Term 2 part 2

Towards the end of the term we spent a month looking at poetry, in different styles and learning about metres, and how to understand them.  Arden and I worked together to come up with the our own poems in the various rhythms. 

We have a few poetry books at home, but I figured we needed a greater variety for this, so collected some more from the library.

The poetry books we used.

During this time we were also reading Beowulf. 

Plus we ordered a denk fire bowl to use in the colder weather.  It doesn't really get cold in Perth, just overnight, so we got up early on Winter solstice and made a small damper to bake in the embers of our bowl.

It got a bit stuck to the aluminium foil, but was still delicious!

We were playing hopscotch whilst out and about for a while, after meeting a lady who drew up a game of it for us!

Arden recently finished reading Hemmingway's "Old Man and the Sea".

We read "Tom Sawyer" earlier in the year, and we used Kovacs' "Ancient Rome" as well as Emily Frenkel's version of "Aenas" for Arden's first block on Ancient Rome.

Third time around we are using "Lingua Latina" for Latin.

Irving and I had been working on some cursive, helping to build up his familiarity with the alphabet.

Irving experimenting with celtic knot patterns.

Irving and Arden working on geometry.  Irving likes to join in, so he does the bits he can manage.

I'm still working on this,just recently traced the quilting image onto it, unfortunately it won't be ready til next winter! (I'm sitting under it right now!-2025)

Irving is starting to get the hang of skateboarding.

A Collection

A bit of a collection of recent activities.

Arden has been working on some English recently-grammar and poetry, as well as us doing some ink drawings.

Fish by Arden.

Examining phrases, clauses and sentence (in Arden's usual creative writing style- the more artistic the better LOL!)

My eagle pen and ink drawing.

Irving's pen and ink drawing.  He seems to love pen and ink.

Some poetry and sketching by Arden, about lions.

My lion sketch.

Fabuland lego village building session with Irving, whilst all the big kids are out.

I've been using everyone's old trousers to make Irving new pants.  These are out of a pair of Willow's old jeans.

He was so happy, he did lots of posing for me!

Another pair out of Damien's old trousers.  Irving wanted yellow stitching.

A final pair out of Damien's old jeans.

Again lots of happiness, but this time couldn't keep still!

Out for a walk, just to splash in puddles.

Last bit of form drawing for this year, an interesting looking fish, which Arden found to copy.

Arden, planning a flag design for a t-shirt.

An experimental embroidery project.  Arden created a cactus.

And this lead to Irving wanting a cactus patch.

Now Arden is working on some ideas for embroidering into sneakers.

Making pumpkin bread!  Mostly me, with a bit of help.  (We've been doing some German cooking.)

Gabriel made us breakfast bagels on father's day for brunch.

Damien and I decided that Willow and Gabriel need to learn a bit about doing the shopping, so we headed to City Farm, gave them the grocery money, and ordered coffee.  Seems to have been a successful experiment so far, and will be happening fortnightly, in an attempt to encourage them to be aware of what's in the fridge when they cook dinner.

The Face of Fear by Willow

When the person, standing,
All alone in the dark
Scared, trembling, seeing unsee-able monsters
Looks inside, they find.
The fire in their heart, which shines through their eyes
They can stand up, face their fear
Laugh in the face of Danger
The courage inside them lighting the way,
It leads that person through pain and grief,
Sorrow and anger,
Fright and cowardliness,
The fire shows courage, bravery, strength in
The face of fear, and even in the face of Death
The fire is a fighting spirit,
It is always there in your heart,
And the fire never goes out.

Recently

Over the weekend Damien took Willow, Gabriel and Arden to see Circus Oz.  Everyone enjoyed the show, and Willow went hunting for the performers, both to have a chat, and get autographs.  Apparently Arden laughed and laughed, so much so that Damien was concerned people near by may not be able to hear!

Arden went for his first try busking on the weekend, playing harmonica, he made up his own songs, and did amazingly well.  He's been very pleased all week, that he has some money that he made himself.

This week Gabriel did a sketch for his main lesson work on ancient Rome.

Willow has been out and about at poetry workshops this week, learning about Haiku poetry at one, and a mix of poems at the other; including dada.    

Arden and I have been doing some maths this week using JUMP workbook 1.

Here's some geometry by Willow and Gabriel.
Willow's.

 

And Gabriel's.

Poetry

Willow has been getting into doing poetry recently, and has her own poetry blog now.

Here it is.
http://theblogofpoems.blogspot.com.au/

-

2025

So it seems Willow has taken down her poetry blog.  Being into music as she is, poetry seemed a natural extension to explore.  Many people complain about it being pointless, but seem to lack comprehension that modern music lyrics, are poetry, accompanied by sound.

Some examples of Willow's poetry can be found here.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2011/09/holiday-time.html

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-face-of-fear-by-willow.html

Arden trialing poetic writing.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2017/09/a-collection.html

Poetry resources from when Arden was learning to write poetry.  The Stephen Fry book "The Ode Less Travelled" has been popular around here.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2019/09/term-2-part-2.html

Since living in Glasgow we celebrate Burn's night here, with a small bit of poetry reading, usually after we've been to the Australia day fireworks, since they are quite close together.  Since we have Scottish heritage- Damien is Scottish, and I have some Scottish ancestry, it's nice to keep some of the culture within the family.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2018/04/summer-holidays-finally-here.html

Some Recent Work

Willow's swan poem.



Gabriel's Eagle poem.



Gabriel's celtic knot sword picture.



Gabriel is progressing through his cushion.



My pin cushion is finally finished!