Coming to a Close and New Beginnings

 We had quite a busy finish to the year, and a very exciting start to 2026  From our very full holidays we had a fairly full term- with incidental events appearing and classes to get to.  We started off with our moderator in the first week,which went well, and that was us again til next  October. 

We finished off some English studies using Beowulf and Stephen Fry's "The Ode Less Travelled".  Interestingly Irving really got into doing the poetry, and it was really helpful that Stephen Fry had time limits for all the exercises.  It seemed to help him from getting overwhelmed, as he put all his attention into being quick!  He enjoyed finally getting to hear Beowulf, as the older kids have all talked about the story, and we have a boardgame version of it.

We moved on to the end of the Roman Empire, and interestingly Irving didn't find it as interesting as the older kids.  He was much more interested in Ancient Greece.  We also started reading 1434 to complement the topic, which worked nicely as it has a lot of discussion about where did various knowledge come from, and encouraged us to look more deeply into history.

We also read "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" this term, and Irving really enjoyed Jules Verne's writing style and his creativity with science, and how he explored and expanded on the ideas of his era.

We put in some artwork into the Darlington Arts Festival.  Irving, Gabriel and I put a piece in each, with Irving deciding to submit one of his copperwork pieces from this year.

Irving's bowl up close.

Irving's bowl on exhibition.

We had continued to make open back rings in various styles during the remainder of the last term including using rouge to polish them by hand.  We had not done this with any of our earlier pieces and Irving decided that he was going to prioritise that for his exhibition piece.

                                  

Gabriel's butterfly- above the
 exhibition sign

His piece up close

This reminded me of the first time we did an art exhibition.  We had homeschool friends in Adelaide, who ran a cafe, and they invited all the kids in the community to exhibit their work in their cafe.  That was Gabriel's first time exhibiting.  He was probably about 8.

My turtle

My abstract watercolour piece.

Since then I've been working on boats, whilst Irving has been learning to sail.

We finished our coppermaking off for the year with some engraving.  Including engraving rings....I seem to have neglected to photograph Irving's engraving.

in the vinegar pickle

  


We head to the Perth Gem and Mineral show- Irving was very interested in the Rubies.

We bought a guitar making kit a few years ago for Damien to work on with Gabriel, but for various reasons he never got around to it.  One of the things he wanted done was a pattern on the neck of the guitar- since Irving and I have done a bunch of woodwork in recent years I have made a start on it.

We've been working on Perspective drawing.  This book is really fabulous for explaining how to.

Working on perspective drawing together.

The homeschool Christmas market was a great success again, and Irving was starting to get the hang of running a stall and thinking about what sells and how he needed to manage it.  This year he was selling plants, and pendants (left over stock from last year) and his new addition was home made Scottish Tablet (it's like a crumbly fudge).  

We're back at nippers for another Summer season.

We cleaned up and unwanted delonghi kettle- it was starting to look rusted inside and we suspected it was scale build up from Perth's iron heavy water.  Turned out we were right, after a lot of descaling- it cleaned up nicely and we now have a lovely new kettle.

Just because I really liked the latte art, and I think I've found my new favourite drink- hot black sesame latte.

Our final home ed excursion for the year was to the fisheries department.  We learnt a lot and Irving had an interesting time doing his first dissection.

Working on lego models.

Finishing off the year and beginning eventually too we had a couple of birthday highlights.  First of all Arden turned 18......and around the same week finished his Diploma in Aviation Management and finished off airforce cadets.  It was a very eventful week or so for him!  So he had an eventful 18th by starting the day with skydiving.

Here he is landing after his dive

Whilst we were off at Jurien Bay we stopped at the beach for a swim.

the water was lovely

Final stop for the day was Lancelin, where we all went sandboarding.  We'd meant to do this before, and it kept getting delayed.  We had a lot of fun and I'd definitely go again!

And the final birthday news is that there is a new member of our family!  Willow and her fiance, have welcomed their first child....she was meant to arrive in December, but made us all wait out for almost the very end of New Year's day.  Her name is Aurelia, and everyone is very excited about her arrival!  Although there might be some people feeling that they are a bit young to be uncles!

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!