Thursday, August 25, 2011

At home in Perth


Perth, from the South side of the River



So we're settled into our new apartment in Perth. It's been a few weeks, but the ADSL only arrived recently, so it makes it easier to 'connect' with the rest of the world. The apartment is comfortable, and the space suits our needs, plus we have two balconies overlooking a park, which is great. My only minor concerns, is our storage space is a little small (hopefully we'll be able to sort a way to balance things) and we're on the second floor- even with airconditioning I'm not sure that's going to be great come summer.

Otherwise we've been getting out and exploring the city, as well as doing some schoolwork. Our trip across the Nullabor took almost two days by train, and it was quite relaxing on the whole, plus the view of the stars at night was spectacular.

The first few weeks here, Damien had lots happening at work, so we were only getting to the farmer's market together. We've been heading to the Subiaco market every Saturday so far, and have found the selection quite good, though it's much smaller than the Adelaide market and has a different feel. This week we're planning to head to the City Farm, to check out their weekend market.

We've also been out to meet some homeschoolers, both times at a playground, and so far the playgrounds here have been amazing. They seem to have retained more playgrounds with equipment for older kids. The pirate ship at Applecross really went down well, and it was in such a beautiful location, overlooking the Swan River.

A black swan with her cygnets.


During all this we've been doing maths and English around here. Willow has been looking at the structure of sentences, and doing some writing. I also took her to her first performance of Shakespeare- Julius Caesar. Gabriel has finished his writing block on the Norse Myths, and has moved back onto fractions. We've also been getting into some more complex celtic knots, and drawing the King's crown for geometry. Craft has seen Gabriel finish the first picture on his cushion, and Willow move onto designing her pattern, for a toy horse.

Willow's picture of Kilhuch and King Arther, to complement her writing for the week.



Willow's model unicorn


My cross stitch is finally nearly finished!


Thursday, August 11, 2011

Reading

Full Moon Feast
I loved this book! So interesting, and beautifully combined fact with story. Absolutely essentially for any WAP eaters out there.

We've also just started Willow's language block reading Beowulf and The Story of King Arthur- we'll be looking at doing some poetry writing and creative writing with this block too.