Garden design

Waratah has been using the GardenMap app to design his perfect garden, using measurements based on his actual garden patch.

Waratah's mandalas

I installed a copy of InstaCollage on Waratah's iPad and he has been using it to further his interest in sacred geometry, symmetry, mandalas and graphic design. These are combinations of photos he has taken himself, images he has googled, and work he has done in other apps (such as Geoboard).

Sprinkles

After a morning of soccer, we stopped off to grab another geocache: Sprinkles in Campbelltown.

The grass in the park was soft and thick and lovely to lie in!

(Boronia is trying to balance a rock on her head so she can have a fancy hat like Waratah :D)

The Camden Line - Currans Hill Platform

Picked up a quick geocache between soccer games :) No pics, unfortunately. Forgot the camera! Here's one someone else took:

Interesting to talk with the boys about the old train line that used to run through here. No sign of it now!

"The branch line from Campbelltown to Camden was authorised by an Act of Parliament on 28 April 1880 an construction commenced in June 1881.

The line following the contour of the land, running beside the road to Narellan, and climbing Kenny's Hill on the steepest grade in New South Wales (1 in 19), This would sometimes have the passengers disembarking from the train and walk alongside it, leaving their bags on board. 

The line, called the Camden Tramway, was opened by the Minister for Works, Hon. John Lackey, on Friday 10 March, 1882.

Currans Hill was opened in 1882 and like other stations consisted of a short wooden platform. An additional platform was added in 1904 and it was closed in 1963 when the Camden Line was decomissioned due to falling passenger numbers."

Dragon city

This is another popular game which the boys have and are enjoying. It provides them with maths practice (reading numbers and time), reading practice, and they need to consider that different kinds of dragons require different environments and plan their world accordingly.

Balancing Act

S1 Maths: WMS1.1 Asks questions that could be explored using mathematics in relation to Stage 1 content.

S1 Maths: WMS1.2 Uses objects, diagrams, imagery and technology to explore mathematical problems.

Birdwood Gully geocache

From our log: Success on our second attempt - the first time we searched every step - up, down and around LOL... not easy when wearing a sleeping 13 month old! Still, it was only our first day of geocaching, and we were tired after a long day... we came home, re-read all the comments, and figured we knew where it was. We had searched the right place but not at the right level! We came back for our second attempt and started by admiring the bower bird nest - we had made a special blue bird to leave in the cache when we found it, and we wanted to photograph it in the bower. Just as we finished, we looked up from the bower to not-ground zero, and there it was, a little corner peeking out at us! Mr Bower Bird came by and watched curiously as we put our blue bird and a blue car in the cache. We took a golden pirate coin and the Pico Compass Rose Geocoin... Waratah was extremely disappointed that he couldn't keep such a beautiful item. He thought he had found "real treasure" and is now saving up to buy one of his own.

Step up... and up and up and up: Waratah and the cache on the steps - where we searched and didn't find it on our first attempt. This cache is for the birds!!! :D

The little crocheted bird we made just to leave in this cache, posing in the bower... we may have to bring another one up to leave for Mr Bowerbird who was watching our proceedings with great interest!

 

Our first geocoin find. Waratah REALLY wanted to keep it!

First time geocaching - Madoline Glen

We have been wanting to try geocaching for a long time now, and we finally got our first opportunity, with a our Blue Mountains Homeschool Bushwalk group. We all met at Springwood to walk through Birdwood Gully, and hopefully pick up a few geocaches on the way. We were all first timers, and it took us a while to get the hang of using the compass apps on our various devices (we were using an iPad in a Griffin Survivor case with Compass Commander. I have since purchased the geocaching.com app which is VERY user friendly).

Waratah climbing the wall of. a cave

Mulga with his "fossilized T-rex tooth".

At first we missed the spot where we were to turn off the track, and walked up the hill, where we stopped to play on some amazing wave-curled rock formations. I didn't get any photos of that because Waratah and I (and Boronia in the carrier) decided to go back down the hill to see if we could find the right spot. A short trek off the trail, and we had it! Back up the hill to get everyone else, and then back down the hill to let everyone share in the excitement of making their first find. It was a lovely big cache with something for everyone.

Hidden treasure!

