2020 Before Covid and Heading In

The start of the year was much the same for us as any.  Taking our time and being relaxed in the heat, swimming, keeping cool and being outdoors. 

Wandering around Dalkeith and enjoying the Summer.

Plus learning some local history along the way.







We usually start into our at home activities gradually and we did that again this year.  Starting with painting.  We did some work on mosaics and finished off a story book that we were working on for Irving's Grimm fairy tales work.

Snow White and Rose Red paintings.

Irving.

Arden.

Mine with and without heading.

Arden and I worked together on painting two types of colour wheel.

Arden and Irving went through a domino/ marble run phase including making paper dominos and watch hours of youtube tutorials to develop ideas.

We spent some time reading the Mr Penguin series, and finally got around to reading Farmer Boy together.

We moved onto geometrical drawing for Arden this year, and Irving loves doing it,so he joined in a lot of the time.

We worked on more images with Irving.

This inclueded making images from plants by hammering them with a mallet to see if they would "print".

Arden started working on perspective drawing using this book.

We didn't go to as many fringe/festival shows as we often do during the Summer season, but we took full advantage of Highway to Hell after we discovered "Steve'n'Seagulls" were playing, we followed them along the first leg.

Briefly saw "Shonen Knife"  at the Highway to Hell stage.

Eventually decided we were walking to Fremantle since it was unlikely that Canning Highway would be open for a walk again.

Looking east towards the rising moon.

 And west toward Fremantle.

 

And we made it to Freo! (Irving was inspired to make it when he realised we could stop off for icecream in Fremantle.)

We got a surprising harvest of bird's eye chillis which sprouted up on our balcony garden.

We moved onto biology by the second half of the term using these books.  "Muscles and Bones" by Kovacs and "A Leg to Stand On" by Oliver Sacks (one of my favourite authors for science.

And as covid came into life and caused lockdowns and turned the world upside down, I had the luck to find a coffee machine very cheaply priced in the op shop.

Learning to use the coffee machine.

 

15yrs - A Review

Well my computer actually died, taking some things with it, and leaving this very neglected this year.  I had wondered if I wanted to continue posting on here- I really started it as a sort of a diary of homeschooling when I was quite uncertain of how it would go, and if I would be able to do it.  I know I can now.  I think  this is 15yrs.  Best decision for our family. 

There's been ups and downs and it gets a lot easier as time goes along- or at least it gets more familiar.  Children come with themes and personalities, certain things usually happen at certain time in childhood and having this knowledge makes home educating my younger two children easier than my older two children.  I have an idea of the path and the way forward.  The older two are still more challenging, but the older two also now are on their own journeys into adulthood- the oldest working in internet security, and enjoying it, and the second looking for work and continuing to study at home- in particular working on drawing, Japanese and maths in this past year as he contemplates the idea that he would like to study and work in Japan. 

 
I am thinking I will try to keep posting on this from time to time.  I've had a little feedback that it has given people the idea that they could home educate, and that was the other reason that I put it here.  To help provide others with ideas of "how to...".

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2025

I decided a while ago that I would continue.  It was nice to hear that some people I knew had found it useful.  When I started home educating, I used to spend a lot of time researching ideas and plans, etc online and in a way just looking for a little inspiration.  Inspirations for how we could do things at home, and what we could do.

Plus everything was very community based and so it was also nice to have ideas for our co-op, and to be encouraging each other along in our home ed community in Adelaide.  I'm really feeling a need to get a bit more grass roots community like that again, but TBH every time I've tried to create something like that in Perth it's never really worked, and quite some time ago I accepted, rather sadly, that it was not possible here partly, I think, because people here generally believe that there is nothing wrong with school.

Arden was always keen to have extra classes and more activities out and about, and so in the last few years of his home education I have tried to foster that a lot, and that has been one of the advantages of living in Perth; there are a lot of  classes and external activities.  Irving likes a more intimate learning environment and so I've been aiming to do more at home, and one on one with him.

I always like the idea that learning is for everyone and should be free and that the sharing of knowledge should be free and so that is another reason I've continue blogging and sharing more diverse thoughts on education, because simply, I have a lot of experience now, and I hope that I can continue to offer inspiration.

If you've enjoyed or got something useful from my blog please say hi, and let me know what helped you out, and there's a few link's shared below that may be particularly useful.

My early thoughts on natural learning vs natural learning, with 2025 update.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2010/07/why-i-waldorf-homeschool-and-dont.html

John Taylor Gatto's resignation letter.  

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2023/07/john-taylor-gattos-resignation-to-wall.html

Willow's adventures at Uni.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2017/06/adventures-of-homeschool-graduate.html

Childhood.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2025/01/beginnings-and-endings-and-thoughts-on.html

Things I've Learnt Teaching My Four To Read.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2025/07/learning-to-read.html

2019 a Close

Well, again it seems for the past year I've been a bit slow.  I had a few health issues at the end of the year, and so this got a bit neglected, plus my computer was being a little odd.

We've made it a habit this year to have holiday catch ups with our home ed friends for some free form play with our general social group.  It has been quite pleasant to get out and about and explore some different areas of Perth with our friends.

Cottesloe civic centre had been on my list of places to get too, and we had a great time;it is just so beautiful!

Waiting for WA Ballet to perform "Peter and the Wolf".

Working on some maths.

Illustration of Briar Rose by Arden.

Irving's sketch of the Frog Prince- who's green skin one can see sticking to the door!  :D

I particularly liked the creativity in this sketch by Irving.  It could almost be mistaken for just being paper!

Some more sketches from Grimm's fairytales, this time "Godfather Death".
My sketch.

Irving's.

And Arden's.

Physics in action- creating a scale using bottles and water.

Patterns in percussion, and our reading for this block.  Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything."

Magnetism.

Some class 1 science, making a spinner, and looking at optical illusions.

Opening night for Mosaic exhibition- A day in the life of Western Australia.  We love this and have done it for about three years now.

Learning mandolin.

And joining the pickers' club for a jam.

Irving spent some time examining how to pull this guitar apart.

We happened across ABC Perth's open day, which was surprisingly interesting.  Arden and Irving had a good chat to a camerman, and we got to the sets of "The Heights".

Gabriel and Arden tried out dinghy sailing, and Arden is now enthused to try more.

A few of us  headed to Rooftop movies to see "Casablanca", as it is a favourite around here.

And we were excited to see this in Camelot's movie program, as Willow is an extra in it!

We also had our home ed review, and I must admit I'm always glad to get that done.  Ours is now at the beginning of term 4 and it makes life a bit easier to have it then, rather than having to rush around about it at the end of the term, near Arden's birthday and Christmas.