Term 3

We have had a few family things going on around here this past term, and so I seem to have taken fewer pics than usual.  Irving has been continuing along learning to read and write, and count and all the usual things that little people do, which in his case includes experimenting with instruments, paper cut outs and working out how things work.

Arden has been continuing along on latin, using Lingua Latina, learning about Ancient Rome, Hawaii and the Polynesian nations, and geology.  We've almost finished knitting socks (Irving has been learning to knit too) and he's been learning to sew on the sewing machine.

This game has ended up being used quite creatively for various constructions by Irving.

 

 

One variation of the game.

Flower Pressing and decorating candles.

Arden progressing through his knitting.  One sock down, one sock to go for both of us.

Constructing platonic solids out of modelling wax and tooth picks.

Woodwork with the "Joy of Wood".  Using traditional tools.

A dice by Arden, out of wood, and a dice by Irving out of aluminium.

Working on some handsewing- beanbags and a scabbard.

Arden working on designing a harmonica bag for his first machine sewing project.

Some of my sewing.  Pyjama repairs.

Learning to do bound buttonholes.


Finished!

Turning jeans into a skirt with fringe.

Arden's cooking- checkerboard cookies.

Streusel.

Some of our garlic harvest.  We've also had tomatoes and capsicums and potatoes this year.

Our drawings from reading "Red Riding Hood"
Irving's.

Arden's.

Mine.

Out enjoying the Winter Light's in Brookfield Place.

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2025

I've been repairing the socks that I made that year, earlier today, they've been very comfy for around the house, but need a bit of attention to the soles to keep them going a bit longer.  My sewing and knitting pile is currently a bit ridiculous and I'm gradually getting through it. TBH there's a few too many loose ends around here and one of my goals is to finish up a bunch of things this year.

Tomorrow we start back at our woodwork classes for term 3.  Continuing on our lund stools.

Autumn

Gabriel's first sock .

More Zebra sketches- this reminds me of art deco drawings.

Some recent geometry, Gabriel's dodecagon, followed by my dodecagon.

 Gabriel's been busy working on geology these last couple of weeks, as his main lesson.  There's been quite a lot of writing work, and we've been focusing on his cursive.  Today we discussed the evolution of alchemy into chemistry, and elements.  We've been using 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' by Jules Verne, as our story for this block. Since Gabriel has finished his first sock, we've had a couple of weeks off, so he can focus on his main project for this year- making a zebra- before he gets onto doing sock no 2.  Gabriel and I finished reading the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets together, and so we've moved on to the Lord of the Rings- The Fellowship of the Ring.  Gabriel's goal is to improve his reading enough, that after reading the first book with me, he'll be able to do the others by himself.

Willow's geometry from the last week- making a variety of stars.

Willow is moving onto chemistry this block, and has also been busy progressing along  her doll.  She was hoping to finish the doll's hair last week, but unfortunately they'd run out of black wool.  I've also ordered a square loom, so that Willow can do some weaving; she was thinking of doing a blanket out of squares.  Last weekend Willow and Gabriel got to try out surfing at Trigg beach, as Willow won a voucher to try surfing.

Arden has been working on numbers and reading and writing them this block.  Previously I'd done more of a creative maths block for class 1, as in the waldorf style, but I really like the JUMP programme and how well it's worked for Willow and Gabriel, so I'm using it as the focus of our maths with plans to complement it with some of the creativity that accompanies waldorf.

We're coming to the end of term one, so I'm looking forward to a couple of weeks off.  Will have to spend a bit of time, getting baby stuff sorted, so that we're ready for June.  We've all still been learning rockabilly dancing, and have been getting a few lessons of kick step in before Gabriel has musicianship lessons back on.  We've all been loving the dancing, and I've been trying to get lots in before the baby is born, as it will be tricky to get to lessons then.

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2025

We actually continued to do a lot of dancing once Irving was born, as it seemed he was accustomed to music, and so he just slept through it.  Later on we all learnt some blues and kick step rock and roll too.  Plus when towards the end of high school for Gabriel, Willow and Gabriel, did some swing lessons, and Willow also did some ballroom.  All this was part of our plan to complement her desire to be an opera singer/performer.

Some posts discussing our dancing experiences....

Highland dancing

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2008/11/whats-been-on.html

Lessons with Cool Cats

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2013/05/closer.html

Rockabilly

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2013/06/dancing-numbers-astronomy.html

Tap dancing and rockabilly with Arden.

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

Willow and Gabriel doing swing lessons

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2018/01/gradually-planning-2018.html

Swing dancing scence.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2015/10/timetables-part-2.html

Arden trying cossack dancing at Womadelaide.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2019/04/trip-to-adelaide.html

Recent Work

After experimenting with hexaflexagons, Willow moved on to cut out puzzles of Pythagoras' theorem.  Took a little bit of moving around, but eventually a solution was found!

Arden took his lego man out adventuring in the Cultural Centre.

Willow spent some time making rose windows this week, as part of her ancient history block.  She's studying the Catholic churches and the changes that came to it during the Renaissance via the Lutherans, Church of England and Calvinists.

And I finally finished knitting Arden's penguin socks.  He's very happy with them.

Summer coming to an end

What a busy, busy time we've been having! I love this time of the year in Adelaide- there are so many wonderful things happening. We were out and about most of last week, and it's been nice to find ourselves having a quieter week this one, since we'll be doing school work again next week.

Last week, saw the Fringe parade part 2 happening. We all had lots of fun and the little people particularly attracted people's attention.

We went to three performances this year. As a family we went to see some taiko drummers and a circus act. Then Willow and Gabriel also got to see a ventriloquist. As part of our Fringe wanderings we met a lady called Ally, from Glasgow, who was selling jewellery at the Fringe. Yesterday she kindly came around and taught us to macrame jewellery, so we all have a macrame project happening now.

Gabriel's macrame bracelet


The macrame bracelet I made for Arden

Normally this time of the year, our festival outings end with a visit to Womadelaide, this year whilst we are going to Womadelaide on Saturday, the Come Out festival is happening at the end of March. Willow will be participating in the performace on Stari Most, which she is very excited about. After her performance in the opera last year, she has been looking forward to singing and performing some more.

Finally there were a few things I wanted the kids to complete before we start our school stuff next week. Gabriel has been finishing off some reading, and Willow has done well to finish her second sock. It was especially nice to see it done, as we had to unravel quite a bit of it a couple of weeks ago, after we realised that she had miscounted some stitches. She had made her sock very wide! But now they are finished and look beautiful!

Crafts

Well today I finally finished knitting my socks.



They are warm and comfy and my favourite pair already I think. And now next I need to do a pair for my brother, Justin.

Also I finishen my marionette this week.



I am also pretty happy with her. And Arden has fallen in love with her- so I think I may need to make him his own doll soon. We called my doll Ruby, due to the colour of her hair. Arden has been giving her lots of hugs and kisses, and spending time tucking her into bed and clipping her in the pram. Willow and Gabriel have also started their marionettes. Both have done the heads, and are onto the gowns- Willow has already decided to name hers Emerald. Gabriel, meanwhile, hasn't decided if his is a boy or girl.

As Willow pointed out, we also went to the woodwork expo yesterday. Very good value and very interesting- I'll soon be getting a lovely simple woodwork book from one of the stalls there. It's called Woodwork for Women but it's just really for anyone that knows very little about woodwork. We also watched quite a bit of woodturning.

We'll be starting Willow's Egyptian block this week- should be fun and interesting, and continuing on Gabriel's Bible block.