Recent Work

After experimenting with hexaflexagons, Willow moved on to cut out puzzles of Pythagoras' theorem.  Took a little bit of moving around, but eventually a solution was found!

Arden took his lego man out adventuring in the Cultural Centre.

Willow spent some time making rose windows this week, as part of her ancient history block.  She's studying the Catholic churches and the changes that came to it during the Renaissance via the Lutherans, Church of England and Calvinists.

And I finally finished knitting Arden's penguin socks.  He's very happy with them.

Tidbits

We're back into school work, after a couple of weeks break, and so far we're all quite enjoying it.  Particularly given that we only have a short term again this time. 

Willow has been working on finishing her slippers- here's her first one.

 She's also just finished off some geography and is now onto her last block of history for the year.  Part of the block involves making paper rose windows, so it will be interesting to see how they come out.

Gabriel is working through his block on ancient Greece- we're almost at the end now.  As usual Class 5 history has been lots of fun- there are so many great stories and activities that can be done.  We're currently reading the Golden Fleece by Padraic Colum.

Over the break, Gabriel and Willow spent some time at City Farm.  Willow was a leader for the week, helping assist the younger children with activities, as well as doing some- she brought home some lovely spearmint soap and Gabriel went along for a day.  This time he focused on doing woodwork.  Here's some of his work.

We were also out and about quite a bit during the break, catching up with friends and attending a puppet show in Fremantle. Just before the break, we also went to a ballet performance of Pinocchio, so of course we are now reading it too.  It's quite different to the Disney version, but a great story all the same.

A friend recently shared a mathemetician's you tube page with us, and we've all been quite engaged with it.  Recently she's been demonstrating hexaflexagons, and so we've been busy making them.

Here's her page.

https://vimeo.com/vihart

Botany 2nd time around, plus more

Gabriel and I have come to the end of another block- Botany is done, and I've got ancient Greece planned starting next week.  So here are some pictures.

Drawing in Queen's Garden

Fungi in King's Park

Painting a gum tree, colour mixing on paper

Fungus diagram

Drawings from nature

We had a lot of fun doing the botany- lots of outings and interesting activities, so Gabriel was a bit sorry when I said we're onto ancient Greece next week.  Over the last month, we've spent a bit of time exploring different areas quite local to us, but probably King's Park and Heirisson Island we're our favourite outings.  King's Park was great because all the Spring time flowers are in bloom, and Heirisson Island is quiet and secluded despite sort of being in the middle of the city- plus we got to pat and feed the Kangaroos, as well as see the giant flock of Pelicans that live there.

Willow is coming towards the end of  her physics block and will be moving onto world geography.  Her experiments have been working nicely and she's been doing the more complex one's with the help of her dad (Damien).  Currently she's working through mechanics, with a week of electricity to finish on next.

Gabriel's form from last week

Willow's geometry- she's been working on surds.

Finally for craft, Gabriel has been busy knitting his socks, which are coming along nicely.  Willow has been improving her crocheting skills, doing lots of mini-projects before she starts to crochet herself some slippers.

Gabriel's socks

Chopping Boards

This past weekend saw the older two (Willow and Gabriel) and I head off to learn how to make chopping boards using traditional hand tools and recycled wood.  The whole experience was totally exhilarating, and I am looking forward to trying out another class later in the  year.

Willow's blue gum Chopping board.

Gabriel's jarrah chopping board.

Feature nail holes (Gabriel's piece of jarrah was once a beam in a house).

My she Oak chopping board, with uneven back.

Everyone is also onto some new work- Gabriel is doing some botany- we went for a sketching walk yesterday, and Willow is onto physics- starting with a week of sound experiments.  As usual there are lots of interesting things happening around here.

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2025

This was my first woodwork lesson the Greg, at Joy of Wood.  We have done a bunch of his projects over the years, and Irving and I are currently taking private lessons with Tyson there.  At the moment we are making lund stools.

You can find more on our woodworking experiences here.

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2012/10/tidbits.html

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2012/12/recent-activities.html

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2015/10/woodwork.html

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2016/08/minimal-action.html

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2017/12/break-time.html

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

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2023/08/term-2.html

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

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2024/12/term-3.html

https://unicorn-pegasus.blogspot.com/2024/12/closing-on-another-year.html

Perth, W.A's biggest city

Perth is W.A's biggest city. Many tourists come there every year. One of the biggest attractions is Fremantle(Freo). People flock to Frematle in the hot weather.

