Summer break begins

It's Summer break! The children have been away; Maestro at a Youth camp and Mariposa stayed with her grandmother near the beach.

While the house is quieter, it gets all our attention for more improvements. Last year we were sanding bedroom floors, revealing the lovely timber floorboards hiding under old carpet. This year we've been freshening up all the outdoor windows and eaves with a new lick of paint.

It's quite relaxing, working at one's own pace to improve the home. The mornings are cool and the day starts off very quietly.  After a short stop for a cup of tea, I've taken to putting on the radio. ABC Classic FM is my preferred station.  The music is peaceful and discussions are very informative.  An absolutely wonderful program started last week, which I have been enjoying listening to, called Handel's English World by Graeme Abbott. By late afternoon, it's time to clean up and prepare dinner.


Everyone is now back home again, very weary from travel, but excited to share their adventures. Each child has their own list of goals they want to accomplish in the next few weeks. Mariposa started redecorating her bedroom. Maestro is hoping to be on his L plates very soon and start driving lessons.  When we're not painting, I'm reading my way through Karen Andreola's A Charlotte Mason Companion again, and Papa is editing some filming he did a while ago.  We're all happy working away at something, in productive relaxation.

2014 in review

I can't believe this year is coming to a close so quickly! So much has happened, with lots of personal goals achieved and exciting trips. Here's a whirlwind summary of what we've been up to:

Maestro (age 16) started the year earnestly looking for options for his tertiary education next year. We travelled to a few places on their open days, as well as two VCE/Career Expos, but it took time to refine what outcome he actually wanted career-wise. Whilst finishing off his final homeschool year, he took on voluntary work at the community radio station and the local library. In September he went for an interview at the Radio Training Institute and was accepted into their Advanced Radio Course in Melbourne. As a parent to a homeschool graduate, I have to say that this is probably the most difficult part of the journey we've had.  There are a lot of options out there with Open Uni, TAFE, etc., but you really do need to find out where you want to end up and then back track. Each path has it's own set of entry requirements and it's really worth starting to look into this as early as possible in preparation for the year ahead. We may have needed him to complete VCE via Distance Ed. for some courses, whilst other only needed a STAT test.  The course he's ended up getting into required a sample of his work done, an interview and a copy of 5 mins. of his radio work done at the local station. At the end of this course he'll have credits he can use for any Bachelor of Arts, should he desire to follow up on journalism or television work in the future.


Mariposa (age 13) has really blossomed this year. She's been on a huge learning curve for most of the year and so much has fallen into place.  Horseriding was her #1 goal, with the option to do her first dressage exam at the end of the year ... and guess what?! She did it! Not only did she complete the exam with excellent marks, but she came 3rd in her Class (ages 13-14).  Next year, riding lessons will continue, practising more of her jumping.

Mariposa has also been busy learning some pottery and mosaic skills, plus her piano where she's made up a few of her own compositions now.  Piano and singing will also be pursued more next year.

In June, I went for my ABRSM grade 5 singing and theory exams. It was hard work at the start of the year finding the 'groove' to sit and work through so many study papers for the theory when it had been so long since I'd done anything like that (around 20 years I think!)  Thankfully it all paid off and I passed both exams with Distinctions .. yay!  I've only just gotten my certificates in frames and will have them up on the wall soon.

Papa (my husband) also did his first ever guitar exam and passed with Honours.  Woot! We're on a bit of a roll this year! (smile!)


We also took our very first EVER trip overseas as a family this year.  P&O Cruises took us on the "Bounty Adventure", travelling to New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga and then Norfolk Island.  It was a long cruise of 16 days and not like anything we'd experienced before.  We met some lovely people, including some old school friends from my childhood (amazing how small this world is!).

Along with all the other regular entertainment and art lectures, there were four lectures on Christian and Bligh, and how Pitcairn Island, then subsequently Norfolk Island, were settled by the mutineers and their descendants.  The lecturer works as a curator at the Norfolk Island museum and was keen to share information when we told her a brief version our homeschooling story.  She highly recommended the book The Pitcairners by Nordoff  for anyone wanting to fill in their knowledge of this part of Australiana history. I was very pleased to find a copy of this book in our library when we got home, along with some BBC documentaries of Norfolk Island also.

Now it's the start of Summer break.  The children will be camping and staying away with grandparents. I'm taking some time to organise my piano studio for next year's lessons, as well as finalising plans for Mariposa's lessons. Lots of reading, gardening and quilting to do, and visiting with family.

Hoping you've all had a wonderful 2014, and here's to a fabulous 2015 very soon!

