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.