A New Year and New Paths

We've been slowly getting back into our normal routine after taking holidays over the Christmas break and early January. Moozle is starting back with Term 2 of Ambleside Online Year 6 and Benj has officially graduated and is beginning on a new path.

Today we did some 'formal' nature study with our nature notebooks after a couple of months of being informal and just mostly observing. We identified a new bird in our backyard, the Brown Cuckoo Dove (Macropygia Phasianell), also know as a pheasant pigeon. I snapped a photo but only managed to get his tail before he flew off into the bush. He sounds almost like an owl, 'whoop, whoop.'

The Handsome St. Andrew's Cross Spider

Moozle's Notebook

My notebook

I'm ridiculously happy about my Lebanese eggplant. It's quite difficult to grow anything edible around here between the wallabies and the possums, so everything is in pots on the verandah.
Moozle is growing two corn plants in pots from seeds her Aunty P gave her and they seem to be doing well. I've never used eggplant as the first time I ate it years ago I was violently sick afterwards!  It's taking me years to be game enough to try it again and when I did I was fine. Now I have to find some good recipes...

After five years of using Singapore Maths, we've made the transition to Saxon 76. (I have the old hardback 3rd edition books). I usually start Saxon with the 54 book but I decided to keep on with Singapore for a while longer. I gave her a placement test about a month ago and I was pleasantly surprised that she managed it well as maths, unlike some of her siblings, hasn't been her favourite subject.

French


We started Classical Academic Press French for Children Primer B late last year and have been pleased with it. No surprise, as their Primer A was excellent. (I wrote a review here)
Stay tuned towards the end of January for a review of Primer B and a giveaway!

Moozle thinks she might be an architect (which is an improvement on a 'cat lady' i.e. having a house full of felines and occasionally selling one) and loves this series of DVDs which she watches with her Dad. She even drew up some plans for a granny flat to build for us when we get old!

This week we were reading about the element helium for science and this video my Aunty in Scotland posted recently was very timely!





Benj has enrolled at Campion College and will be studying a Bachelor of Liberal Arts Degree beginning in late February. He's only just turned 17 and in the past we've waited until our kids were 18 before starting university but Campion is a different kettle of fish to the large mainstream institutions. It only has about 200 students and receives no government funding. There was an intersting article recently in The Australian newspaper recently:

'...if our civilisation has a future in Australia, it is connected to Campion College. For Campion has done something that no other institution of higher learning has attempted in Australia. It has dedicated itself entirely to teaching undergraduates about the great tradition, based on the great books, of Western civilisation.

This is not such a novel idea overseas. Campion is Australia’s only liberal arts college but such beasts abound in the US. They include some of the most venerable and distinguished institutions of learning in North America. And they are all based on the same central idea — that the best way to learn the big ideas of Western civilisation is to study its important books and historical figures.'

In the meantime he is doing a Swim Australia Teaching course, building up his night driving hours so he can get his licence, teaching piano, and heading off to a youth camp next week. Plus he will be using his great organising skills to clean up the pantry and the storage under the stairs for me.

Our Reading

Moozle:

Penrod by Booth Tarkington - this is a free read for Ambleside Online Year 6 which she enjoyed.

Silver Brumby Echoing by Elyne Mitchell - another book in a much loved series.

Tales of a Korean Grandmother by Frances Carpenter - written in 1947, these 32 traditional tales provide a peek into Korean culture.

Benj: 

 Lord of the Rings trilogy - his annual re-reading

The Martian by Andy Weir - just be aware there is some language in places, noteably on the first page. The film was very good and according to my eldest boy, the book is great, so he bought it for his younger brother for Christmas.

Older ones in the family read:

The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy

The Survivor by Vince Flynn with Kyle Mills - Sadly, Vince Flynn died about three and a half years ago. My husband really enjoyed his novels and as he'd read just about all his others, I bought this one. Sometimes authors who take on another's work do a complete hash but fortunately, this was done in a similar style and my husband enjoyed it.

