A road trip home

Last week, from Monday to Friday, we took our time driving from Victoria to home.  It was the first week back to school which meant everywhere was a lot less busy.  It was a perfect week, just Robin and me and the girls, with a little bit of everything - camping, hotels, hot weather, rainy days and lots and lots of swimming.

First night was at Bright, a beautiful town in the mountains of Victoria.  The Ovens River running through town has been set up perfectly for swimming - there is a diving board and slippery dip into the river, and rocks have been arranged down the river creating a flowing path for people to ride on floating things down the river.

Alongside the river are picnic areas, bike tracks and a water park.

From Bright we drove the scenic route through the Alpine National Park (Victoria) into the Kosciuszko National Park (NSW) to our campground at Swampy Plains River.

We stayed here two nights, such a beautiful spot.  No crowds, not too many flies, river temperature wasn't too cold, Robin got some fishing in, we had a thunderstorm and the tent didn't leak - what more could you want!!

Looking out over the original site of Tallangatta - the town was moved when the Hume Dam was expanded,

Geehi Hut

Swampy Plains River at Geehi Camping Area

From here we continued north, staying a night in Canberra and visiting Questacon (the science museum) and then we had a Chinese dinner in Goulburn before making the last run for home.

The Man from Snowy River in Corryong

We got out of the car at this high pass with the wind blowing and the temperature much colder than we had been used to.

Hot chocolate in Jindabyne

Donuts in Canberra

Microscopes

Erin (and Robin) were both brave enough to go down this steep slide!

Leave a Comment Erin, family, holidays, Natalie, science

Slime

We are having a season of slime creation here for Erin and Natalie and assorted friends (and sometimes Charlie) but here is what happens when "enthusiasm" takes over.

Leave a Comment Charlie, Erin, Natalie, science

A little bit of butter makes it better

A couple of weeks ago the girls made butter.  This was scheduled into Natalie's science lessons (the changing nature of mixtures) but it has also come up quite often via Little House on the Prairie.

It was fun to do - I remember loving to make butter as a child too.

Mixing, mixing, mixing ...........

Draining/squashing out the buttermilk

Our substitute butter pats

Our pat of butter

And we used some in Charlie's "Owt of Lenton Tarte" which I though quite appropriate.  Charlie and I have recently done an online course on royal food in late middle ages and he made this pie, so called as it has all the ingredients in it that you are not supposed to eat during lent, ie butter, cream and cheese.  It's basically a cheese pie and it tasted surprisingly good. 

Our filling was more liquidy than the one in the recipe and so it oozed out and burned a bit on the tray, but that didn't affect the pie really.

Charlie insisted on making the pastry too - it worked very well.   And it was the first time I/we had made a pie without using a pie dish - the pastry was "pleated" and stood up by itself!

On its way into the oven

And now out of the oven

Leave a Comment Charlie, Erin, homeschool, HSIE, kids cooking, Natalie, science

Tadpoles

I am going to do a few "catch up posts" - posts about things which happened before I started this blog.  I would have taken photos of the "event", and now I have somewhere to put the photos, so here goes.

First up - tadpoles!

We have a fishpond (an old bath) in our backyard with goldfish in it which manage to survive no matter what!  In fact, the only time they died and needed replacing was when I cleaned it out.  The water level in this pond goes up and down depending on the weather, at times we have had hungry crows feasting, the algae and water plants have almost taken over, we have even had babies (that was very exciting, I didn't know that baby goldfish start out black), and sill the goldfish survive!

At times, especially over the summer, we have heard frogs (never seen them though).   And then one day Erin came in super-dooper excited - she had caught a tadpole!  She thought initially it was a baby goldfish, but sure enough, it was a tadpole - and there were so many of them!  We were all so excited and I quietly patted myself on the back for having an obviously healthy pond (obtained completely from neglect) and providing an oasis in suburbia for frogs.

But Mother Nature rules, and slowly the tadpole numbers dwindled, until they were all gone.  And then a few weeks later another super-dooper excited Erin came running in - she had caught a tadpole!   And this one had legs and a tail and was quite big (relatively).  It must have hidden well as she found it in the pigface (a seaside plant) which trails into the water.  However, perhaps due to our interference, we didn't see it anymore after a few days. 

But it was so wonderful to see that in our own suburban backyard.

Leave a Comment Erin, Natalie, science

Science Experiments

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

Leave a Comment Erin, homeschool, Natalie, science

A Trip to Newcastle

28/2/18

Warning - there are lots of photos in this post!

Erin needed a larger violin and there is a shop in Newcastle that I think I will always be faithful to (Hunter Valley Violins).  I first went there on the recommendation of our teacher about a year ago to buy both Natalie and Erin a violin.  Walking into the shop was amazing, a real craftsman's shop.  There are violins, violas and cellos all in various states of repair, as well as a double bass.  There are beautiful arty pieces displayed, knick knacks and all the paraphernalia associated with his business.  It is a beautiful place.  Being a bit shy about taking photos of his shop, I only have this quick snap, which doesn't really do it justice.

And so we upgraded Erin's violin.

And of course, a trip to Newcastle cannot be wasted, so we went to the Newcastle Museum.  This is a small museum, but with just enough for the girls to be engaged but not saturated.

An original, unrenovated Model T Ford in the lobby

Using a lever to lift up a car

And there was also an exhibition of the botannical art of the Scott sisters (who I had not heard of) which I was excited by, though the others maybe not so much.

And an exhibition about early immigrants to Australia.  I was particularly taken by this wedding dress for a Chinese girl who came over to Australia to marry her husband, all hand embroidered in China (and it was tiny).

A mini vineyard, on the way back to the carpark....

Then, on the way home, we stopped at Little Pelican.  I have seen the sign many times and wondered ... well, now we know.  It is a beautiful little sandy beach on the shores of Lake Macquarie, just across the channel from Swansea.  I was a bit nervous about the girls swimming as there was quite a current running, but in the shallows it was still enough.

The joys of a big brother

Leave a Comment Callum, Erin, excursion, homeschool, Natalie, outdoors, science