I've been meaning to mention a fabulous book we've been using for our art lessons on Fridays. I bought Art Lab for Kids from Spiral Garden, hoping to use it to introduce different styles and concepts with art. 

Previously, we had a subscription to Artventure, which is an online art class that uses video tutorials that the children can pause and rewind while they workbook their own picture. This wasn't a successful medium for Roman, I think mainly because it was an adult demonstrating and her end results were always (obviously) awesome. He would become discouraged when he couldn't achieve the same results.

The point of difference with Art Lab is that it explains different styles/concepts in easy to understand steps and the examples shown are all done by kids. I love the "by kids, for kids" method of learning.

The examples I've included above are Roman's *Still Life with Oil Pastels*...

Another insight into our always evolving homeschool...

February 4th

Looking at Ants over the next week or so.

Screen printing workshop... Next week they'll print on shirts.

Our homeschooling days....

xx

January 29th

xx 

January 22nd

Simple Days of the Week signs for our homeschool days. 

Xx

January 16th

(Photo and painting by Roman)

A farmhouse made entirely of glass. 

A swimming pool.

Chickens and a donkey.

A flower garden with roses and dandelions.

A vegetable patch.

Pretty much my dream home ;) 

xx Shara

January 13th

Roman had some fun today, trying some experiments from his new book. 

This magic balloon one, using yeast, sugar & warm water to inflate a balloon was a bit of a fizzer (ha!) the first time. Too much mixture in the bottle meant the balloon filled with goop, but he gave it another go and it worked the second time around.

I found this book in our local Big W for $12 and it's really great. Roman didn't need help from me with any of the experiments and each section is divided into the different sciences (biology, physics etc) - so he is learning that there are different areas within the one subject!

January 12th

The beginnings of our 3rd year of homeschooling. This year we're trying the Oak Meadow 2nd grade syllabus. I'm still waiting for it to arrive from America, so we're just doing our own thing for the interim. 

Xx

An update!

Today is the first day of the winter school holidays. Of course, school holidays don't mean much to us these day, but it does mark the end of our first term of "home schooling"! 

I'm not a big fan of labelling what we are or what we do - but I suppose the easiest way of describing it is "Child-led learning". 

I believe that for most adults and definitely most children, we learn best and retain the most knowledge, when we are working with a topic that is of interest to us individually or that we have chosen for ourselves.

Our registration period doesn't begin until September, so until I have to submit a more formalised plan for Roman's academic year, we will continue to fill our days with lots of art, reading, cooking, play, nature walks, soccer, science club and group activities with other home schooled children, as well as continuing to hang out with the wonderful group of mates that he had made at school!

I think both Kaleb and I would both say that we do not regret this decision at all. In fact, it has brought so much positivity to our family in such a short time. Not to mention that the nightmares and anxiety attacks that were a daily occurrence for Roman have drastically reduced (to around one a week!)

We are very lucky to live in an area that has a large population of homeschoolers, we are never without an activity to attend on any given day, and actually I've had to be very careful not to "over schedule" our days!

We really are loving it! 

x Shara

Every year... (A gratitude Sunday type of post)

Every year, April gets the better of me! So I'm just going to share some of what I'm grateful for right now!

• Kaleb celebrated his 30th birthday. I made this lovely chocolate cake for him! I'm grateful for such a kind, loving and hands on Husband!

• So much art and creativity. I'm grateful for the chance to get creative with my kids every day!

• Roman spotted 2 Tawny Frogmouths in a tree by our tanks. This led him on a fun fact-finding mission! I'm grateful for the abundance of wildlife around our home and for Roman's curious nature!

• Lots of loving on these 3! I'm grateful to be blessed with 3 wonderful boys!

• Multiple days spent celebrating Leonardo's 3rd Birthday. I'm grateful for this boy who lights up my life everyday and for all the family and friends who celebrated with us!

• I celebrated my 31st birthday (and can't find any photos from that day? I do remember I was sick in bed with tonsillitis) Here I am in a new skirt I made for myself! I'm grateful for the lovely breakfast in bed my guys made me and the day of rest I was able to have!

• LOTS of knitting! I've got weeks of potential Yarn Along posts up my sleeve ;) I'm grateful for hands that work and a hobby that I enjoy!

• Our very first time celebrating Easter! I'm grateful for the fun morning we had together hunting eggs in our garden!

• Caspian celebrated 9 months! He is now crawling and has 6 teeth! I'm grateful for this happy boy, he is so much fun!

• Our first day of Homeschool!! I'm grateful to live in a country that supports different education choices and for a family that supports our choices!

• Did I mention these 3?? Love them soooo much! I'm grateful for the oppurtunities I've had in my life, in particular the opportunity to be called Mama by 3 gorgeous kids!

Phew! Did you make it this far??

I hope your April has been busy and full of love too!

x Shara