Week 1

We've been really busy this past week, doing loads of interesting things, and enjoying Perth.

We started back into school stuff with Willow doing her first block of physics. We're using 'Physics is Fun' by Robert Trostli which I've found brilliant for helping to set up how to do experiments. Last week we worked on sound, looking at instruments and sound travelling through different mediums. I was hoping that there might be a chladni plate at Scitech, but a brief search didn't come up with one, so next time we're there we'll have to see if we can find one.

Gabriel finished off his man and animal block- with some writing and pictures relating to man. We experimented with some different techniques including straight line drawing.


And using a dry brush to paint with.


Willow is sewing her horse up, which is very exciting, and Gabriel is progressing well through his cross stitch.

Geometry saw us involved in some intense line drawing this past week, but giving a very interesting effect.

Willow's geometry picture.


My geometry picture.


It's interesting the difference the colours make, in the feeling of these pictures.

Willow has also recommenced flute lessons this week, which will make us a bit busier again. And Willow and Gabriel and Damien went to the Perth Observatory which they all found interesting, and showed some different aspects to astronomy from our home studies. Whilst they were there, Arden and I ended up watching half the performance of the Ramayana at the Swan Festival of Lights- Arden loved it so much he wanted to stay.

On Sunday we made our way to Whiteman park and rode the vintage trams and Willow and I attended a french cooking class- it was a bit mad on the weekend and will be lovely to have a quieter one this weekend.

Etc, etc, etc.

We have had such a fabulous holiday break- getting out and seeing more of Perth. We finally visited the Art Gallery and museum- we'd been around the cultural precinct a few times, but not to any of the galleries. We wandered around all the museum displays but the crystal and historic displays were the ones that were most appreciated. I also loved the section that used to be part of the library, it was very beautiful with it's spiral staircases up to the bookcases.

The art gallery has a visiting exhibit from the Victoria and Albert museum (which is closed til 2014 apparently). There was some stunning pieces in there, and I particularly liked the guitar on display, which was covered in engraved mother of purl, tortoiseshell and ivory. There were some amazing religious items too, like a tiny prayer book covered in emeralds. The art gallery was also holding a lego building session, in white lego blocks, to promote the exhibit. The kids really enjoyed that, and there were some fabulous models.

We also headed to the Royal show, which we found quite similar to Adelaide's but different too. There was significantly less in the craft entries, which we found interesting, since we usually enter that Adelaide show, and will likely put entries in the Perth show next year. We loved the way that there is a ferris wheel right in the arena, and the way the arena felt much more prominent- we felt this was due to it's central placing. There were some great historic displays, and we all enjoyed watching a telegram being sent and received, and the blacksmiths hard at work. We finished the evening with the fireworks, which were the best I'd seen in quite a while.

The kid's circus teacher had a show on during the holidays too, so we attended that, as well as hanging round for a circus class. We also got to Northbridge Piazza a couple of times,for the movie sessions there. We really enjoyed watching the movie, but felt it was better on a weekday, when there was less people heading out to the pubs and clubs in Northbridge. Other than that we headed out to another Organic shop, which was a fun outing, but in terms of servicing our needs for food, its selection was rather limited. And finally over this last weekend Willow and Gabriel and Damien got out to a talk about Wedge-tail Eagles- which they all enjoyed, and Arden and I discovered that there was an aeroplane show on whilst we were there, so we all went back for a look the following day. It was a great break, and I felt really refreshed for getting back into some more structured work today- particularly after making some yummy food yesterday, such as scotch eggs.

The kids also did lots of playing and creating, with Willow designing and knitting me a purse, Gabriel making lots of maps, and Arden getting involved with lots of cooking, but I suspect one of the highlights for them would have been discovering some really good toy shops!


Plus I almost forgot we visited the beach finally- Cottesloe- and found these cute tiles to lead us there from the train.

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2025

Interesting to see that Arden and I were off watching an aeroplane show back then.  His interest in Aviation has grown and grown over the years.  When he was 11 and he used to go to an aviation history club once a month, I would tell people that he really like planes.  This was too strong in his opinion- but I think it would be fair to say that it is completely true now!

Some posts on Arden's aviation experience to date.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2023/07/2023.html

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

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2017/03/beach-weather.html

Arden and Aviation at TAFE.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2023/10/first-day-of-school.html

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

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2025/06/summertime.html

Southern Aurora

Well today we headed out across the city to Bibra Lake, to the Steiner related shop there(Southern Aurora). On public transport it was a bit of a hike- took about 1 1/2hrs- it could have been a quicker trip, but since we don't know the area at all, and it was very suburban I decided on the slightly slower route. The shop was gorgeous full of lovely toys, and crafts, and books, and we spent a long time in there exploring.

