Architecture in Melbourne

The last few times we've headed into the city, I've not taken my camera along for the ride.  This is always a disappointment as there is usually some image you wish you'd caught.  The children wanted to photograph the columns on buildings as they discovered them along the city streets (including just about everything else as well, lol!)  For some reason, these columns have become a fascination with Mariposa in particular.

Here we were, standing at our tram stop.  Our back is facing Flinders Street station, near Elizabeth Street, and this is what we saw when we looked up:

Ionic style columns with the ornamental 'femine' curls for its capital (top)

"Quick Mum, there's another building just down there!"  So there was, just a few doors down, but we didn't have enough platform to perch on, so this photo is taken from an angle.

More Ionic style columns

So far we've been successful in finding Ionic columns, then another squeal of excitment from Mariposa had a fellow tram passenger sitting opposite her raise his eyebrows in alarm.  Of course, curiosity was further aroused when we were taking photos of what looked like 'nothing'. (Yes, I did have to explain, then we got the 'ah!' nod.)

Doric style columns (blurry pic from tram window)
with the capital shaped like a saucer and square cover.
The 'man's style' ~ plain and strong-looking.

I'm glad the children get excited when they remember things they've learnt.  In my primary schooling years, I don't remember learning too much history.  Architecture was one of the most awful endurance tests in our high school art classes, with hours of slide shows unrelated to anything else we were studying.  Now I'M enjoying learning these fascinations with my children, properly, for the first time.  Albeit the history is quite brief on this occassion, but it opens up the world.

We've long since past reading about Greece's Golden age, but there are many points of interest that are still recalled from reading "A Child's History of the World" by Hillyer.  For example, there are occassions when Mariposa will start chanting "Cleisthenes. Cleisthenes. Go and kiss the knees!"  Hmmm - at least she remembers the name.

In the past we had gotten 1/2 way through the first book of Story of the World, but I had been too inconsistent.  Working through Sonlight's Core 1+2 has brought this book to our shelf and it's being enjoyed very much.

Maestro will be using Story of the World again as his spine for Core 6 next year, so nothing has been wasted.