Cockatoo Island

Wednesday, May 30, 2018




Last week we had a homeschool excursion to Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour.

Initially we were going to be divided into two groups - one primary and one high school, but on the day we only had one tour guide, but it worked well and was very informative.

I had never been to Cockatoo Island and was always curious...now I know - a mix of indigenous, convict and industrial history all crowded into one little island in the middle of Sydney Harbour.

Waiting for the ferry


A silo dug out of the sandstone by convicts to store wheat

Charlie and Natalie in the convict barracks






And then, after the tour, there was time to wander around the art exhibits for the Biennale, and play a bit of chess!





Autumn

Monday, May 21, 2018
I love Autumn, maybe it's because my birthday is in Autumn, but I have always loved the warm days and cooler nights, the colours, the season's fruits ... just the earthiness of it all.

We "studied" Autumn today.  We heard some Autumn themed songs and music (of course I had to play Vivaldi), read some Autumn poems, discussed what plants are doing in Autumn and made some Autumn art from some leaves collected over the weekend.

Erin's

Natalie's

Mine

Peta caused a bit of distraction by sampling the art materials!

Science Experiments

Tuesday, May 15, 2018
I have made a real effort this term to do more science experiments - the kids always love them and I don't know why they seem "too hard"; especially at primary level they are relatively easy and straight forward.

The science theme/subject this term, at least for Natalie's curriculum, is matter and mixtures and solutions and how chemical reactions cause change.  (Erin's science subject is insects, but they both sit in on each other's "lessons" so both girls are learning about both topics).

Here are some photos from our most recent experiments. 

These first ones were experiments done from a chemistry set that used to belong to Rory and Natalie has asked and asked and asked to do experiments from it.   In a beautiful serendipitous way, the first experiments listed (and also the easiest) were about changing compounds from solid to liquid or to gas and back again.





Below is an experiment to dissolve sugar into water and use heat to then evaporate the water to be left with the sugar (this only just worked - salt may have been better)




Mixing up plaster to make moulds for painting (not really an experiment but it shows a chemical change happening)




And yesterday we made a simple soft cheese, using the lemon juice to curdle the milk and make it into a solid




What has Charlie been doing?

Sunday, May 6, 2018
I have realised that Charlie doesn't feature in many photos.  I'm not really sure why ... apart from the usual teenage shyness, he obviously mustn't be around much when I'm snapping away.

But he has been spending regular days with the "Angie Homeschool".  Angie (homeschool mother extraordinaire) has been organising and facilitating competition based learning, mainly for her kids but has opened it up to the homeschool community when possible and Charlie has joined in with a few of her sessions.

Last year, and the previous year, he joined in with her lego robotics team and this year he is taking part in a competition based on problem solving a hypothetical future global problem, as well as joining in with a coding competition, the aim of which is to write a game.

Charlie was keen to do rugby union this season but unfortunately there was not enough interest in his age group with our local club.

So, here are some Charlie photos.

Coding

Problem Solving

A Lab tour at UTS

Lab tour at UTS

Preparing for Lego Robotics competition at the end of last year

Charlie's robotics team



Camping

The beauty of homeschooling is the ability to get away during term time, while all the "other" kids are at school.   However, this has not always gone to plan in recent years as older teenagers go to school and activities during term time are taken on.

But recently my friend Monique pushed us to go away in the first week of this term, before activities/classes properly started and daily life took over.

So off we went, to Forster and despite short rain showers and mozzies, we all had a wonderful time.

We stayed at a place recommended by a spear fishing friend - Lanis Island Holiday Park.   Initially, driving in, we all thought "Oh no, it's a conventional caravan park, all packed in next to each other", but....if you drive through the park, over a small causeway and down a track, you eventually come to a peninsula, surrounded by water, with not a sign of civilisation to be seen.

We timed it very well, there was only three or four other campers, far away from us, and we had room to run, but with the luxury of flushing toilets, hot showers back at the caravan park, fires and the supermarket five minutes drive away!  Apparently over the Christmas holidays, and especially at New Years, there are hundreds of campers here - we picked the best time to sta


This is where Natalie "found her wheels" - learning to ride without the training wheels.




She even got a go at driving with big brother Callum.


The beach was only minutes away so every day we went for a swim/surf/body board in the ocean.

This is at Forster beach pool.





It was so good to unplug and lie around with our kids and this is such a beautiful spot - at least when it's not crowded.













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