kids took time, practise and developing our own rhythm.  When a new baby has arrived it has gone out the window a bit (though with Irving's arrival it was much easier, as Willow and Gabriel were older and continued with their roles).  Arden and Irving were born into our family having a rhythm, and so they have both requested jobs, and 3rd and 4th time around I have found it much easier, as I know what is reasonable to expect them to be able to do.  (We also own many less toys than when Willow and Gabriel were very small).

For me, now as a long term home educator, this has made our experience much more relaxed and pleasant.  Living together and focusing on being co-operative together, far surpasses the benefits of home education from a purely academic point of view.  That said, our home probably does look quite chaotic by some people's standards, as we have quite a diverse range of interests and activities taking place.  We always try to keep a balance between tidy, clean, and lived in. 

Home in North Adelaide.

Settling into our appartment in East Perth.

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2025

I have found somewhat, in the late teens, that most of the kids at various points have been more or less resistant to  helping out.  The general home loving day is rarely an issue, but the more children one has the more constant day in day out work there is to be done.  Currently our routine is, whoever cooks dinner doesn't have to help with dinner time clean up.  Arden is on daily rubbish removal, Gabriel empties the dish rack and dish washer, and Irving vacuums.

Gabriel and Irving have recently switched jobs, because we got a fancy Dyson vacuum, and Irving has been very excited learning how it works.  He's particularly keen on the fact that it measures dust particles! (Anyone out there with a child that wants to understand how things work- this may be the vacuum for your child!!:*D).

2016 was also the point where I was at my busiest as a home educating parent, and in the next few years I had a bunch of health issues as I learnt about the soil deficiencies in Perth.  We ceased focusing on local food and I started on learning about supplements via reading about Orthomolecular Nutrition (anything by Abram Hoffer is worth reading).  The first main supplement I started on was iodine, which quite quickly cleared up the sleep apnoea that I had developed.  From there I discovered selenium is low, zinc, magnesium (this means B1 is bio-unavailable, and B1 being unavailable messes with the other Bs) and most recently I discovered manganese (this regulates ovulation, and supplementing this in levels as suggested by Abram Hoffer in his co-authored book, "Orthomolecular Medicine for Everyone" was life changing for my menstrual health.

In recent years, as my health has improved again, and I have been less busy, it has been much easier for us to find a regular smooth schedule for having everyone help out in maintaining our home.  Everyone was still doing it in these other times, but I was starting to become aware of just how much management I was doing, and being unwell, how tiring this was.  I've made it a goal to try to transition the children into being more responsible in helping to manage, so that when I need a day's rest, our home does not end up a chaotic mess.