So Much Action

We were consistently busy over term 3.  I was looking forward to the holidays, but they ended up being rather chaotic with Willow here, and house sitting.  And Irving having sailing all during the second week.  I had also intended to write my moderator's report during the first week, but with Willow out and about all week, it got put back til Irving and I were on the river.

Irving sailing at tackers 3.

Enjoying the view, with some tea.

Painting whilst the classes are happening.

We started our term 3 later, and had some fun dismantling some of the electrical items that we had collected for Irving to examine. 

Dismantling a broken scanner.

All the left over pieces.

Our kettle broke, so we pulled that apart too.

 

Off to the art gallery with our homeschool group and did a tour of some of the current exhibitions as well as a drawing session.

Irving's sketch of one of Perth's buildings

We did a lot of poetry this past term, using Stephen Fry's, the Ode Less Travelled- there were a lot of new terms and it was a lot of fun!  I had used it before with Arden, but Irving and I got a little further through the book, and although Irving found some of it challenging, Stephen Fry comes up with some very amusing topics, and puts time limits on the activities so it kept us progressing along nicely.  We got half way through the book and will do the second half next year.  To complement our study of poetry we read Beowulf too.

And we also started a book club with some home school friends, and our first book, was Momo by Michael Ende.

We did some reading about Ancient Rome using Charles Kovac's book, and spent some time watching documentaries on Rome.

We had a home education session at the Constitution centre, and did a tour of Parliament.  Sadly the Constitution centre does not receive as much funding as it once did, and their range of courses is significantly cut back.  We were reading about King Arthur and his knights by Roger Llancellyn Green as a way to complement our civics studies.

The Lion and the Unicorn in WA Parliament

We finally finished the lund stools that we had been making in our Joy of Wood woodwork classes.

Irving's on the left and mine on the right.

He also picked up a sword and shield making kit from them at their moving sale.

We picked up a couple of new books.

Something to our inspire our copperwork

And Irving bought himself this.

 

Tried out braiding some copperwire.  

  

We worked on patterns wtih a range of different objects before trying out making rings, in theory with patterns, but it seem that only really appealed to me!

We moved onto open backed copper rings.  Irving decided not to pickle his rings, and so his came out with these interesting patinas.

Irving's rings

My rings

Pickling a copper bowl in double strength white wine vinegar.

We started making a tool for shaping out copper bowls.

 We happened to see a car show on our way home one day.

Irving's been making Scottish tablet to sell at the homeschool Christmas market.

Me doing some painting, whilst eating my subject.

We happened to be at City Farm for the Watercolour exhibition.  I really liked these paintings.

We also saw a local exhibition at the Perth City Council.

Irving checking out the artworks

Trialling making sauerkraut with nasturtium leaves.

  

Irving and Arden and I are reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

When I was reviewing this blog earlier in the year, I discovered that I had recipes on here- and so I tried one of them, and it turned out that when modified it made very nice chocolate mousse!

Gradually getting into the swing of things.....

 So we began some structure learning at home in mid February, when the weather cooled off a bit.  I have been quite slack about making a full plan, but given we're part way through our "year 6" plan and I've been doing this so long, I  knew what I wanted to start with this year, and that was Greek Mythology.  So so far that has been Irving's and my main focus.  We started with a review of the Ancient Greek we were learning at the end of last year, and Irving has progressed onto lower case, and we've also been writing up some names of the Gods and Goddesses.  Last week we moved onto a bit of copper work, making some square shaped bowls (next time I'm hoping to do round ones) and this week I'm thinking we'll do some watercolour painting.  We've also been reading Padraic Colum's books on Greek Myth. (The Golden Fleece and The Adventures of Odyseus)

Gabriel turned 23 at the beginning of this year!

Funny to think that I started this blog back when he was 6!

Working on some watercolour painting inspired by reading Greek Mythology

Padraic Colum's "The Golden Fleece"

Copper work- Irving's on the left, mine on the right.

Irving working on his bowl.

We have also started onto some geometric drawing, which Irving is finding quite easy.  TBH I was not at all surprised by this, as he was always keen to get involved with compass and protractor when Arden was doing geometric drawing, and every now and then since he was about 5, he would go and get the tools out to draw up some circles.

After Ancient Greek studies we moved onto some physics, using Roberto Trostli's Physics is fun.  I still really like this book- the experiments are easily achievable at home, and we get good results from most of them.  The one below involved currents being created by different pigments so that it was possible to see how they flowed through the water.



We also started up some maths and grammar, but not a lot, as with it still being Summer time, I prefer to ease into that sort of work.  We have however been doing a lot of swimming, and enjoying spending plenty of time in our pool.

Arden has been at TAFE now since the beginning of Feb- studying a Diploma in Aviation Management, which he is enjoying.  Technically this is his year 12 year and thus he is at the end of his home education journey.  And so unless something very odd happens, I feel I am definitely down to just home educating one child.  Arden disagrees, on some version of this, and claims that he is not finished til the end of the year!

Irving and I have also been out and about for some excursions.  Last week was the maritime museum, and this week was Samson house in Fremantle.  We're onto a set of history excursions with the national trust- last time we did these as family weekend outings, so I'm looking forward to doing more in this manner.

Samson House in Freo

Pirates of Penzance is a family favourite around here- especially post Willow, Damien and Gabriel performing in it with the Gilbert and Sullivan society.(https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2015/05/pirates-of-penzance.html)  At the time Arden was quite small- maybe 7, and Irving was about 18months old.  We've listened to the music regularly over the years, but Irving certainly didn't remember the performance, so most of the family headed off to see the Western Australia Opera perform it, with our homeschooling group.  Overall it was excellent.

Now that I'm a little less time poor, I've gotten back into the habit of making fermented foods regularly.  Mostly beet kvass and sauerkraut, but a few others too from time to time.  This one was combined with paprika, and the current one is with apple.  So delicious!

Hard waste time was in March again this year, and we came across a few interesting things along the way.  We did bring home the two coffee machines- apparently there's often not a lot wrong with them, and since Irving is interested in repairs they're on our list of things to do.  I'm hoping we might get to them in the next few weeks, as well as cleaning out a coffee grinder and dismantling some scanners.  Irving has already become our printer technician, when Damien's out at work.

Arden has taken quite an interest in Formula one racing over the past year or so, so we had to get out to grill'd for an Oscar Piastri burger.

Thornton's eggs took me back to living in Glasgow, and particularly reminded my of a little Willow, who loved all things unicorn, and who is part of the reason that our blog is Unicorn Education.  :)

A few of Willow's unicorn crafts can be found at these links.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2011/08/at-home-in-perth.html

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2013/08/change.html