Science, Arts, Craft

Arden and I have still been working on a Bible block, looking at Hebrew and learning about seasonality.  We've been doing a bit of art and craft and science.  We started reading about the tower of Babel, followed by Moses, and next week we will read about Noah.  We've been looking at the Hebrew alphabet, and had a connective learning moment, last week, when we came across some written Hebrew on a sculpture in the Supreme Court Gardens in remembrance of all the Jews that suffered during WWII.  Since we've been learning about Moses, we've also been looking at different sorts of rafts, and this has combines nicely with some of the physics that Gabriel was doing earlier in the  year on steam engines.

Arden's painting of the tower of Babel.

My painting of the tower of Babel.

Making our steam boats, using a cigar tube.  Gabriel's model.

Arden and Gabriel's boats in action.  They moved slowly and steadily, and required some patience on our part waiting for the boats to get moving.

Basic boat design, flat piece of wood, with soap inserted in the back v-shape.  The soap causes changes the surface tension of the water to change, and sails the boat along.  This version sailed better than our steam boats!

Working on toothpick framed, wax covered boats.

Out to the Old Supreme Courthouse.  Fascinating day out looking at the history of the Aboriginal Rule of Land, and the later rule of modern Australians. 

I have just finished reading "The Test of Courage", and was planning on Gabriel reading it for English, but after reading it, decided it was probably more suitable in a couple of years time.  (Instead I'm encouraging Willow to read it).  Gabriel has just finished reading "The Great Escape"  instead.

Arden and I have been doing paper basket weaving.  Mine is now finished, we should be completing Arden's tomorrow.

We decided it was best for me to work out the cross weave before doing it together, so that I'd have a better idea of how it works, in case Arden needs help.

Finished, with a coating of beeswax.

Willow has been working on making her first home made bra.  (This was her practice run.)

I received some vintage seersucker in the post recently, and started off with a skirt out of this fabric.  I made it from a vintage '80s pattern, so it has an elasticised waist (which I'm not keen on), so needs to be worn with a belt, and with the way it sits, it looks better with a petticoat.

Willow has been experimenting with hairstyles.

Found this on our hard-waste trek around East Perth.  Was missing some mirror on the side, so I sawed off the extra bits of wood and sanded it back, moved a few clips to hold the remaining mirror, and now it's back in use!  Has moved into Arden's room.

Arden doing some woodwork, working on waterwheels and boats.

Arden working on sewing his pyjamas.

Irving playing with his paper butterfly.

Willow has sold a few more copies of her first book, the short story Ruby.  She still has it reduced for anyone who might like to read it at a reduced price.

Time Flying

Somehow  with all the things that have been happening recently, I've totally managed to neglect blogging.  Our holidays flew by, and saw us doing lots of different activities and catching up with friends, as well as lodging Willow's application for WAAPA, and me being a bit unwell;totally lost my voice for a bit.

In the lead up to our holidays,  Irving, Damien and I managed to have a little adventure in the lift at Perth Train Station.  The lift went down, and the doors did not open.  For a few months Irving, had been wondering about the telephone button in the lift.  He now knows what it does, and every time we go past the lift, he comments, "I don't like stuck in lift".

Waiting to be freed from the lift.

Arden making sandwiches for dinner, with Damien's help.

We headed out to see ballet WA, just before the break; Damien took everyone bar Irving to see Radio and Juliet, and I took everyone (again bar Irving) to see Romeo and Juliet.  Radio and Juliet received mixed reviews (Damien loved it) whilst everyone loved Romeo and Juliet.  Willow in particular said that she's a fan of classical ballet.  Whilst everyone was out seeing Radio, Irving and I made chocolate coated pretzels, to have with icecream and peanut butter; was delicious!  I'm never eating shop choc coated pretzels again, they're much nicer freshly made and crispy!

Gabriel and I came across this cute little cafe on the way home from basketball, just before break time.  We loved their sign, and that they offer polite conversation (we both had one).

We headed to the Royal Perth show, for the second time.  We spent the first part of the day, wandering through the animals, machinery and looking at the crafts.  The second part of the day, we bought show bags, went on the rides, and watched the fireworks.  (After all the yelling I did near the sideshow, with my cold, I lost my voice.

We loved this vintage motor bike.

Goats!

We pulled out everyone's bikes to fix them up, and discovered that our selection of tyres was very unhelpful.  Need to visit the bike shop!  Hasn't happened yet.  :/  Though Irving has totally gotten into riding his balance bike.

Arden and Irving and myself, stopping for a swing.

Halloween Decorations

 Halloween might be a little while off, but my brothers and I sat down this morning to make some early Halloween decorations using paints and paper. It was great fun, we made a huge mess and I ended up with cat whiskers painted on my face.

 I actually were just making snowflakes to entertain the littlest whilst Mum and the others practised their music. Well I had the idea to paint the snowflakes, and then they became black, red, and orange.

My personal favourite

Pretty colours!

The black didn't come out as vividly as I had hoped.

 Well at some point Gabriel decided that he'd challenge me to make a Skulduggery Pleasant head cutout, so I decided to give it a go and see what happened.

Skulduggery Pleasant's head.

All of my decorations... plus a leaf.

Some of the glorious mess we made.

 We'll probably be stickytaping them to the window later today. Hopefully they'll look nice!

 Willow

Events and Outings

Arden and Willow attended a creative session at PICA with some other home ed families and had a great time experimenting with filming and creating artistic presentations.  The guy running it was involved in the HOME project we participated in for PIAF earlier in the year, so that was a nice connection.

Arden, Irving and I went for a bit of an adventure around East Perth, looking for treasure in the hard waste and enjoying the beautiful spring day, earlier this week.

Golf Club discovery!

Finally made it to the park, and found this beautiful sorrel flower.

Grumpy with myself for putting the sling on, with my new stockings!  Velcro and stockings do not mix.  :/

More treasure from our walk.  Scrubbed up as good as new.  Irving and I had a busy morning de-rusting this with bicarb.

Our local ravens have been bringing us gifts!  Doughnuts and popcorn yesterday.

Irving had a tropical dinosaur cinnamon and peanut butter milkshake feast. 

Crafts

Since people were sick around here,  I've been a bit slow about posting what's been happening.  So here are some recent crafts.  I finished off a new bra, in green gingham, and I'm feeling very pleased with the results.  This is the first bra that I've made that has straps that are really comfortable.

I started making Damien another knitted tie.  It's looking good so far, and I've been surprised by how much I like the colour combination.  (I'm using some left over wool out of my basket.)

I finished some jamies for Irving.  He's very pleased to have some that match Arden's.

Irving picked the red buttons from my stash of vintage buttons.

Arden and I have been working on a block of crafts relating to how people clothe themselves.  He did a small project on our lap loom and made a cape for a teddy bear.  We were also lucky enough to come across WAFTA doing some demonstrations on weaving, book binding and basket making. 

Getting set up.

Shuttles are ready.

Making progress

One completed cape!

Teddy modelling the cape.

Arden and I have moved onto spinning this week, learning to use a drop spindle.

Arden has almost finished his pyjama pants.  He is up to sewing the hems, and we threaded the elastic into the waist band yesterday.

Gabriel finished has handsewing project, and is very happy with his new tie.

Gabriel started using the sewing machine yesterday, generally experimenting with it, and getting a feel for how it works.  He is making a book cover for his first project on the sewing machine.

The start of the book cover.