Until next time,
Catherine

Local festivities

There was certainly plenty to do locally this weekend!  Lots of free entertainment to enjoy at Sunfest, where Maestro's dance school performed a selection of dance routines. It was such a shame that the irish dance segment was rained out, but they persevered as best as they could and still performed on stage with some lovely singing.  We have some amazing young local talent here.  Later that night, the highlight was the fireworks and a concert featuring Paul Costa.

We then topped that off today with a visit to The 'J' Beekeeping School for it's annual festival.  My brother and his family joined us in the morning, in time to see them demonstrate how to open a hive.  Honey tasting, watching some hive building, and a few treats purchased (ie: some honey liqueur for us adults!), then back home for a leisurely family lunch.

 Watching the bees busy at work in their hive.

A demonstration of how to remove safely open a hive.

It's always lovely to enjoy an outing together. :)
Catherine

Another year of dance

This time last week, our young man, Maestro, was finishing up his end of year concert.  It's amazing to think he's been dancing for 12 years already, making this his 11th concert (he didn't go to the very first one, as Mariposa was an infant).  He's been doing an AMAZING job!  and we're very grateful to the principal of the school for honouring him with the 'Teacher's Choice' award at the end of the evening.  Well done!

Our home ... reminising

I'll never forget the date of us moving into our first home. November 15th, 1996.  It's been our first and only house for 17 years now!  Doesn't time go so quickly?

When we went looking for this home, the goal was to find somewhere with a really good sized backyard and a lovely atmosphere; somewhere we'd be happy to stay and raise our family for a number of years.  This anniversary is a really good time to stop and be thankful that we've found that here.  For the most part, we've had lovely neighbours, some of whom have moved and most who are still here. I think I got to know most of them really well when I used to spend hours gardening out the front and people would stop by for a chat.

The house itself has gone through it's progressive stages of change. We bought it knowing that it required improvements. Each year was a new goal to fix up something. New fences, a proper driveway, guttering redone, the pergola completely remade, repainted throughout, bathroom renovated, outside sunblinds put up, floorboards polished, a new bedroom created by dividing the rumpus room ....  A house really can go through quite a change when there's a family growing up within it's walls over many years!!


A lovely reminder of our establishment here are our fruit trees.  They were planted as soon as we could get them in, except for the apricot tree which went in on Maestro's first birthday.  They've been bearing delicious fruit for us each Summer for many years now.  I couldn't imagine not having them here now!

There is still a list of things we'd like to do here, and we'll continue to plod along doing one thing at a time as we're able.  But I'm thankful that we've had our place, here, for so long and through all our family adventures.  Who knows what could happen further along the road. :)

Chemistry: the balancing act

This post has been in my draft box since July ... but I thought I'd still publish this in case it's of use to others. Sorry it's taken so long!

I've finally caught up with Maestro in his Apologia Chemistry (2nd ed) book.  He had slowed down quite a bit once he hit module 4, where he began working on balancing chemical equations.  Just prior to applying the algebra part to his work, there is a quick list of elements he must memorise as they never appear as single atoms.  It's a bit like remembering the spelling rule that some letters need to be doubled when put after a short vowel ... they need to be memorised.

This list of elements which are NOT composed of single atoms are called homonuclear diatomics. The list (for our reference as much as for others) is as follows:

Hydrogen (H2)
Nitrogen (N2)
Oxygen (O2)
Fluorine (F2)
Chlorine (Cl2)
Iodine (I2)
Bromine (Br2)

I also pulled out an atom molecular kit, similar to this available on ebay. It really helped to physically make up the compounds and redistribute the atoms required to balance the formulae in the book (where it was possible to do so).

Here are some websites which allows one to practice balancing of chemical equations.  These are a few we've tried:
- Stinks and Bangs!  takes you step by step
- Jefferson Lab
- PhET's similation program ... great for visualisation with the balance scale (I think this is my favourite of the three  )
- Battleships .. if you have the right co-ordinates, the bomb only activates if you balance the equation correctly
- Rags to Riches

If you're doing chemistry with your children this year, I'd love to hear how you're getting on!  This is one subject I'm having to sit and learn WITH my son, as I only remember doing it in part until it became an elective and I dropped it in favour of Biology.

Update .. we're well and truly through half of this chemistry book now.  An update will be forthcoming. (smile!)

Until next time!
Catherine

TOPS Electrical circuits

TOPS lessons about electrical circuits are now all a 'go' here.  What a fun way to experiment with how to make a very simple circuit, using a battery, torch bulb, and strips of foil with masking tape on the back. Maestro enjoyed doing this Sonlight Science level a number of years ago, and now it's Mariposa's turn.

