Performance Central 2

Our Saturday evening;PIAF's opening event- HOME!

We were all pleased to be part of the Home opening.  The performance was the first I've seen where it felt like Australia celebrated it's Aboriginal story, good and bad, and all the other cultures that now call this place home.  It felt like perhaps we are starting to get it, that the Aboriginal people are as important as every other culture in this land. 

We also attended Lil Bizarro at the Fringe last weekend, which we loved!  All the performers were engaging and entertaining and did something a bit different from the usual circus show.

Damien and Willow both received offers for the Chorus of Iolanthe.  Reahearsals starting in March, which is great as it means that Willow can get to most of this terms musicianship classes.

Tonight we are off to the Get Lost Maze, most likely our last Fringe outing for this year.

Performance Central

This week has seen quite a bit of performance happening. 

Thursday last week, Irving and I were out in the city, when we were the lucky recipients of some tickets to see "William the Great" at Fringeworld.  So four of us headed out to their evening show, and it was fabulous!  There was a good variety of circus, and an amusing storyline that flowed well throughout the show.  Willow was pleasantly surprised to discover that Felix Pouliot, who taught her some chinese pole last year was in it.

Over the weekend Arden was invited to be a paperboy and busk harmonica in the Streetside festival in Northbridge.  From about 12noon til 5pm Arden walked up and down William st waving papers (from 1924!) yelling "paper!paper!" and various other headlines from the 1924 news.  Such as "Horse bolts down James St! Lands in Lorry!"  We did a little bit of research to help him out,which involved watching some old footage of paper boys, and then he got dressed up for the day.  He absolutely loved it and is apparently sorry that it's not possible to actually be a paper boy in this era.

Damien and Willow both auditioned for Gilbert and Sullivan's production of "Iolanthe" for this year, over the weekend.  Whilst they were out doing that Irving and I went for a walk around Elizabeth Quay, which wasn't overly pleasant, as there is *very* little shade there, the water playground wasn't working and it was an extremely hot day (42C), so I think in future we'll avoid visiting there in the heat.

This week we've been getting our lanterns ready for PIAF festival, with the rehearsal happening tonight for tomorrow's opening.  Arden isn't old enough to be in the official procession, but Willow and Gabriel will be in it, and all our lanterns will be hung up.  (Irving made one too with my help.)

Our lanterns looking ready. (They are coloured on the inside, so that they were glow beautifully!)

Irving working on his oil pastels, on a spare lantern.

This is the promo for the opening tomorrow night.

Slowly starting

So this week saw the return of the heat and the official start of Willow's year 11.  She has been busy working on restoring her bike and doing lots of music.

Gabriel and Arden will start our organised section of the year in a couple of weeks.  With that in mind I sat down to plan our start to the year.  Since Arden is in year 3 and we are focusing on Aboriginal culture, local environment and the Old Testament. This year I thought that it would be a relaxing start to the year if we focused on some outings in these areas  Gabriel is also doing a bit of work on the local environment, so we are starting out doing very similar work.

My overviews for the year

When I sit down and plan the year, I always try to keep the similar blocks for each child at about the same time, so that we can do as much cross over work together as possible.  Also I'm trying to encourage interested learners in my home, so I like to have some differences in new topics and some cross overs- everyone is inspired by each other, and because we use a Steiner inspired philosophy the older students get to revisit areas of interest and explore them again, and possibly more deeply.  (As an example Willow's focus for essays this year is music and mythology.)

My plan for our first block.

When planning my blocks in our early days of home ed, I was quite restrictive, but always if we came across something that was of interest to anyone we would explore the new thing further.  These days when planning I start with a theme, how many days we're looking at it for, and then have a chat to the kids as to what would be of interest to them.  This time we came up with visiting Bold Park, Kings Park, and doing a walk along the river front from Canning Bridge to South Perth and then catching the ferry  (In the process of this, Gabriel said that he would like to visit some waterfalls this year).  In between we will be doing some writing, gardening, nature studies.  Arden will be listening to Aboriginal mythology, and Gabriel will be reading "Oaxaca Journal" by Oliver Sacks.  I try to make much vaguer plans for our blocks these days, so that we have more room for spontaneity and creativity on the spot, but I still like a plan, so that I have a sense of what we are aiming for.  That said if something else amazing comes along, the plan is totally able to be rearranged!