Mulga was incredibly impressed to find this "Gandalf" statue.

Boronia thought it was all very exciting.

The children then made and hid their own special cache for homeschoolers. Everyone else went home, while we decided to have one last look for the cache we had missed right at the start. We did not find it, but we did find a gorgeous, active Satin Bower-bird nest.

Sugar, scones and snowflakes

And now for an update on our sugar crystal growing experiment. This is the white sugar crystal we produced.

This is the white crystal again, with the raw sugar crystal next to it. We observed and discussed why there might be differences. We thought the more refined white sugar produced a more even textured crystal and there was far more crystallisation in the cup of the raw sugar, it wasn't just on the stick.

This is the raw sugar's cup (our experiment continued as we spent another few days after this trying out ways to get the crystalised sugar out of the cup...)

Here are Mulga and Waratah making cheese and carrot scones for lunch...

Waratah likes to measure the ingredients for us.

The delicious finished product.

Another of Waratah's snowflakes, this time the picture was a stained glass window.

Nature observations... town-style

After Mass today, Waratah spotted a massive cockroach which he avidly studied (and was only with difficulty persuaded not to bring home to live in his mini-world!) We measured it using informal measures (1 finger length) and estimated it to be 5cm long.

Sorting, sewing and some other things

Waratah set up a memory game with some feathers he collected. He challenged me to remove a feather and he would tell me which one was gone. We played for quite a while, and he had a perfect score.

Waratah also wanted to make some new clothes for a 'beach barbie' who was looking very cold and inappropriately dressed for this wintery weather. Waratah chose the fabrics, measured the doll, measured the seam allowance to add onto the pattern he helped me draft, and cut out the pattern. He also zigzag stitched all the seams to finish the raw edges after I sewed them. He applied the dragonfly motif on the shirt using glue.

The proud tailor!

Practising our maths skills with a friendly game of 3D snakes and ladders.

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Boronia proving that not only can she now stand up with good balance, she can lift 1.5 kgs at the same time! 

Lots of reading

Waratah looks on while Mulga "reads" to Boronia.

Boronia chooses another book for the boys to read to her.

Waratah enjoys some quiet reading.

Mulga works at Mathseeds and successfully reads the names of the numbers.

Mulga's turn for some independent reading.

Waratah aces the Mathseeds entry test.

Maths games

We have been practising our addition skills with this racing car game. Roll 2 dice and add the numbers together to find out how many spaces to move. First person to do three laps of the track wins. Waratah, in particular, has been asking to play it every day.

Symmetry

Today saw Waratah experimenting with shapes and symmetry.

As we had recently been learning about China, the discussion moved to tanagrams. We carried out some research on their origins, made our own from a square of paper, and attempted some silhouette puzzles - with little success! We had better luck copying puzzles that showed how the shapes were arranged.

Waratah felt that the 7 shapes was too restrictive, so we pulled out the pattern blocks, and let our creativity have free reign. This is Waratah's pattern block crab. We discussed its lack of symmetry, and Waratah pointed out that natural objects are rarely exactly symmetrical.

Mulga use some superhero and fire-engine powers to do some colour and shape sorting.

Here is Waratah's final design - a Chrysanthemum, like those he bought me for Mother's Day :)

Manipulative marbles

Waratah using marbles and silicone muffin pans to work out division problems (with remainders) set by the Divide it up: puppies app. Waratah is in year 1 and this is year 4 - 5 maths work, but he quickly grasped the concept using manipulatives.

Pumpkin Harvest

Waratah planted heritage pumpkin seeds in his garden this year, and has been waiting anxiously for harvest time. Here is one of the fruits of his labour!

Maths: MES1.4 Compares the masses of two objects and describes mass using everyday language.

Science: LTES1.3 Identifies ways in which living things are different and have different needs.

Science: PPES1.4 Explores and identifies ways some forms of energy are used in their daily lives.

Science: PSES1.5 Recognises the relationship between everyday products and people’s needs.

Science: ESES1.6 Explores and identifies ways the environment influences their daily lives.

Science: INVES1.7 Investigates their surroundings by observing, questioning, exploring and reporting

PDHPE: ALES1.6 Develops a repertoire of physical activities in which they can participate.