Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Time for a Break

Today was our last bit of planned school work before leaving Adelaide next week. It's been a little hectic around here, with socialising, school work, packing, inspections, finding a new home and sending Damien off to Perth. He's been there 4 days now, and we're all glad to be at the half way point, and are counting down til he gets back.

I thought it was funny that one of the coldest and wettest days we've had this year occurred with Damien interstate, I'm sure he's sorry to have missed it, even with all his fun experiences and adventures around Perth.


Willow has just come to the end of her block on Ancient Rome.


And here's her latest geometry.



Gabriel is working on the structure of english at the moment. Here's his picture of Thor throwing Miolnir at Hrungir.


And finally Gabriel's progress on his cushion.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Geometry, Ancient Rome and Celtic Knots

A drawing by Willow, of a bust of Livia, from ancient Rome.


Some of Gabriel's recent knotwork.




A selection of Willow's recent geometry






Friday, July 8, 2011

Endings and Beginnings

Gabriel is just coming to the end of his first block on fractions. He's been really enjoying. Initially he was finding it a bit tricky, and I started to wonder if it would suit him better if I introduced the new concept and let him sleep on it, so the ideas had time to settle. It has worked brilliantly, he's gone from being irked to being pushed into new ideas to totally embracing each concept.

In terms of maths I largely use the jump curriculum, but still remain steiner inspired. I've found this really helps me to keep on track with us getting through all the maths work that needs to be done, and also breaks down the concepts well to enable me to explain and teach them better. I generally 'get' maths, without needing the extra steps so this has been very helpful for me in teaching it, and recognising that there are steps that I may not have thought need explaining, but do for some people.

Willow has started the second half of the Ancient Rome block. We've been using Charles Kovacs' book on ancient rome.

I like the way he presents the book, and the ideas that are brought forth through it. Some of the ideas around Christianity are very conservative IMO, but they have brought forth some useful discussions during our lessons.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Cushion Design and Horses

Gabriel's cushion design.


Willow's drawings.....