So that's how we are planning Willow's home ed this year.  We have a starting point and goals that are being aimed for, and weekly meetings to discuss progress and outcomes.  It will be interesting to see how it goes!

Some fun Irving has whilst I was planning today.

Preparations

We usually spend the beginning of the year, heading off to a few Fringe and Arts shows and enjoying the weather and ambiance that Perth offers during this time.  This year, we've already been out and about quite a bit, catching some buskers last night, and Arden and Gabriel both getting an opportunity to be part of a show.  Gabriel was invited to help the strong man, and Arden was invited to help a balloon comedian. Last week as a family we all head to a vaudeville show for my birthday;down at Scarborough beach, where we enjoyed fish and chips after the show.  Everyone's made a bit of  a list of things that they would like to see this Fringe so hopefully we'll make it to some more shows.

Chocolate cherries and cherry cinnamon glaze cake for my birthday!

I've been continuing to work on my sewing, and have made a silk bra, using raw silk, combined with the back off an old maternity bra, and I've now progressed onto gingham pyjamas for Arden and another gingham bra for me.

Preparations are being made for our home ed activities starting in around 4weeks.  Classes mostly start back next week, and Willow is starting her work before the rest of the family.  We're having a very natural learning year 11 for her where she is focusing on a variety of goals that she wishes to achieve this year with the aim of putting a portfolio together and applying for WAAPA again at the end of the year.  Some of her plans involve self-publishing a book, repairing her vintage bike, putting together a busking show involving circus and singing, studying mythology and operas that are connected to this area, and learning to sew further to develop some skills in costumery.  It is looking to be quite an interesting year.  Damien and Willow are both looking at auditioning for Gilbert and Sullivan's first performance for the year, which this time is Iolanthe.

I have Arden's class 3 planned, got that done at the end of last year.  I quite enjoy class 3, and it's interesting how it's easier to plan 3rd time around; something I know and am familiar with vs learning about.

I am still to sit down with Gabriel and plan his class 9, I'm hoping to do this next week.  I've made some notes and have some ideas, as does Gabriel, so it will be good to sit down together and apply our ideas to a plan.

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2025

Willow got through some of those activities on her list to varying levels.  She did self-publish a short novel, which can be found here.  She made some small progress on here bike.  Not sure about the mythology and opera study now...., and she was a bit over the busking by then, so she continued to sing, but never really put a show together.  She did continue to sew, and has done a bit of sewing over the years.  She did spend quite a bit of time dressing up and creating different costumes and make-up styles over the years.  In her free time, she also used to spend quite a bit of time moderating lego message boards, as well as writing fan-fiction based around Ninjago, both of these have ended up being useful for her current work, as she works in online fraud payment analysis.

Iolanthe performance.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2016/06/iolanthe-has-take-over.html

Connectivity

Recently I came across this interesting article about Danish families on the topic of "Hygge"  and fascinatingly in the process of reading I realised that the Danish essentially practise something that we have come to create as our core family values; something that we now refer to as connectivity.

Over the years as we became a family and grew in size and moved about the world, we saw different ways of being a family and interacting as a family.  On the whole we came to view the Australian way of family life as rather negative-children constantly competing, boys against girls, men against women.  Somewhere along the way (I think this started in Glasgow, when Damien and I only had each other for support) we started discussing co-operating, working together, supporting each other.    As Willow and Gabriel got bigger we discussed their roles in supporting, how able they were to help, and how we appreciated their help.  Initially this was simple things such as housework, and figuring out how to get along together, and eventually it progressed into looking out for the smaller people in the family, and offering support to them.

Day in day out we focus on co-operation.  How as a unit of 6 do we get along?  How do we share our space and still be ourselves? How can I be me whilst still being part of the "we" of our family? "I" am important and "we" are important. What things are non-negotiable for our unit? We focus on acceptance, understanding, co-operation, support. We also focus on individuals feelings and needs in relation to the family.

We like to live at hope in a space of safeness, everybody has the right at home to be themselves and comfortable with themselves at all times without ridicule or judgement.  Our home is our haven, a place where we can nurture and support ourselves, where we can be in pain and be joyous without judgement but with the knowledge that anyone here can help, from the smallest to the tallest, even if that help is just a hug.  The smallest people can always help in caring ways, and sometimes that's just a pat on the head, and sometimes that's enough to help return a smile to a sad person.