It starts off simple enough.  You provide the tools (after they make their own foil strips) and then they have to figure out how to get the bulb to light.  It can take a little longer than first expected.  I think I heard more than once, "I don't think this bulb is working!"

THEN          ......     O LOOK!

Motivation then set in. It was time to try some of the suggestions in the TOPS Electricity book.

Using two batteries was even more impressive!

If there was going to be a science unit study I'd recommend, this would be near the top of my list. 

This TOPS book is well explained and lots of fun to do.

Until next time!

Catherine

Today's parable:

Here's a very interesting little parable written on today's calendar page by Mary Engelbreit:

How often do we pray for light to show us our way, only to find that faults are exposed?  I think this is very similar.

July 5th Wrap Up (term break)

Wow, did I have a lazy day today!  It's been so lovely slowing down and enjoying the sunshine.  Mariposa and I took a nice long walk to an appointment at 10am, then we did some window shopping and took a bus trip home again.  Then, all afternoon, I just pottered.  I did the dishes when I felt like it, did the laundry .. just enjoyed taking my time with nothing else to rush for all afternoon.

It is term break, after all.  I hope you've all been enjoying some time taking it easy these holidays.

And in order to balance up the way the rest of the week looked, it's fair to say that for most of our time I wasn't so sedate.

We started with an appointment with a dermatologist for Mariposa's eczema on Monday. Poor love's skin has not been improving as quickly as we'd like, even though she's now eating wheat free.  So I've learnt how to do wet dressings to give her more relief before night time, along with some other treatments.

GF cookbooks from our library.

Tuesday took us to the city for the orthodontist .. public transport was fun to navigate whilst the direct railway route is under reconstruction.  Once home again, two more trips away from home before we settled again in the evening.

Wednesday was quiet in the morning, but then Maestro had a meeting with our local librarian.  He's helping organise a special event at the library in November, esp. for Dr Who's 50th anniversary.  Maestro will be helping with the technical work, as well as collaborating with two other young men to come up with the quiz questions.   From the library, it was a dash to my girlfriend's house, where both children stayed whilst I then went to drop the car off for a service.

Thursday and Friday .. no car, and it's actually been lovely. Family and friends have visited us here at home, where we put on a huge pot of my curried pumpkin & honey soup and devonshire tea for lunch.   Dad's been a great help to me with getting some of the heavier part of gardening done.  He also bought me a passionfruit vine to plant over our back pergola .... mmm!

And now ... now I'm reflecting and dreaming of what I want to do next week. Definitely feeling very lazy and enjoying every minute of it!!

Selection of lavenders, rosemary and mints 

to go into the garden on the weekend.

Until next time,

Catherine

Harriet Tubman in Art

I came across a very pleasant surprise today, in preparation for our art lesson.

We have been using Meet the Masters, and this week's artist is Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000).  Lawrence chooses some very interesting subjects reflecting his life.  His parents were from southern America and moved north during WWI to New York.  It was here that Lawrence was born.

His work in general uses many bold colours to reflect mood, and often with a method of overlapping.  He also uses his art as a way to communicate his life as a black American.  He was commissioned make a poster for the Munich Olympic Games (1972), and was one of many artists invited to capture his impression of President Carter's Inauguration in 1977.  However, how he chose to capture the event wasn't what was expected.  He'd rather capture the cheering crowd on the outskirts and sitting amongst tree branches.  President Carter wasn't literally represented at all! (To see his piece of art, The Swearing In, go here.)

I was delighted to find Lawrence had created a very interesting piece of art showing Harriet Tubman leading the people in the Underground Railroad.

Harriet is shown with her large hand leading the people, 

whilst pointing to the North Star with the other hand.

His technique of layering is quite obvious here, giving the piece a sense of depth.  The project we're supposed to be working on at the end of the lesson is a citiscape using the layering technique with tissue paper.  I may put the option to the children to do a similar piece of art as a landscape, or even attempt to imitate this piece.  I'll share the results when we're done!!

More Harriet Tubman artwork can be found by Lawrence and other artists.  Here is a small selection if you'd like to follow up:

• Lawrence: Daybreak - A Time to Rest (1967)
• Lawrence: The Life of Harriet Tubman No. 7
• Bryson: Harriet Tubman as Moses
• Johnson: Harriet Tubman in Patriotic Colors

and finally, a picture book telling the story of Harriet Tubman, illustrations by Jacob Lawrence. (It's available at Amazon and Book Depository, but I'll put the You Tube link here.)




Until next time!

Catherine