Term 1

Our first term was very full, and filled with lots of interesting outings and activities- this term is looking to be similar so far!

Irving's pottery class has been going well, and we even started watching "The Great Pottery Throw Down" to compliment all the learning in the class that he's been attending in Guildford. It's also become a bit of a thing, to stop and look at interesting pottery shops.

Picking up a cute pot after pottery class.

And cute fish.

We continued on with Norse myths learning to write in Runes, drawing and painting some of the Gods and characters and reading Padraic Colum's version, and also reciting "The Poetic Edda- Voluspo", as well as reading some of "The Viking Tales" (we're big fans of Norse Mythology here!)

Irving's and my paintings.

Norse Reading.

Arden has been reading "The Greek Treasure" by Irving Stone, because we really enjoyed his book on Michaelangelo, this one took us awhile to get into, and Arden is still finishing it. It became much more interesting to read when Henry Schliemann discovered Troy. It's possible to virtually view some of the Schliemann's discoveries on this Russian Museum's site.


Arden finished the term looking at the way different aspects of the world are integrated together, doing some reading,writing and watching "Brian Cox's Forces of Nature" series. We finished off with looking at the Gaia theory, and the idea that the Earth is a living complete organism.

Irving looked at local Aboriginal culture, and we learnt about how the Aboriginal people cultivated the land, and how that knowledge had been suppressed in our culture, We listened to Bruce Pascoe's tedtalk on this topic. We also read February Dragon, by Colin Thiele. A fabulous book the illustrates so well, the ever present danger of bushfires in Australia.

Hard waste collection happened again, and this time we found a vintage coffee table- it appears to be one of a set of nesting coffee tables originally. Irving and I are hoping to spend some time on it, repairing it.

Irving enjoyed our steam group this term and there were lots of interesting lessons on anatomy, and was complemented at home with watching "Operation Ouch" on some of the topics we covered- including the hand and it's joints, the brain, the heart, the bladder, the kidneys.

One of the completed activities from our Steam group.

Towards the end of term, we attended our first home school sport's day for the family. Arden was too old to participate, but acted as assistant coach with the Team captain, and joined the parent's races for some of the activities. Though the kids were keen to have him join in the parents versus kids, tug of war. Irving had a great time doing all the activities- three legged races, egg and spoon, relays. The only down side was it was the last very hot day of Summer and the first very hot day, we'd had for a week or so, so we were all struggling in the heat a little. Much fun was had at the end, with water fights, to cool off!

Damien, Arden and I headed to ECU Joondalup to find out about their aviation course, and to see their open day generally. We had a good chat with a couple of the lecturers there, and saw the flight simulators in action. Arden used one, and very nicely took off, flew and landed. It was interesting for me to see, because I had only ever seen his first home education session on a simulator, some years ago, where he needed a lot of help. After his years in the flying club at Bull Creek, he really knows what he's doing.

Arden's lemon tree is doing very well.

Okonomiyaki by Arden.

New shorts for Irving.

Black and white sesame balls.

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2025

We still haven't gotten to fixing that coffee table, but hopefully it won't be too far away, as we continue to develop our woodwork skills at Joy of Wood's classes.  We've been doing a few repair jobs this  year, so it would be nice to think that we may get onto this soon.

term 2-highlights

Well this has been a bit slow.  I was all set to post this months ago, and our computer was unco-operative and then I didn't get back to it.  Life with two teenagers and two children just got a bit hectic! 

A beautiful afternoon at Pelican Point with some home education friends.

Working on cursive with Irving.  I've been teaching cursive in class 1 since I read about the benefits.  I do also teach print, but I try to focus on cursive in our lessons.

Form drawing- making a circle from freehand lines.

Constructing an icosahedron, as part of our learning about the Platonic solids.

Our fire shaped tetrahedron, helping to remind us that the tetrahedron's element is fire!  And adjacent, our tetrahedron die.

Some fun with sketching mathematical patterns after watching Vi Hart's youtube channel .

Some fun activities from "Earth, Fire, Air, Water".. The zaptrapp was a favourite.  Simply make a face on a piece of paper, half wrap it on an orange, and roll him along.  Arden and Irving had a lot of fun racing their oranges.

Looking at the tension of water, by floating a pin on its surface.

Floating and sinking a stone with a balloon.

Found this beauty whilst out collecting flowers to press.

And these beautiful tiles on an old building in our local area, whilst out collecting firewood.

All ready-  with our Denk firebowl, Arden and Irving keen to try cooking on it!  So setting it up with this idea in mind.

And our evening fire.

Crafting- Irving's knitting fork work, turned into fairy light decorations.

April

Geometry again.  Working on circles with Arden and Irving.

A couple of Arden's.

Mine.

Irving's.

Arden working on measuring and ruling.

Working on numbers with Irving and Arden joining in.

Visiting Cottesloe beach, as part of our astronomy studies.  We went past the sundial to examine how it works, and then spent a lovely afternoon exploring the waves and rocks on one of the last hotter days of the season.

At Perth Airport waving off big sister, Willow, as she headed to Melbourne to volunteer at Supernova.

At the Shipwreck Museum in Fremantle.

Out doing some rubbish clean up along our section of the Swan River, on part of our studies on waterbirds and our local area. 

Along the walk we came across this bust of Nicholas Baudin which fit nicely with all our maritime studies of WA, and our visit to the Shipwreck Museum.  I like it when life offers synchronous moments like this!

Pizza by Arden for dinner

Making hot cross buns for Easter.

Sprouting some seeds(borage and cornflower) in egg shells and cottonwool.

Some reading, a favourite of mine, "The Little Prince".

Spontaneous experiments with sound.  Rubber bands of varying thickness and jars/bowls.

Irving working on hammering.

We sat and watched this Cactus flower open over the course of 10mins one morning.

I finally finished this blanket in time for the coming winter.