And finally, for the Aussie mums out there (or any others who may be visiting Australia later in the year) the Mum Heart Conference will be held at Newcastle in June. I was so refreshed when I went along in 2015 so I felt very honoured to be asked to speak at one of the sessions and to run a Charlotte Mason workshop this year. Hope to see some of you there!

Linking up at Weekly Wrap-up
&
Keeping Company

Weekly Review: a first and some changes...

A prayer for the start of the day:

Lord I commit this day to You;

All I am and all I have belong to You.

Help me today to seek Your face,

Believe Your Word 

And trust Your grace.

*  After a previously unsullied record of no broken bones - a pretty good achievement I thought, with four boys who play soccer, ride skateboards, unicycles, and generally horse around - Hoggy is now in plaster. A 'friendly' game of soccer and an awkward fall resulted in a broken hand bone. Fortunately, he hasn't needed surgery. I said to him, "At least it isn't your right hand." He replied, "Mum...??" I forgot he was left-handed. It's like going back in time...this morning I tied his shoelaces for him & turned up the cuffs in his shirt. Moozle was buttering his toast & slicing cheese for him the other day.

*   I've written a few posts on the transition from home education to tertiary education. Australian Universities usually require some formal evidence of a student's education and we've gone about that in a couple of different ways (see the 'Graduating from Homeschool' page at the top of this blog).
We were planning a similar approach with Benj, but an opportunity came up for him to study a Certificate IV in The Liberal Arts two days a week through the Augustine Academy. It's the first time something like this has been offered in Australia, that I'm aware of, and it's exciting to see other pathways opening up for homeschooling students & especially one focussed on the Liberal Arts. Yippee!!

The chief aim of the Academy is to cultivate a love of learning and of its end, the Truth. Its secondary purpose is to provide students with an entrance into university.

Benj has had an orientation week and completed the first week of lectures. They are starting with Ancient History so I'm changing our AmblesideOnline plans to fit in with this which means using selections from Year 12 instead of Year 11 at this point. We will adjust as we go depending on his workload.
I'll write more about this later on!

*  Progress! Almost done. I just have to sew the binding on now using the dark blue material. This is Zana's 21st birthday present (she just turned 23). It's taken me three years to get to this point. A lovely lady I know did the quilting. I've only done hand quilting and if my poor girl had to wait for me to do it myself she would probably be 33 before she got it.
Dresden plates - lovely, but a real pain to sew!

Detail of the off-white border

*  We're in the throes of planning Hoggy's 21st Birthday party. Actually, he's doing most of the planning and organising with help from Dad. I'll just have to bake a few hundred muffins and mini quiches.

*  Our reading:

Moozle is reading through the Ann of Avonlea books (yet again) and re-reading The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge for the third time. We're doing quite a bit of Australian History which I've adapted to fit AO Year 5 and I've been pleased with our book selections. Engaging with just the right level of challenge. The most challenging book in this year would be 'Passion for the Impossible: The Life of Lilias Trotter,' by Miriam Huffman Rockness but being the story of a woman with a great artistic gift, Moozle's quite happy to listen to me reading it aloud.

Benj - he recently finished, I Will Repay by Baroness Orczy and The Odyssey, and has started The Spartan, an AO Year 12 book which fits in well with the history he's studying in his course.
While on the subject of Ambleside Online Year 12, I listened to this TED talk by Mike Rowe today which is scheduled under Supplementary Speeches: Learning From Dirty Jobs.  It starts off with a description of sheep castration (!!) but progresses into some very interesting observations regarding physical work and our attitude towards it. What really grabbed me was his comment on the pervasive idea in our society that you 'follow your passions.' This is something we've given a lot of thought to as it has related to our own children finishing their home education and looking at a future vocation.

 Follow your passion -- what could possibly be wrong with that? Probably the worst advice I ever got...that's all I heard growing up. I didn't know what to do with my life, but I was told if you follow your passion, it's going to work out.

