Thursday, June 30, 2011

My reading..........

For some strange reason in recent years, it has become a habit of mine to read two books at once, alternating chapters from time to time as it suits me. So presently these are the two books I'm reading.

Cure Tooth Decay
So far this goes into things I'm aware of but also refers to a few other dentist's work that I was not aware of. Seems to be a nice addition to the books we have on healthful eating.

Sugar Blues
I'd been wanting to read this for ages! And so far it is really interesting, he writes in quite an illustrative manner which makes for very easy reading IMO.

And just because I also liked this one, from a while ago, here's a third book.

Eat Fat, Lose Fat
There's some lovely recipes in this one, we've been making the coconut ice-cream. The kids have been making it mostly by themselves, with my aerating it with my fork LOL!

Recent Work and Events

I visited the anthroposophical shop last week to stock up on work books, get a gift for someone and get modelling wax (largely this was due to Arden being co-operative whilst we were there). We are heading to Perth to live in a few weeks, and I have no idea if they have an anthroposophical shop there, so stocking up on basics before leaving seemed like a good move, plus I really like the lady the manages the shop at present, so it was nice to have a chat to her about our plans and homeschooling.

Gabriel has started on his next cross-stitch project. He designed his first one based around animals and crystals, and his second design was on knights and dragons. He'd like to sew both of them by the end of the year- at this stage it seems like a lot of work, but he's getting much more consistent with his sewing. He has started on the first part of his animal cushion, which consists of four panels with different images.

Willow is still working at her stuffed toy project, and at this stage is drawing lots of horses, her drawing has improved immensely over the last few weeks, and I think after a few more weeks of drawing it may be time for her to move onto planning how she will make her toy horse.

Willow had her final singing lesson tonight with her choir before we move, and has one final flute lesson and a flute concert this weekend. Her singing concert was a couple of weekends ago, and as usual was a success. This time Willow had a shared 'solo' part which was exciting for her. She loves singing on stage, and was really pleased to get the shared part in singing 'Maria' from 'The Sound of Music'.

Both kids have been doing a block on maths- Willow business maths and Gabriel fractions. But our usual bookwork, has fallen to the side this week, as the kids had a visit to Mt Gambier to see their cousins there. They had a fabulous time and have been talking non-stop about wrestling, basketball, frogs, computer games, and goats amongst other highlights of their stay.

There's quite a bit to do round here, with getting ready for the move, but gradually things are getting done. We've got a couple more things to sell, or throw out, and boxes are getting packed - so that's good, we need to find a home there and catch up with friends before we go. I've already contacted their homeschool community and on first impression they seem very friendly, but my plan at this stage is to have a rather low key term so that we can get to know Perth at a more relaxed pace.

Reading

We've just started reading the Aeneid.


I wondered if the kids might find it a bit complex, but so far, it's fine and they're really enjoying it. I think after reading about Ulysees and the Trojan war, they're finding the Trojan perspective quite interesting.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Leonardo da Vinci

This past weekend we attended the Da Vinci's Machines Exhibit. Overall I found it interesting, and the kids enjoyed it, although it was a little overpriced, compared to similar exhibitions I've been to. That said the machines were great, and it was nice that some of them were able to be used- Arden certainly enjoyed trying them out. He was rather taken with the leverage model- he kept pulling the rope and letting it go, so that the weighted bag would drop rather heavily.

We've had a rather busy past week, with the da vinci outing, and also a visit to the zoo again- spent a while watching the pandas eat this time, and a performance at the Grainger studios of Peter and the Wolf. Plus Damien has been offered a job in Perth, so plans are ahead to move in about 5weeks. Quite a lot to do, but we're all looking forward to the move.

Friday, June 3, 2011

A Wicked Week

So Willow has come to the end of another block, and Gabriel and I are getting through his local history work. I was hoping to have picked up a copy of Kovac's Geology book before Willow's block, but it didn't arrive in time, so we made our way through the block without it. Fortunately it didn't matter, we stocked up on books from the library and visited the crystal collection at the SA Museum. There's quite a good selection there, and it was great for getting a feel for the way crystals grow, and the fact that each has it's own very distinct shape.

Since it's been history month, and Gabriel has been looking at local history we've been trying to get out to lots of activities. Last weekend there was a re-enactment of the opening of the Institute building on North Tce, so Willow, Damien and Gabriel went along. It sounded very interesting. Apparently originally the opening went for 5hrs with thousands of people there wanting to come in, and there were bits of modern technology(for the era)being demonstrated, and not working very well. We've also been continuing doing the Engineering tour of Adelaide via a guide from the Adelaide city council- this week we were looking at the water system.

Willow and Gabriel also headed to Wicked this week. Apparently it was fabulous, and Willow keeps telling me that I need to go and see it.