Back to School

Wow- we've just had a week's holiday, and finished our first block for the year. There was so many interesting things to do that it would have been nice to spent more time on it. Willow's work was largely around Ancient India and Ancient China. We did loads of creative things relating to the two topics.



Gabriel did lots of star drawing, but in usual style wanted to try out Willow's work too.

Sewing is happening nicely- Willow is doing well on her shirt. And Gabriel and I are doing a great job at making him a kilt out of an old sheet. But really that's our practise run- soon we'll buy some nice kilt fabric and get going on the real one.

For the first time in my life (since leaving home) we have our own car in the driveway. It seems very odd, and looks like we're fitting into Adelaide life, except that we don't drive it much. My brother offered us the car, and I thought it was a good idea, as we've been meaning to do some journeying out of Adelaide. So after changing the registration, we had a cleaning day- my brother lives out bush so it was rather grubby! And decided to go for a drive. Trouble was it was good Friday, and we couldn't really think of anywhere to go. But on the Saturday we went out and had a look at the Farmers Market at Willunga. The Market there was amazing! Particularly the spices. It was a bit of a hike, but well worth the journey.

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2025

LOL, this is a funny reminiscence- I think at the end of the winter we gave the car back to my brother.  His new van had broken down, and I suspect he may have thought I'd drive more.  I didn't and don't like driving, so I never did drive that van.  These days Willow has her own car, and lives in the SW of Western Australia, so needs it even more then we do, and Arden is keen to get his L plates soon.

This is our instagram page for our car free living life- we haven't used it much recently.
https://www.instagram.com/carfreeliving/

Week 1

We've just started our school work for the year. It's so lovely to start in March rather than Jan/ Feb like the schools, since usually the worst of the heat has left for the year.

We had a lovely start- at present I'm telling some of the stories from the Ramayana and reading the Celtic Wonder Tales. We did a lot of form drawing and modelling, and learnt about the Swastika symbol and its roots in Hinduism, and Hindu's connection to the Aryans.

The craft is looking interesting so far too. Willow is handsewing a shirt, and Gabriel a kilt. We're having a practise run at the kilt, before we select fabric and start properly. I've been trying some handsewing too, so far I've made Gabriel some cords, and am in the process of making myself some pants too.

Thoughts on Boys and Girls

We've had a bit of a funny week really. Some odd stuff happening at home. And then we caught up with our homeschool group for the first time this year. So Gabriel came back from this last catch up, saying that he had no fun as all the boys are too aggressive. Funnily enough over lunch all the mums sat around nodding their heads about how 'boys are SOOOO different to girls'. I didn't say anything at the time as there was no need, but that has never been my experience.

However when we came home and Gabriel was saying that he had no fun. I felt that I needed to say something. It has opened up the discussion at least, and hopefully it can move to a positive space. My experience is that boys are usually more physical that girls, but that the aggression, is related to the tribal experience of Australians as well as television. It seems that many mothers are unable to address this, and are not able to encourage their boys through any aggression Instead it is just accepted that they have no control over the desire to hit, push, shove, and wrestle. In particular it concerns me that these children are role models to younger children, and that children younger than 7, primarily learn through imitation. Of course these older children have no idea, that they are being emulated, but I think as a society all older people need to be held more accountable for their actions. I suspect that if this happened with all children we'd be living in a much more stable society. I know that, for myself, I had no idea how important my behaviour was in shaping another person until we had my daughter.

What a different world it would be if people realised that the behaviour of each of us matters.

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2025

I still feel this way generally.  We now have more boys and each one is quite different to another, and in fact I was discussing with someone recently that if I only had certain combinations of my children, I could be going around saying "all children are motivated, driven and organised when it comes to achieving their goals around their interests and careers".  Now anyone can see that it is a blatantly ridiculous generalisation, but at this stage I definitely have two children that are more that direction.

Equally I have two that are more dreamy.  And I could make generalisations that way, if I only had those two.  So I just steer clear of generalisations myself.  I hated them growing up, I wanted to be seen for me, and how I do things and not for being a "girl" and so I treat my children as I wished to be treated, as unique individuals with their own goals and interests to be nurtured and expressed.

In general we've still found my above complaints to be an issue here, and overall they've affected us somewhat as a family.  The culture is always in a hurry and has little time for attention to children, and that definitely affects how the children behave.  We've adapted to this aspect of the culture, and accepted the deficits and the assets it brings- because that is one aspect that I  have probably matured in living here, is that there are pros and cons to everything.

Summer Holidays

So we're still having our Summer break- school has gone back, but in our home, I'm totally anti organised work when there's a possibility of a heat wave. So we're all enjoying hanging out together. And despite the lack of daily planned activities we still seem to be busy!

Over January Willow and Gabriel had swimming lessons down the beach- as we do every summer, and as usual it was lovely. Early morning swim, and hanging out at the beach is very relaxing.

Willow had her 10th birthday- an Alice in Wonderland themed party which she enjoyed immensely. She did lots of the planning and cooking, and all was wonderful. I made a rose syrup heart shaped cake for her. Since Gabriel is currently avoiding grains, the cake was made with nut meal and coconut flour. It was very tasty and looked lovely covered in raspberries.


