September

September came and went so fast.  We did everything and nothing; it's hard to remember how we filled our days.  Luckily, once again, we used the camera occasionally and so, here it is: September.

Our conversion to vegetarianism is continuing. Slowly our repertoire of recipes is expanding. This is one dish we all enjoyed - tofu ricotta (so easy to make), tomato and avocado on home baked power packed toast with carrot sticks.  It looked so pretty on the plate I had to take a picture :)

We've been doing lots of research into the best foods to eat so that we get all the essential nutrients we need and have been pleasantly surprised to find that a plant based diet can give us all we need, despite what the meat and dairy industries would have us believe.  This documentary (and associated website) has inspired me immensely.  This film also made me think hard about the suffering of animals caused by humans. It is so confronting and upsetting that I've only watched 20 minutes of it so far, but I hope to see the rest soon. I urge everyone to view it.

Speaking of animals, the girls and I joined up with a group of  'girly' homeschoolers and took a trip to the zoo.  We had a great day and met some new friends. The Snork Maiden was in charge of the camera with big plans for her blog, so I will just post a few pics here. The rest she can use in her Zoo exclusive ;)

Splashing Spoonbills by Moomintroll

a shot of our friends. just to show that we do actually hang out with other h/schoolers!

what better way to eat lunch than up a tree?

Our gamelan group was invited to play at Festival Indonesia at Freshwater Place.  We played for 30 minutes in the hot hot sun. Apart from a little sunstroke, it was a great day out.

setting up

getting ready

wish I'd brought a hat

After our performance the girls made their own batik using authentic tools and very hot wax. 

 

 

 Then we wandered off to Federation Square to watch a lion dance at the Vietnamese Festival.

Workwise the girls have just been going along doing their own things. Moomintroll is still working on her reading and writing and is enjoying making many short movies on PhotoBooth.  The Snork Maiden is happy with her Distance Ed maths course and has started using Mathletics. She really gets a kick out of competing against kids from Mexico!  She and P have been investigating tessellating shapes and spent a day making their own after watching this video.  What a great activity - maths and art all rolled into one!

P's tessellation

tessellation by the Snork Maiden

What else.... oh yes I had a birthday! I had a lovely day, dinner out and lots of lovely presents including Vera the Vitamix,a shiny new swiss army knife and a voucher from some very sweet, special friends.

Right now the Snork Maiden is on her first Guide camp - a three night/four day Jamborella.  We all miss her alot and can't wait till Wednesday when she comes home.

Sept 26 - Oct 9

September 14th was the anniversary of the death of John Holt.  We love Holt's books.  They were the reason that we chose to home educate. When our toddlers were nearing their second birthdays all the mums in my mothers' group started discussing kinder and school, but the idea of sending H away to learn, grow and play just didn't feel right to me.  At around the same time my mother in law gave us some of the books she had read while she was teacher training, and two books that really enlightened and inspired us were Holt's "How Children Learn" and "How Children Fail". 
In memory of Holt, his collegue Pat Farenga has recently made all the past issues of Growing Without Schooling available for free here.  I'm really looking forward to spending some time reading through these - if I can find some time, that is.

P's holidays flew by as usual. Here are some scenes from the first week:

William Ricketts Sanctuary

possum, koala and lyrebird carvings

shadow play

Tulip fun at Tesselaar's Tulip Festival

Making bath bombs - Saturday Science

Making lavender body lotion - Saturday Science

Oma's 70th at The Pig and Whistle, Olinda

We also visited Sky High in the Dandenongs for a treasure hunt, saw Spy Kids in 4D and went to a fantastic concert by the Indonesian National Orchestra which included a huge variety of instruments from different regions, singing and dance. To finish off the week, on Sunday evening P and I performed with Permai at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne. It was for a concert called SoundSekerta, put on by Monash University.  In the end, despite long delays and general chaos backstage, it was a great experience to play in such a beautiful theatre.
The second week of holidays has been full of the Sound of Music. H and R have been coming with us to rehearsals and pretty much know the show backwards now.
H had an early birthday sleepover party with eight friends on Friday night.  They played pass the parcel, stuffed themselves with chocolate and lollies, made their own pizzas for dinner, watched My Fair Lady, camped out in the tent in the backyard in the rain, stayed up till 1am, then woke everyone up at 5am. It was a huge success.

July 25 - August 8

A few shots of life around here lately that I have forgotten to post:

Firstly a day out at Bundoora Park where H had a pony ride.

The closest R will come to having a pony ride:

I made friends with a very beautiful goat

Two sleepy and loving cousins having a sleepover

Permai had it's long anticipated performances of Wayang Kancil on the 29th August.  The day went brilliantly and each performance was different and exciting to be in.  I didn't take any pics as we were all too busy getting dressed and getting nervous! But I did find this one here of Pak Eddy in action:

We were filmed by Channel 31 and appeared on the Indonesian television show Nusantara last Sunday, and once I work out how to copy it I'll post it here.

Yesterday we visited Station Pier in Port Melbourne to see the Navy ships. We boarded the HMAS Perth
and were led around through the ship by the many friendly navy people.  It was an eyeopening experience for all of us and we even remembered to use our extensive Latin vocab over and over again - "Sum nauta." (I am a sailor.)

The girls worked a little more on their Periodic Table colouring book today which led to H doing some further research on Helium.  This is her glog.

Ever had one of those days where you just can't remember what you've done the past week?  Lucky for me the camera keeps tabs on our days.

We had a house guest last week. Flat Stanley arrived in the post from our friend K and so we showed him the sights of Mitcham - ballet classes, lunch at Forest Hill Chase, the very lovely Roundabout Park, and a cultural trip to Albert Park for our weekly gamelan practice.

He also listened in on our Mapping the World and Chemistry lessons and enjoyed hearing R reading her Headsprout stories.

A fairly quiet week altogether, the only diversions being a sleepover with cousin H, celebrating N's 10th birthday and an impressive Mozart concert for P and I.
Quiet weeks are good - we all get a chance to relax and play uninterrupted for hours on end.  Right now they are playing with their new Henry XIII and his wives paper dolls - it's very funny hearing their version of this song!