Back in the swing

I really love this time of the year. Last year is in the past and there are so many exciting possibilities looming in the future.  A new year brings with it the most exciting thing of all - a new schedule! I'm a big fan of plans and schedules and time tables and even though we often don't stick to them religiously it's comforting to know that when things are going pear-shaped and out of control we can look at our schedule again and be reminded of what we could be doing and when. The Snork Maiden especially is liking having a time table and is suddenly very eager to do her work and learn new things.

We kicked off our new year at the annual Not Back To School Party at a water theme park not too far from home. About 250 other homeschoolers were there taking over the park. It was a great day to relax and have fun with friends.

a ride that looked pretty tame but really wasn't!

driving a mini car

racing down head first!

The time came to get stuck into our work.  I won't go into the details of our time table but it mostly consists of Table Time, Indonesian language, the usual maths/English stuff and our project for the year: The Middle Ages.
Table Time is a new thing I've come up with after reading many other blogs and their versions of Circle Time, where families spend time together learning scripture verses, prayers and/or poetry and copywork.  I have adapted this into Table Time where we spend every morning choosing and writing out an inspirational quote and decorating the page, then learning a poem.  At the moment we're using one of my very favourite childhood books called "A Child's Garden of Verses" by Robert Louis Stevenson.  It's a Golden Press publication with beautiful handstitched artwork by Virginia Tiffany.

These are some of the images from two poems the girls have learnt so far: At The Seaside and The Swing.

We choose uplifting quotes from "101 Moments of Joy and Inspiration" by Meredith Gaston.
Both girls really love starting the day this way - settling our minds and being creative puts us all in the right mood for the rest of the day and they are easily able to move onto other studies without any fuss.

Table Time on the deck

Moomintroll's work from today

The Snork Maiden drawing happily

one of mine

Indonesian studies are taking off at last, with the help of these free podcasts from the Learning Indonesian website. They feature a native speaker who has a beautiful melodic voice - that helps alot when learning a new language.
Our big project for the year is the Middle Ages. As it was Chinese New Year last weekend I thought we'd begin with Ancient China. So far we've read about the Tang Dynasty, read poetry by Li Bai, Wang Wei and other famous poets, learned about inventions from that time period including toilet paper and the first moveable type (woodblock printing) and explored Confucianism - a blend of Buddhism, Taoism and local Chinese beliefs and practices.

Buddhist shrine at our local Chinese New Year festival.

the Snork Maiden found her lookalike

having a go at woodblock printing, using polystyrene blocks. It proved challenging carving out the letters backwards!

 Confucius says...

"I hear and I forget.  I see and I remember.  I do and I understand." 

                               "Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated."   

Alone Looking at the Mountain

All the birds have flown up and gone;

A lonely cloud floats leisurely by.

We never tire of looking at each other - 

Only the Mountain and I.

Li Po

Building a Roller Coaster

The Melbourne Meteor

Hi it's P here.  Well, we just spent the first week of the holidays building a roller coaster!  OK, not quite full size and just out of paper, but a great family construction project none-the-less.  I found a great site called paperrollercoasters.com run by ex-teacher Andrew Gatt.  You can buy templates for $20 and print them onto card.  They come with a detailed instruction manual:

How to build paper roller coasters

We first cut out the designs and folded and taped them to make the parts - columns, beams, bracing, shelves, brackets, straight track, sharp turns, wide turns, loops, merges, switches and funnels!  The templates were very well designed and we appreciated the thought that had gone into them.

Construction of the framework then began, anchored to a cardboard base.

The Snork Maiden at work building a strong foundation

Moomintroll checking on proceedings

The finished frame and a bucket of track parts

We all had input into how the final roller coaster would look.  The Snork Maiden designed and assembled the fast track section.  Moomintroll created the slow track section.  Over a few days it all came together, and "The Melbourne Meteor" was born!

Marvin & The Melbourne Meteor in 3D

There were so many things to like about this project.  The girls got great experience thinking in 3 dimensions.  They interpreted plans, worked with nets and created parts.  They were also exposed to the engineering challenges of team work, project management, problem solving and innovation.

Loss

This year we have experienced much loss. The deaths of Laura and Mary were quickly followed by the sudden decline of our beautiful Harris and then the very unexpected death of lovely bunny Nutmeg a week later.  We now have just three pets remaining - Sniff, Hazel and Cuddlepie.  Although they all showed signs of distress and loneliness at first they are now all quite content with being the only one of their kind. Sniff in particular is like a different dog; she is quiet, calm and more affectionate now that she's the top and only dog in the house.
Harris was our first dog child. She was smoochy, loving, daring, inquisitive, loyal, energetic, exhausting and patient. The support she offered me while I was in early labour with the Snork Maiden is something I will never forget and the way she gracefully accepted each new baby into the family was amazing.
Dr. P wrote a poem for Harris and I have compiled some photos of her from years past. There aren't nearly enough to show how beautiful she was, but as always, our best memories are in our hearts.

Harris and Sniff with their cousins Rodney and Reg

Harris

Our tweedy, wriggly Harris pup,
Tearing round with that crazy bum-scooting run,
Would be worn out yapping from the car window,
Or between swallow sprints lie panting, done.

At storms to bark, the horn to howl, the mower to yip.
To stalk dogs and possums, pigs and bunnies.
To bound recklessly into creeks,
Sport a torn ear, a swollen lip.

But she was a gentle soul, 
A purring dog with an ear-flapping head shake,
Who insistently nosed your elbow for a pat,
And lay dreaming with legs twitching and muffled yelps.

Dreaming of swallows.

Ballet photos 2013

Two months have flown by and I have so much to put on this blog that I don't know where to start!

I'll ease into it with a few photos of the girls in their ballet costumes. 

First up, Miss Moomintroll as one of the 12 Dancing Princesses attended by some Golden Nymphs.

And now Miss Snork Maiden as a dancer from Napoli, a gypsy, a bluebird and a contemporary person.