Sept 18 - 25

 The Sovereign Hill camp was a great success. Here's a snap of H's class at St Alupius Diggings School 1854.

H and Sir

Soldiers marching down Main Street on their way to inspect the diggings

Speedwell Street

R at the mines

R watching big sister H experience 'school'

Digging for gold

Lining up ready to go in

Cradling for gold

We all had a great time away. We bowled, dipped candles, found gold, rode in a carriage and went down into a mine to experience "Trapped!" - the story of 27 miners in Creswick who were trapped in a water filled mine for 3 days.  On Friday night we visited the Observatory to watch 3D movies and make a bush clock. By 8.30pm R was asleep in P's arms so we went back to the cabin for the night. 

I think overall H enjoyed the experience though she was quite shocked by how long the day was, and how boring the work was as well. The adults kept reassuring the kids that it was all just play acting, but in the end alot of kids cried about various things, especially not being allowed to write with their left hand.  Learning about history should be fun. I wonder if those kids that cried were having any fun?
P has a great idea - instead of making the left-handers write with their right hand for two days and making them feel bad, get all the kids to have a go at writing with their non-dominant hand for half a day and then tell them that that's what some kids had to endure 200 years ago but thankfully today we know how silly it was and we can all write with whichever hand we want now.  I like P's idea alot and I think it would help all the kids (not just the left-handers) to appreciate how harsh life was back then.

Anyway, our first homeschool camp experience was fabulous and we've already booked in for another in February next year to Phillip Island.

Other things we did during last week were finishing Ch 7 of The Elements, reading a book about Marie Curie and her discovery of Radium, watching a short animated film about Marie Curie on You-Tube, experimenting with iron-enriched Milo Flakes cereal and a magnet, singing and working through Song School Latin, translating the Latin songs into Indonesian songs, painting, cutting out felt clothing/accessories for the felt board people, and celebrating my birthday.  As I had hoped, H had been busy sewing at Brownies. She made me a cute little felt mouse.  Other presents included soaps, drawings, handmade card, fingernail bling, a pair of earrings and biscuits and tea in bed.  Lovely!

Sept 6-18

my first baby Harris

sniff

So I survived the radiation and subsequent enforced holiday at mum and dad's. I did alot of sleeping, tried my hand at tapestry weaving, and crocheted a dish cloth. I took a long walk in the sunshine but overdid it as usual and ended up with a terrible migraine and sore muscles the next day.  On the sixth day I came back home to presents from P and the girls, a new lounge room light installed, a freezer packed with ready cooked meals, a lovely tidy house and two very happy to see me dogs. Thanks guys!
Everyone was busy while I was gone. P had two days off work so they went swimming, investigated density at Saturday Science, went to the art class party, kids cardio, brownies, ballet and did some baking.  R even learnt how to cook scrambled eggs for H which were, in H's opinion, the BEST scrambled eggs she'd ever had. R said the secret was adding 'mummy milk' (which incidentally is lactose free milk, not the other kind!).

H was very happy to get her ballet exam results at last. She achieved a merit pass and was pleased with her result. Rehearsals for her end of year concert have begun in earnest and she's loving every second.  Last week we watched the annual Peter and the Wolf performance by her ballet school. It was great to see some of her friends in it this time and of course she can't wait to be in it herself. Maybe next year..
After the performance we listened to a recording of  Peter and the Wolf. Both girls are very familiar now with the storyline, musical motifs for each character, and they enjoy dancing around being hunters.

The skills H has learned from our sewing club are taking off - she's made a teddy bear for a friend, decorated a hair band for herself with felt flowers, and has begun mending her own clothes and some of Barbie's clothes too.  She's also been sewing at Brownies but won't tell me what she's made - I wonder if it's a birthday present for me?  I can't wait to find out.

The DS's are getting a good workout lately. R is loving Scribblenauts.  She is constantly asking us to spell out words for her but bit by bit she is remembering how to spell them herself, and she is really enjoying using her outrageous imagination to create some amazingly weird scenarios for the game's hero.
H has revisited her Horrible Histories Ruthless Romans game, but this time round, instead of just playing the games she's reading all the historical facts and trivia about the city, its culture, and its emperors which was all a bit too hard for her at the start of the year.

The postie brought some new books over last week:

 I saw this beautiful book mentioned on another blog and knew I just had to read it too. The girls and I often discuss what happens to us when we die and I've been wanting to introduce Buddhism to them for some time. We haven't read the entire book yet. I'm taking it slow as I'm still learning about it myself.

 

This book sounded like alot of fun with songs to reinforce vocab, and I'm pleased to report that it has been fun so far.  The songs are catchy and are sung to familiar tunes - we find ourselves singing them everywhere, every day.  And the best thing is that we can adapt them to suit Indonesian and  German too.

 

This book I bought just to introduce some different maths concepts as it's been pretty boring just doing some sums and trying to remember the times tables.  So far I've made the girls some magnetic tangrams. I had H in mind for this, but R is having the most fun with it so far.

Art class came to an end for this term. They made some stunning papier mache masks and have brought home lovely little glazed ceramic pots.  Today they headed outside with their smocks on for some serious painting on the deck. Here are some works in progress:

Next week we're off on our first homeschool camp to Sovereign Hill, Ballarat!

August 31 - Sept 5

Just five days to go till radiation day and I am slowing down bit by bit.  I had to have a nap this morning in preparation for the second session of the Sewing Club today.  The girls were keen to finish off their projects and by afternoon tea time they were all done.

the finished articles

After tea we had a fun game playing old time school which somehow quickly evolved into a talent quest where the girls entertained each other with singing, dance, violin, piano and recorder performances. Harris, Sniff and I were the judges.

Last week we spent some time learning about Ireland and the Great Famine. When we go to the Sovereign Hill camp in a few weeks H will have to assume the role of an Irish schoolgirl from the 1850's. She's changed her name and given us all different occupations, and has thought out a story about why we left Ireland to come to the Goldfields. So P is a cobbler, I am a dressmaker and we're leaving our home in Dingle, County Kerry because of the famine.  We're even practicing our Irish accents using Luna Lovegood as our inspiration.
We took a trip to the Chinese Museum off Little Bourke St in Melbourne to give ourselves another perspective to life on the goldfields.  This museum is a fantastic resource and I'm sure we'll be back again in the near future.
We've used the internet extensively to learn all we can on this subject - this game and this site in particular were a hit with us all.

Harry Potter seems to be our latest obsession, especially the Potter Puppet Pals. Here's our favourite clip.