Beach weather

Our first few weeks of planned work have been busy and interesting.  Since the weather has been up and down and all over the place this Summer, we ended up with a cool start to our term time, and then a burst of heat.  So we took it easy again for a bit and spent a bit of time around the river and down the beach.

South Cottesloe beach

Swan River

Outside the WA Maritime museum, after visiting the Travellers and Traders exhibit.  (We were watching a container ship leave the port).

We have an old flute, that is not worth spending money on to repair, so Arden and Irving and I been doing some online study to clean and repair it ourselves.  I

Gabriel, Arden and Irving and I headed to the aviation museum for a tour last week.

I finished making Irving a bag (mostly out of scraps)...Arden is still working on his cushion.

Arden and I have been working on drawing some celtic knots.

Modelling on our balcony.

Our current reading and reciting.  Arden is learning he first section of Sigurd and Gudrun.  Willow and Gabriel learnt the epic Voluspo, but Arden was keen to do Tolkien's version.

Arden and my modelling.  I did Odin as Vegtam the wanderer, before he gave his right eye to Mimir.   Arden modelled Thor, with Miolnir, his hammer.

Arden's and my sketches of Odin, and Arden's rune work.

My picture of Frigga.

Arden's sketch of Frigga as a Falcon.

Gabriel has been working on creative writing, and is looking at planning a time line for his history studies this term before moving onto writing an essay on WW2. He's also reading "Lord of the Rings" as his English text for this term.  We're gradually working on some holes in his spelling, and he seems to be improving nicely, we're complimenting the spelling sessions, with some kinesiology,  using "Switch on your Brain." He's planning all his time for study this year, so it's challenging now that it's quieter around here to remember to leave him to it!  Since Willow's off at WAAPA and Irving is a bit more grown up, I'm noticing when he's not working (and tending to think that he should be!) and am reminding myself that he's got to work out how to manage his own schedule.  It was much easier to let Willow just get on with it, as I was also busy with the younger three, and Irving was much smaller.

Otherwise I've been getting a little sewing done, and of course cooking.  Arden in particular has taken to having his own cooking night, and is planning his night, in advance with Damien.  He made us pasties this week.  Arden and Gabriel are also very keen to eat chillis.  So I've made them some chilli butter this week.

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2025

LOL, Gabriel has really only gotten the hang of time management and organisation in the last couple of years, as he's been doing Open uni subjects.  We've had lots of conversations about how he can organise himself and his time over the years.

His first course at TAFE, he struggled with this, and didn't pass a couple of the subjects, so he didn't get the Cert 3.  He was nervous about the transition to TAFE, and so this is why he was doing a Cert 3, and not a Cert 4 (neither course had a pre-requisite).  After failing the Cert 3, he felt that he understood how to manage the workload better and he passed the Cert 4 fine.  He got a Cert 4 in Digital Screen and Media.  

The following year he hoped to get work in a Cafe, as he decided that he was more interested in actual art than digital art.  Unfortunately Covid happened and that seemed to disrupt Gabriel's momentum.  During that time he worked at a juicing stall, and until fairly recently at a coffee stall.  He's been working on Open uni for the last couple of years, focusing largely on Japanese studies, and Art related topics.

Projects

Homeschooling with our busy crawling baby Irving has been rather hectic recently.  He's been enjoying our music and dancing outings, though sadly our dance lessons have ended for now.  Everyone has gotten quite good at rockabilly especially, and can do a bit of a few other rockabilly related styles.  We all got out to do quite a bit of dancing over the Easter break, and enjoyed watching the Cotton Tail trio on ANZAC day.

Prior to easter we went to see the Spare Parts Puppet theatre do a performance called , Hachiko, it was a very touching story about a dog, that spent years waiting for his master to meet him after work.  Apparently it has been made into a film,and strangely, my mum had bought it for my niece and nephew, the same week we went to see it. 

Arden's  block of cursive went well last term, and interestingly he said that he found it easier than printing.  We're making cursive practise part of form drawing to keep it part of his regular work. 

Here's his cursive and form drawing.

 

Craft wise Arden started with finger knitting, then onto a knitting fork and this week he started knitting.  He's being enjoying it so far.

He made his doll, Holly, a finger knitted scarfe.

His plan with his current knitting, is to make Holly an orange bag.

This is some work Arden and I did together on fractions; using kite paper to fold into different sizes.

And some modelling he and I did together.

Last term Arden started circus and music classes, and he's taken to them both very well.  I sat in the first few so I could see how he would go with taking turns, and putting his hand up, etc and after each lesson I gave him a few tips on how the "rules" work.  So during the holidays he went to his first class totally by himself, he was a little nervous, but had a wonderful time.  He came home with a t-shirt he had screen-printed, which he was very pleased about. 

Finally he's been getting inspired to try writing his own music.

Gabriel finished his perspective block successfuly, with some interesting pictures.  His breathing exercises were quite interesting.

 

 This is a building plan that he did for the block.

He's now onto physics, and has been working through light and sound so far with Damien.  These two pictures show a tealight reflected in a mirror appearing to be on the paper- the back tealight is the reflection.

Willow has been busy working on finishing her latest history project- a study of a medieval era painting.  Her craft projects are getting closer to completion- her blanket is coming along nicely, and her doll is finished, and is awaiting her clothing; so far she has a dress.