Subiaco is a pretty little place. The Subiaco Farmers Market is open every Saturday. The market sells macaroons,crepes,fruit,vegetables,meat,and dairy. The Main Street has cafes,bistros,shops,a movie theatre,and other attractions.

The Swan River is vast. On the southern side there is mini beachy spots you could swim in. In summer people hire Catamarans for a hour or so and sail up the river. The ferry across the river takes 7-8 minutes. Many activities happen on both sides of the river.

Kings Park is another big attraction. The Park is 400 hectares,including the Botanic Gardens. Kings park has a canopy walk,where part of it is glass. The view from the top of the glass segment is amazing. On one side is the Swan River,and on the other side is there are native trees. At the end of the canopy walk is a path. To the right is a fountain,which spurts up every 5 or so minutes.

Perth has a large selection of cafes and restaurants around the city. A few are: Cafe Dome,The Hilton, and the Burger Bistro. They serve yummy food and drinks. Cafe Dome is cosy. The Hilton serve excellent buffet breakfast. The Burger Bistro serve delicious burgers and yummy chips.

So why not visit Perth for a while? We Western Australians would love you to come and see what Perth has to offer!

Willowunicorn    

 

Holiday Recovery

We're back into our usual routine this week, after lots of interesting activities and outings over the holidays- the first week was really relaxing and the second week was exhausting!

Willow and Gabriel spent varying amounts of time at City Farm helping out and doing activities for the school holiday program there.  Both had a fabulous time participating in woodwork, gardening, soap making, woodwork, amongst other things. 

This week saw Willow finishing her apron finally -it looks amazing, and is just in need of an iron to finish it off nicely. (She hand sewed this).

She's now on her way to planning some slippers to make.

We finally received our JUMP workbooks, which I'm quite pleased about as it will simplify doing maths- no more copying questions out for me!  We ordered a trial pack from grade 1-8, which offered one of each workbook.  Perfect for us really, and I've been really happy with the way they arrange maths.  Just need to pair it with the online teacher guides and we're all set.

Gabriel is still working on a block on ancient Egypt and we're reading Roger Lancellyn Green's book on Egyptian Myth.  Willow is doing a musical block, looking at different regions of the world and progressing into medieval music, it ties in quite nicely with her musicianship classes, where they are looking at studying different musical pieces and learning about composers and notation.

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2025

Willow changed from doing choral classes after our first year in Perth ( at this stage she was doing choral classes and suzuki flute), and shifted over the doing the Musicianship lessons which use the Kodaly method.  We started off with a local flute teacher, but that wasn't working well for us, so we starting doing remote lessons with the teacher we had in Adelaide, then we had communication issues based off the distance, so we returned to local lessons with another teacher.  We didn't have much success with local teachers TBH- this next one was rather temperamental, and so after a break, we moved onto private singing lessons- first with a jazz singer, and later with an Opera singer.  This was all over the course of about 5 years.  

Holidays

This morning we are all enjoying a day of sitting about and doing nothing.  Sometimes I find it quite crazy that homeschooling we can end up very busy, but the good thing about it, is that it's almost always because we are doing something really fun.

Last week Gabriel and I started on learning about ancient Egypt, and we headed to the museum of WA where we found a few bits about Egypt.  There was a casting of the Rosetta stone, and some other castings.  It was nice to be able to see some copies, though the small room of Egyptian artefacts at the South Australian museum is better really.  Though a bit creepy all the same (I've never liked it since first seeing it when I was about 8.)

Last week's pyramid making

Willow finished her block on anatomy, and has moved onto studying music.  She's settling into being back home after her trip away, and has been a little worn out after so many activities and outings.  Here's some sketches from her last block.

A self portrait

The end of the week involved lots of activities.  A friend who is a magician came around for dinner, and the kids and Damien demonstrated all the magic tricks they have been learning, so it made for quite an entertaining night.  Friday we played basketball and headed out to busk in the rain.  Saturday we did our usual leisurely shopping.  Sunday we went out to the museum, had dinner and went to listen to a band and watch some dancing, and play pool.  The kids are starting to get quite good at pool, and Willow was invited to learn some dance steps.  It was a lovely way to spend the end of the week before have a holiday break. 


Got to love the blend of natural learning with more structured school work.

Willow busking with her flute.