As it turned out the other 7yo’s pre-soaked pea (near the green stick) hadn’t “drownded”, it had just been taking its sweet time sprouting. He’s been doing a pretty good job of remembering to water them every few days with little to no prompting/reminding. He also decided to do some of his iPad work with an added challenge, while “disguised” in the box he’d cut holes in to make a robot/box troll/etc kind of outfit for himself.

11yo’s drawing of Sans from Undertale on the whiteboard JJ and 7yo playing Shadows Over Camelot. 11yo and 9yo are off frame waiting for their turn. I’m obviously taking the photo. The game is fun and a little bit involved and is cooperative rather than competitive (unless someone turns out to be the traitor!). SciTech did a class based on The Lorax and included experimenting with water saving crystals and making a paper pot. 7yo was happy as he got to partner up with his bestie 7yo digging up fossils at SciTech’s dinosaur exhibit 7yo driving what I think is a Sphero drone with an iPad at Scitech His work was ‘bein’ a BOSS’ apparently. He also styled his hair with water 7yo got some peas and instructions for an experiment from the Lorax class. The pea near the green stick was soaked in water prior to planting and the pea near the blue stick hasn’t. The soaked pea took so long to sprout compared to the unsoaked one that 7yo was sure it had ‘drownded’. He only needed a couple of reminders to water them every few days and has been diligently doing it on his own ever since The kids attempted to design and build towers that would withstand an earthquake. These ones didn’t work 9yo’s building design withstood the earthquake

We took a fishing trip to Jurien but once again were not able to go out in the boat due to the howling winds. The boys went fishing off the jetty, JJ caught a blowfish and the same seafull four times. I caught some godrays and the kids checked out a sundial. There wasn’t enough sun to see what time the sundial thought it was, 11yo tried to take a guess based on the position of the sun while explaining how the sundial worked to 6yo.

Might try to do these as monthly things rather than semi-random ones. Firstly, we are chick central again. About three clutches with 7-10 chicks in each one. Chappie’s family want some of the naked necks. This was the first lot. Idiot hen had gone next door to brood, kids heard the cheeping and went next door to investigate. Neighbour was astonished as she hadn’t even realised they were there behind the shed, and just as well they’d only hatched that morning as she’d been dogsitting and the dog had left earlier in the day.

Another collection of stuff that I usually don’t get around to posting at the time either due to being in the middle of something or because it was a little thing. Banana and toothpick sculpture made by 10yo Apple and toothpick sculpture made by 10yo Doll made out of a spoon, tissue paper, pipe cleaner and wool by 8yo Paper habitat world for plastic animals by 8yo. Served as a ‘board’ for ecosystem based games that all the kids made up for a couple of days 6yo made a hammerhead shark out of boxes After watching the movie ‘Paper Planes’, 10yo and 8yo looked up and folded some of their own. Most of them flew all right though one of 10yo’s creations that he made up flew like a rock 6yo doing Math Seeds on his iPad

Minimal text, many photos, some videos. Mishmash of scenic, happysnaps and homeschooling stuff coz that’s how we roll. Grab a drink and a snack before commencing. First couple of weeks… The airport wait wasn’t terribly exciting but at least there were planes to watch being loaded, taking off and landing. Big asam tree across the road as seen from my bed. It’s always good to be home. Kids helping Nanny and Aunty Sprat put together loot bags for Carols by Candlelight Playing at Flying Fish Cove. The jetty is apparently being extended to better handle visiting cruise ships, or something to that effect. Kids got a very quick and very basic first aid lesson after 10yo failed to listen to warnings to watch out for the coral in his excitement at being at the beach

We’ve had a couple of days going semi-rural this week. The first was a picnic at a friend’s 12 acre block in Bullsbrook where a great time was had by all children and I caught an awesome photo of my friends’ kids and pretended to be closer to a master of iPhone camera composition. Pretended to be closer to a master as it was a very, very quick “whip phone out of pocket aim try to get horizon lines and vague rule of thirds thing happening press button before kids move” kinda photo.

Last time we were out this way was a few years ago for a Truffle Festival. This time round we came out this way on the weekly excursion (which he hadn’t done for a couple of weekends due to some major works including replacing the fence out the front and helping friends lay some cable to a shed) and because 7yo heard there was an art gallery. We stopped by the “village” to pick up maps and things for 7yo’s collection and she also bought a butterfly spotter’s book and to hit up the bakery for lunch. We took the food to the Sculpture Park and the kids had a play at the playground before we checked out the sculptures, read and followed the track up to where there were some rail switching levers and an amphitheatre. 7yo put a performance on the old platform (now a stage).

5yo likes to watch mocies on his tablets when he’s eating alone, but sometimes struggles to hold the tablet up with one hand, and often gets told off for gooping up the tablet if he uses both hands to eat for whatever reason (I’ve also tried not allowing him to have the tablet while eating but that doesn’t always work). Yesterday after watching 5yo struggling to eat a bowl of pasta while watching a movie, 9yo built him a tablet stand out of Duplo:

On two different weekends, we hit up the Aviation Heritage Museum of WA in Bull Creek and the Army Museum of WA in Fremantle. I think the boys got more out of those trips than the girl did so next stop might have to be the Perth Museum (she has a special liking for the butterfly corridor) or Art Gallery and I suppose SciTech or the Zoo can also be considerations, somewhere she enjoys at any rate. Both these places are great, the guides are extremely helpful and are often floating not far away and are happy to answer everything about everything.