As Rowe observed (paraphrased), 'Step back and watch where everyone else is going and go the other way.'

Me - I managed to finish some books on our holidays: I Will Repay; Cover Her Face by P.D. James; Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh and Dombey & Son by Charles Dickens, which I started last year.
And I've started some new books: Consider This by Karen Glass and The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.

*  Dinner Prep - I really have to start this early in the day and using the crockpot is the easiest way for me to do this. I tried this chicken dish that my friend Donna has on her website, Aussie Mamas, and it turned out well. Next time I'll try using thigh fillets as my crockpot is all or nothing heat wise & chook tends to dry out. I also adapted it to bake some barramundi in the oven & that was delicious. Donna has recently changed her blogging platform and has to update her recipes so keep checking back - she has some good ones. Check out her easy peasy ice-cream, one of my favourites.


*   Hamlette at The Edge of the Precipice is hosting a Poetry month in April which I'll be participating in. See here for details and come and join us!

O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows
lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is
hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done.
Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest,
and peace at the last. 
Amen.

Linking up with Weekly Wrap-up

A Peek into our Place - and a Girl Graduates

 A Learning Journey

Education is an Atmosphere

Education is a Discipline and a Life...
  
And yesterday - her reward for four years of hard work...Zana finished her degree in November last year and this was her 'official' graduation ceremony.

 

 It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt, 1910 

An Impromtu Jam Session

 I really miss this. It used to happen most days but now with the older two married and three studying or working full-time, it only happens big time on the weekends. I didn't always feel like listening to the racket they made but it was worth the inconvenience and noise. My 'reading room' turned  into a music studio, but it is one of my greatest pleasures to have everyone playing music together.

 Benj has been reading through Isaac Asimov's, Understanding Physics in conjunction with Apologia Physical Science. This is an experiment he did on Newton's Third Law:

 

a












This website reviews Asimov's books (he wrote many). This one is highly regarded and has some good reviews on Amazon. It also comes as three separate volumes:

Benj went to the Royal Easter Show with his older brother & a group of friends. He came home with hundreds of photos. He thought I'd appreciate this one:

And from Moozle after our reading of  Plutarch's Life of Timoleon...

 A Syracrusian's Soliloquy on a Tyrants Statue

A man stood looking at a statue in his house. He said, "O thou wicked thing! I am glad that I sell thee tomorrow! Indeed, I should have sold thee before, when the tyrant fled. But I waited too late, ah, never mind. I am indeed grateful that I sell thee on the morrow! Thee and the one who thou art made in likeness of have wronged me sorely. Tch, tch, he was a very bad man. I wonder who will buy thee, hm........Maybe... Aha! Malisianio Cornierio He was very attached to the tyrant! If he buys it.........I wonder........well, well! Glad am I to sell thee! T'will rid me of the memory of him! The tyrant was very ugly, and so are thee! The tyrant had a round face, with a nose like a hawk's beak,and large pale eyes, he hardly had any eyebrows! Thou art the very likeness of him! Tut, tut! If no one buys thee, I will reduce thee to a heap of rubble! I will denounce Cornierio if he buys thee!" So saying, he left the house leaving the idol sitting where it was. The next day people saw in the newspaper that Malisianio Cornierio had been denounced by Litianio Katierio, for aiding and abetting the tyrant in his work of being a cruel ruler. The newspapers said that Katierio had denounced Cornierio when Cornierio had come to buy his idol, saying, "Thou art a foul traitor, and I denounce thee in the name of the populace, for aiding and abetting the tyrant in his work of destroying the city!" Cornierio had replied, "Why dost thou accuse me of being a traitor, I helped the tyrant only to gain favour, and see if I could help the city, and thou dost accuse me now when I buy this idol only to gain pleasure when I reduce it to a heap of rubble!"

He was arrested and his statement searched, and was found that he was lying.

                                                                          THE END

(She hasn't quite got the idea about paragraphs.)

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