I was quite satisfied with our selection of purchases on leaving- lots of art materials, some crafty bits, and main lesson books. It was great to make a longer journey, and have such a pleasurable time in a shop. I only purchased one book in there today- this one on making paper rose windows.('Rose Window's and How to Make them' by Helga Meyerbroeker)
I've been thinking about getting it for quite a while, but particularly since we did some window stars with some friends, they had a copy of this book.
So I'm thinking that we'll make some rose windows for Christmas- to decorate the place a bit, will be interesting to see how complex/easy they are.

Bibra Lake, from behind the playground fence!

What I'm reading

I've just about finished reading this(Dr Zhivago)- I'm just at Yuri's poems.
Such a magnificent book, and so tragic.

There were a few things I found of particular interest- the discussion on storing vegetables, the idea of preserving mushrooms- am thinking of doing some cultured ones soon now and the overall setting. It's also interesting reading it knowing that Communism is over in Russia.

Holiday Time

Well our first term in Perth has finished, and we are now on holidays. The Royal Perth show starts this weekend, and so we have plans to head off to that. I'm looking forward to exploring Perth further, over the next two weeks.

Last weekend Parklife was happening across from our place, so we headed out for the day. The Onwilliam festival was happening as part of Perth Fashion week, so we spent most of the day wandering around Northbridge. We all really enjoyed it, the kids particularly liked going around to collect the badges and get their passports stamped. It was also nice to see so many interesting craftspeople, selling their stuff. Afterwards we headed to South Perth for dinner, and a small work along the river before catching the last ferry back across.

Willow has just finished a two week block on astronomy, which has worked out quite nicely. Hopefully we can get out for a walk tomorrow night and do a bit of star gazing too. We're better a spotting the southern cross now that we know to look out for alpha and beta centaurus, and we spotted venus setting last week which was nice too. We haven't really added any further constellations that we can spot, so I'd like to try and see if we can do that tomorrow night too. But the block has certainly improved our understanding of the movement of the stars and planets, and we've been fortunate to have a homeschool outing to the Observatory in the next few weeks.

Willow's painting of the Southern Cross with it's pointers.


Arden's star painting. He's become very focused when painting.


Willow is also getting quite experimental with her poetry writing. She decided to try some older english for this.
Venus
Oh, Venus, thou lovely one, the evening star,
the goddess of love and beauty,
how brightly thou doth shine in the sunset,
kissing us goodnight every so often,
thou art like the Dove, bringing peace and beauty to Earth,
like the rainbow I doth see,
never more beauteous I hath seen, than the Evening Star.

Gabriel has been getting through the animal block, and we have the last week to finish, after the break, where we look at man. Again we've been fortunate in that over the holidays there are some great kids workshops run, at various centres, and so Willow and Gabriel will be off to an afternoon with raptors. Gabriel has also just finished his zebra on his cross-stitch cushion. It's coming along very beautifully.



Willow has just had a trial sew up of her horse toy. A few adjustments are needed but hopefully she will be finished it quite soon. She has also been doing some crocheting recently, as part of the yarn bombing of Subiaco, for Christmas.

A few more pictures.
Willow's painting of Venus rising.


My painting of Venus setting.


Homeschooler's tile around the Bell Tower.

Some New Aquisitions and What I'm Reading

I started reading this when we arrived in Perth, but I must admit I haven't read much of it recently. It is totally fascinating, but incredibly depressing IMO, so I've put it aside at present, and have just been reading bits of it incidentally. Though for anyone that thinks vegetarianism will save the world, I highly recommend reading it. ('The Vegetarian Myth' by Lierre Keith)

This is equally depressing, but I guess I know the outcome, so it's less disturbing. The wisdom of the ancients is quite amazing. ('Eve's Herbs' by John Riddle)

Some recent homeschooling purchases.

('Physics is Fun' by Robert Trostli)

('Sky Phenomena' by Norman Davidson)


I'm finding this last one fabulous for explaining Astronomy, and it's so nice that it has an explanation for the Southern Hemisphere too. We're about to start on some of this next week- and even better for us, there's a planned homeschool excursion to the Perth Observatory in October.

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2025

I still haven't finished "The Vegetarian Myth"!  And with all the things I've ended  up doing with the kids over these last 10years, my book pile has grown horribly.  Now that I only have Irving left, my goal has been to shrink it.  Unfortunately home schooling has expanded my hobbies enormously too, so between children and deciding what to do, the reading sometimes tends to get neglected when we're busy. 

Eve's Herbs' was a fascinating read on how women have managed their fertility, and complements my current  reading, Portal, quite nicely.

Physics is Fun is amazing, and is one of my favourite homeschool resources- we have used it so much over the years!

Some of our physics over the years can be found in these posts.

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

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2013/11/physics-maths-parliament.html

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2016/10/science-arts-craft.html

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2011/12/loose-ends.html

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2020/02/2019-close.html

Some Recent Work

Willow's swan poem.



Gabriel's Eagle poem.



Gabriel's celtic knot sword picture.



Gabriel is progressing through his cushion.



My pin cushion is finally finished!