Plus there was my birthday, and my home made cake this year.





I am currently making my plans for class 5 and 3. Amazing how far we are through! Willow and Gabriel both received pocket knives to learn whittling this year. Both were very pleased to receive them....now we just need to remember to get them engraved. I've been reading we need to really start on greenwood, so am wondering a bit about that...will have to look into what types of woods are best in Australia. All of this is a bit new to me too! Gabriel wants to hand sew a kilt, as his sewing project, which I must admit sounds very challenging. But since he's enthused for the idea, I'm willing to give it a try. And I'm planning to use the Bible and the Celtic Wonder Tales as his texts this year.

Finally we'll be in the Fringe Parade again, though this time all of us. I've organised for some of us local homeschoolers to go in it. It's been quite a bit of work, but it's all starting to come together, and all the costumes and the float look fabulous. I think the day is going to be lots of FUN!

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2025

Funny reviewing this and thinking back on what we did and didn't manage to do.  We did experiment a bit with the woodwork, but we didn't have enough people in our circle at that time to guide with our inexperience, and we hadn't gotten into the idea of youtube as a learning tool yet.  My Dad would have been a great help for woodwork, but he'd died many years before.  On moving to Perth we found great woodwork lessons with Joy of Wood, and Irving and I currently take private lessons there, with another homeschool friend.

Some of our projects from last year are on this post.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2024/11/first-half-of-year.html

Some of Arden and Gabriel's woodwork.
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2015/10/woodwork.html

Willow, Gabriel and my step stools.
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2012/12/recent-activities.html

Plus Arden trying out the saw horse.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2019/10/term-3.html

Sewing wise, I was still in my early days of improving handskills- I did have more experience in that area- but mostly in pattern layout and cutting, as my Dad always helped my mum with these things, and he (almost) always encourage me to watch and learn.  The kilt pattern we found was a bit beyond my skill level at that time, and none of our home ed circle had sewing skills.

2010

Hi all,and happy new year!
rite now me and Gabriel have been doing swimming lessens at the Beach,got our- self sun burnt,nearly caught some fish(in a bucket and with our hands).
Gabriel got a loft bed,I got a lamp & a table, and Annmarie & Damien got a new washing machine (about 4 days ago).
not much more to say,willowunicorn

Nearly the End

We've been so busy the last few weeks, but mostly it has been fun. There's been a few unpleasant bits- house inspections and the sort but activity wise, but we've all been really enjoying this end of the year.

Willow had being doing some cross-stitch, and doing a beautiful job. She planned her picture using graph paper and has been sewing onto her aida cloth. Gabriel has been giving it a bit of a try too. Initially he found it a little tricky, but after some other sewing felt he would like to have another try, and slowly it's starting to come together.





We made angels at our Waldorf co-op recently, and that was great fun too! Lots of beautiful work by everyone.



We also got out to a circus skills workshop. The people running it were fabulous, and the kids had an amazing time. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it's taught them some great balancing skills, and I suspect also how to trust and be more confident. And within that theme they had their end of year performance with Young Adelaide Voices. Again the confidence is amazing- coping beautifully with being up in front of a large crowd- and it was really evident how much they've both grown up this year to see their performances. Last year Gabriel was still very dreamy, and this year he's definately settled into his roots.

We're up to our last chapter in "The Children of Odin" by Padric Colum. Tomorrow we're up to Ragnarok- the Twilight of the Gods. It's sad to come to the end of the block, but exciting too. It's been fascinating learning about runes, and how to draw celtic knots and all about the different gods and goddesses. But class five looks challenging in different ways for Willow and me. Woodwork is meant to be more serious next year, and then we need to look at a few different ancient cultures- Egypt, Greek and some others. Plus our form drawing is now heading into geometry. Quite exciting stuff. Of course I'll still be doing form drawing as Gabriel is still doing that next year, but it is really becoming evident that we're heading into more advanced study and that feels good.

This week were finishing with a nature block- hopefully some cooking tomorrow, and maybe a couple of outings, and a concert for Damien on our last day. I am looking forward to the end of year, a good rest, and a new start of class 3 and 5 next year.

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2025

Norse Mythology has become one of my favourite topics over the years.  All the kids really love the stories.

Norse myth with Gabriel.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2011/11/busy-times-ahead.html

With Arden
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2017/08/english-instruments-and-floral.html

With Irving.
https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2023/08/term-1.html

Singing in the Heat

Summer has returned here with a vengeance, and deserted us again. And I hope it will stay in the pleasant range of weather for a while, rather than being excessively hot again. It would be even better if it could be a pleasant summer this year. Had enough after 46degrees earlier in the year.

So Willow and Gabriel had their choir singing in the Pageant again this year, right in the middle of the heat. Fortunately it wasn't over 40 and so not too awful. Arden and I had seats in the VIP stand, and a great view of the pageant. We were quite lucky. Damien's boss offered them to us the night before the pageant.

There was a brief respite from the heat when we caught up with our Waldorf co-op. One of the mum's organise making dragonflies out of beads it was a great activity. Everyone here has been keen to do more craft activities with beads now.