As a continuation we have the right to be interested and involved in what appeals to us without fear; without the possibility of ridicule or insult.  We have a wide variety of interests in our home, and we always work towards acceptance and understanding towards peoples different desires, motivations and goals. 

When one lives in a competitive community and family it seems to me that it becomes dangerous to express one's inner self, inner beauty and interests, so we aim to avoid competing at home unless the children are emotionally able to cope with the competing.  Many board games here have been turned into co-operative games until various children have had the emotional skills to cope with losing the game.  When everyone works together to win or lose, there is no emotional distress associated with failure for the child, and it is much easier for them to cope with the game.  It is of course useful to discuss playing competitively and encourage children like this to see that it could be fun to compete, but introducing competition before the child is ready creates fear of failing and can be very unhelpful for certain personality types.

Australian culture is generally competitive so by keeping competition out of our home we create a haven where one can be oneself, and where the challenge is to improve oneself, rather than to create hollow comparisons that leave a child and young person feeling emotionally vulnerable and inclined to hide their true nature and personality.  Home needs to be the place where the child can reveal all of themselves, and be safe from judgement.

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2025 

As we have had children emerge into adulthood (at this time Willow is 25, moved out of home, Gabriel is 23,  Arden 17 and Irving, 12)  the outside culture has seeped in somewhat and adjusted how we do things.  We had times of being too busy, and some of us being unwell- me in particular, as I discovered just how deficient Perth soils were.  We have had some ups and downs in continuing to be true to this philosophy, but on the whole it has retained its place in our family focus and we always look back to resolution, and forgiveness, and problem solving  situations so that people can enjoy living in a family environment where they are understood and appreciated.

I realised too, that with Arden's enthusiasm for know everything!  I was allowing him to fill all the space that the older two had filled in my home education sort of schedule, and I was gradually realising that although, I got time to myself regularly each week, I was not getting it daily, in the same way, as when I only started out with two children.  I have had to coax myself out of the serving role, and to remind myself that now that I have only Irving to home educate and that he is 12 ( although I started this habit last year when he was still 11) that I can take more down time for me, and that I need to step back from my managerial role somewhat, and let Arden and Gabriel step into that role.

I've also picked up a book on Socratic Dialogue, to get us all back into the habit of that style of discussion.  It really is a very helpful method of having conversations within a family, particularly when people have different styles of talking.  It also seems to me, to be somewhat natural for young people to discuss in a more rhetorical style and this can lead to regular bickering and opinionated debates.  By moving into a Socratic Dialogue for those sorts of conversations it can solve a lot of problems.  Only recently I intervened in a conversation between Gabriel and Arden, where I reminded them that part of the process is to define terms, and to do this.  ( The defining terms enables people to understand if they are meaning and thinking about the same thing).  In this case it turned out that they had different definitions of a word, and that that was part of the reason the conversation had become complicated!

This is the book that we are using.
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B09M7BQS2N?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

January Follow Up

The last portion of last year seemed to be one step forward and two steps back!  December was filled with some interesting events, and some of them just ended upside down.

Our "Class Dismissed" screening never happened due to a mix up-looking into rescheduling that.  Arden's birthday was on a weekend that was cold and wet, which is unusual for here, and so resulted in all our plans being rearranged.  On the whole he took it well- as he was very much looking forward to his first Christmas pageant that day.  Instead we had a late night movie run with "Back to the Future part 2 and 3".

Willow and Gabriel performed in "Clowns vs Ninjas" with their circus school, and that was fabulous!  All the people involved pulled the show together into a really amusing and entertaining performance.  Willow had hurt her foot the night before, and still managed some of her parts, which I imagine was a great relief to all involved. 

We also had our home ed review and received our exemption for another 12months, and Willow auditioned for WAAPA, and was told that she had missed out this time around.  She's feeling philosophical about the whole thing, and is looking at it as a learning opportunity for applying this year.

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2025

We didn't continue with circus after the next year, I seem to recall, so Arden didn't get to perform in the Christmas pageant.

When we visited WAAPA on their open day, Willow was told that it was unlikely she would get offered a place at 16, as the voice continues to develop as people mature.  We decided that it was worth going through the process anyway as it would help her to understand what to expect.