 

Gabriel and Willow have both been working on busking together recently too; playing flute and recorder together, as well as trying out Willow juggling or hoola hooping whilst Gabriel plays recorder.  They spent quite a bit of time doing this during the holidays. 

This is my experiment of grinding cacao beans and making hot cacao, in more of a coffee style.  Very tasty.

Arden and I cooking croissants.  Arden spreading the butter.

Ready for the oven.

 And ready to eat !  :)

 

Change

It's been a time of change around here, so hopefully it will all lead to somewhere good.  Damien  was made redundant and has also  started a new job. Plus Willow's volunteering at City Farm has come to an end, but it does look as if there may be alternative opportunities for her in that realm. 

Damien took Arden to see "Room on the Broom" at the Heath Ledger Centre.  Arden was a bit worried about the dragon in it being too scary, but he was pleasantly surprised when he went to see it.  When Willow and Gabriel were about Arden's age, I used to almost be able to recite the book off by heart, everyone loved it so much.  Arden though prefers some of the other Julia Donaldson books, like Tiddler, Tabby MacTat and Monkey Puzzle. 

Waiting for the performance to start.

Gabriel has been working on his next block this week- part two of ancient Rome, Willow is on to geography and Arden has been working on vowels, and how they are the fillings that help us make words.  We've also started reading 'The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter'.

Gabriel also did a little more drawing of zebras this week, after having a solid few weeks of modelling them- we will be looking at pattern planning in the next week or so.

Willow has been back on to doing some beautiful geometric drawings, which I've forgotten to photograph this week (and being stuck under Irving I can't do it now) and Gabriel has been working on the King's and Queen's crowns and cardiodes.  Arden's been getting involved in geometry as usual too.

 

And cardiodes- Gabriel's followed by Arden's.

Arden was the recipient of some left overs from a local cafe last week- which he was very happy about - here are some of the bits he received.

And finally this is one of the mosaics that Willow had been working on during her time volunteering.

Back to School

So our 6 week break is over, and we started school again this week.  It was great to get back into organised activities at home, and so much of the work was interesting.  I've decided next year, that we'll have a 2 1/2 month summer break and start mid February, as having the longer break in the middle has gotten us all rejuvenated for the second half of the year.  So we'll be looking at a 4 week break next winter.

Gabriel was continuing on with his English block we started last term, and this week we were looking at sentence structures, whilst continuing with reading "Beowulf" and Padraic Colum's King Arthur stories. 

We looked at a pictorial proof in geometry this week.

My version.

Gabriel's version.

Gabriel has progressed onto modellling for his craft project, and is currently modelling zebras, before he will eventually move onto planning his project.

Arden and I continued working through the alphabet this week, looking at the letters L and Z.  Next week we'll do a mix of activities, before moving onto the vowels.

Here's our modelling.

 

And our painting for the week.


This is my lamp painting.


Arden's lamp painting.


Willow is onto working on her computing block.  Damien is taking her through the basics of hardware, and she's teaching herself touch typing using Ktype and tux type.  (Damien works in IT and we have linux as our operating system at home.)

I bought a few new books recently: "The Little Prince" and also "Between Form and Freedom" and also "The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby and Child Care."  We've all been enjoying "The Little Prince", and it's been our lunch time read for the week.  Arden is particularly enjoying it.  I wasn't sure how much I'd like "Between Form and Freedom" as I'd come to realise quite some time ago that homeschooled teenagers are different from schooled ones, waldorf or not.  Generally this book is a schooled child's book and not a home educated child's book.  There are bits I'm finding really annoying, but there are a few good bits in there too.  The last book I haven't had much of a chance to look at properly yet, but I cut out all pasteurised dairy, after reading that this can cause some babies discomfort when breastfeeding, and Irving is certainly cheerier now.  I wasn't having a lot of pasteurised dairy (milk and cream at home are raw) but now I'm pretty much sticking to raw.

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2025

The teen situation is definitely different when home educated, and I really would focus on the educated word there, and not home schooled.  I've now met quite a range of people doing both now, and the home schooled ones end up with more of the schooled kids issues.  Feeling controlled, lacking autonomy and intrinsic motivation over their lives is something I have come across a bunch of times.  These things are particularly an issue from what I have seen if they are over scheduled.  Obviously if their schedule allows for flexibility to do other things and to explore in their own time, as well as doing structure, then this won't be an issue.

There are quite a number of people that move to home schooling here in the teen years.  Interestingly in Adelaide, the more experienced home educators, use to almost discourage it, because the way the educating happened there was more of a natural learning approach and that can be difficult to transition into, when all one has ever known is school.  I do like that a lot of people step out, even in high school here, with the support of a programme, because I think learning outside the mainstream schooling system is still an enormous step in the right direction, and TBH it is what we started with, although from the Steiner system, and in the early years.

Socially it can be difficult hanging out with the kids that have had a hard time at school, because they can bring the chaos of their school issues with them.  I've also learnt, over the years, that there are some great schooled teens to mix with, and generally these are the ones that have high parental/multi-generational involvement in their lives.  Hold on to Your Kids is a great read on this topic, and whatever education model one uses, it is an excellent read on how to maintain good family connections with one's children.