She was also lucky enough to be going there monthly to listen to lectures, as she was offered the opportunity on the Open Day.  So from about mid year 10, she would go down once a month and listen to some of the lectures.

More Thoughts on Natural Learing

As we progress through our home education experience, we still continue to use structure and natural learning as a blend for our learning experiences.  Increasingly throughout my life, I've come to value balance- finding the middle view and how to bring that to life.  It seems to me, that so many things that humans do are out of balance; it seems to be an all or nothing approach, success or failure, healthy food or junk food, etc, etc.  As complex creatures we have the ability to be many faceted, to be able to define ourselves by our own rules and intuition, to honour our own voices and our own journey.

The longer I have home educated the more this is important, but so is belonging and fitting in and knowing when it's appropriate to break or bend the rules.  Individualism has been taken too far IMO, and has lead to people feeling isolated and lacking in connection.  Around here our main focus of home education has always been family, but I understand it as a goal more clearly now, than I did when starting out on this journey around 10years ago.  We regularly discuss how to be an individual whilst still being a part of the group; how to support family and still be oneself?  How to express one's inner ness and still be connected outwardly.  To me these are important components in creating a balanced home education experience, and that family must always be at the core.  So as part of that, each and every person in my family has value, no one or other greater than any individual.  As an example since I am the person that manages the education and the home, I have a need for a peaceful and tidy home.  I'm more relaxed and better at focusing on everyone when our home feels and looks tidy.  So this is a priority that needs to be achieved- everyone takes part in home loving day (this year on Fridays) so that as a group we have a more peaceful life because I feel supported with our home and keeping it tidy, and as individuals we need to learn how to take care of ourselves.  Various members of the family have jobs to do during the week to help maintain the comfort of our home, and make sure home loving day doesn't become too enormous.

The more I consider natural learning in this sense, part of me feels that as a society we lost our way over the last 60-100years.  Day in day out at home children would have once learnt all sorts of useful life skills from their parents taking care of the home.  Modern natural learning, seems to me to still be pre-occupied in many cases, that the parents cannot teach the children anything, and that everything must be about the child's interests without regard for the fact that there are some skills that the child must learn for a healthful and useful life.  Perhaps in the early 1900s everyone was totally overburdened with the level of tasks that needed to be done to survive, but we now have an alternative extreme where there are few too tasks to be done that have meaning, and it seems to me that a life without meaning is filled with disillusion.  For me the structure of home ed, balanced with natural learning and following a Steiner path returned meaning to my life.  Thus for me, a balanced approach is still both, some natural learning and some Steiner.

As my two oldest go through the high school years, we are taking a more unschooling approach; as I guide them towards fulfilling their dreams.  However for me I feel satisfied that they are capable young people who can care for themselves in the world, and without any structure in the early years, I feel certain that we would not have achieved that as a family.  Both Willow and Gabriel are able to cook lovely meals, competently clean the house, babysit, do a variety of crafts, as well as follow their own interests- for them both  there is a love of circus, Willow has a passion for writing and music and Gabriel has a passion for board-gaming and financial systems.  I feel like I have given them a solid basis as adults going out into the world, one where they have an understanding of how to support themselves, and how to look for support and guidance when it's needed, from that basis I feel that it's easier to then follow one's own interests, as the basics are covered.  I guess I see a lot of Steiner early education being on par with teaching a small child to use the toilet, be polite, eat a meal with the family.

With Arden I feel much more competent in regards to the journey, I know what's expected of Steiner education up through the primary years,and he's naturally guided towards various goals of the curriculum through our day to day life.  This year aged 7 1/2 he desired to have his own dinner night, as Willow and Gabriel do,  but due to our youngest , only being 2 1/2 I felt that I didn't have time to support that, but Dad (Damien) did.  In terms of Steiner education, this was perfect as we are approaching class 3- with it's focus on taking care of oneself- and it was linking naturally into life, because as a family we now have a solid base of understanding where we are going.  Something that was definitely absent in the early years of our home educating.

In case anyone's interested, these are some thoughts I had on natural learning, earlier through our home ed journey.

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2025

I feel I still pretty much agree with this.  We have varied how we do things a bit around here, now that we have adult children.  For instance, we aren't screen free in our home education any longer, but we are particular that the computers are used as tools for learning.