Homeschool | 1000 Fields of Roses

Rounding Off The Week

Such a good school week!
So glad it’s over!

It was full tilt into the school year, but I think Sweet Bean handled it well – bodes well for the future weeks. We had a meet and greet for the distance school he’s in, where he got to see friends, and we caught up with other parents. We went down to Bob Gamble Park in Ipswich, down by the river. It’s a lovely little water park, with barbeque facilities.

Like a local Stonehenge…

There’s a boat with a sandpit, and wooden log sailors.

Not sure why Elvis is there…

There’s fun-looking climbing things as well, and lots of water – good for this weather.

We only stayed till lunch. Sweet Bean had work to finish, so we went home for the afternoon.
Roll on weekend – we’re ready for you!

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Homeschool

on January 31, 2020 at 8:23 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Bob Gamble Park

Here You Come Again…

The new school year, that is!
It’s two days in, and things are going well – looks like Sweet Bean will be able to keep on top of the increased workload, and he seems optimistic about it.
I still haven’t figured out everyone’s schedules yet… there are things I want to do this year, but I have to work out where the gaps are to fit it all in.

I’ve been feeling better this week, and have been managing to get to the pool for some exercise in the mornings. There are fresh flowers blooming each day, like this cactus flower next door (it was a bit more exciting earlier in the morning – obviously doesn’t do well with the later day, or possibly the heat)

Lovely fragrant frangipanis – I collect the fallen flowers for the house.

I don’t know what these are. Somehow, they remind me of pincushions.

And, of course, my favourites!

😀

We’re off to a good start!

Here’s the title song… just because.

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on January 29, 2020 at 8:28 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: frente

Nearing The End

…of the school year, anyway!

The exams are over, the days are getting hotter, and the long holidays are close. Sweet Bean is checking out some of next year’s studies, but there’s still time for a bit of basic baking.

Obviously, a cup of tea rounds off the lesson.
Last week we did basic biscuits, this week was basic cake. We’ve used a recipe to some extent, but I’m trying to show him how to bake when you don’t have a recipe – ingredient proportions, how a batter or dough looks and feels when you make it. Fun! Especially when we put a CD on and dance while it’s cooking 🙂

One more week to go before holidays.
– So here’s some impromptu hearts ❤

IMG_1262 (2)

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on November 23, 2019 at 4:52 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: hearts

Dancing With The Bard

It’s that time of the term again – all the work’s done, and we can finish off with a movie afternoon. Sweet Bean’s been studying Romeo and Juliet for English, so we’ve taken the opportunity to watch a couple of adaptations…
Last week we watched “Gnomeo and Juliet” – an obvious homage to Shakespeare, but not one I’d considered watching. I stumbled across a review recently and thought we’d try it out. I’m glad we did – it’s quite fun, and we could pick out the story easily. Check it out if you’d like a giggle, mixed with fun music!

Today we watched “West Side Story”, another version of the timeless story. It’s quite long compared to most movies today – there’s even the option of watching it with opening and intermission music included. I’ve never seen it, but was surprised to find so many songs that I knew. Some I would have associated with the film, but others I’ve heard over the years and never associated with it. We enjoyed matching the story with Shakespeare, as well as seeing where it veered from the source. Overall it was a good contemporary retelling of the story. Sweet Bean did have a bit of a problem with the random singing and dancing…
(…orchestral music swells in the background, as Tony wanders down a darkened alley…
Sweet Bean – “Oh. He’s going to sing. Again”)
😀

We’re looking forward to holidays now.
How am I feeling?

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on June 27, 2019 at 6:37 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Gnomeo and Juliet, West Side Story

Shakespeare Sings

Sounds like one of those compilation albums from the 70s…
I’ve been having a look at Shakespeare (Sweet Bean is studying Romeo and Juliet this term) and came across a BBC article on his influence on “modern music”. There’s quite a few, and some strange pairings (Metallica? Iron Maiden?). Some may only reference a line from a play in the lyrics, or even just the title. Some are sweet, some are clever. Here’s a selection.

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on June 18, 2019 at 11:28 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Shakespeare

Adventure Bean

Having a lazy day today, as Sweet Bean is on his very first school camp! He’s been on Youth camps before – just never for school…
He got his cast off on Tuesday. Still has it strapped up, and has to do exercises to try to get the muscles stretching properly again…it’ll be better, though.
Here’s his favourite of the photos I took of him ready for camp…

😀

Here’s mine…

We’ll see tomorrow how it all went. Lots of possible adventures to be had!

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on May 10, 2019 at 4:28 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: School Camp

Love Story For The Ages?

Last day of term today – yay!
Sweet Bean has worked very hard, with the result being that all his assessments were in on time and today we were able to watch “Romeo and Juliet“, his English text for next term. The link he was given wasn’t very useful, so we ended up watching a BBC adaptation from 1978. Here’s the balcony scene…

It’s nearly three hours long, so we made popcorn and brought out the bikkies. I inadvertently put the subtitles on, but that ended up helping us keep up with the dialogue.
What did I think of it?
It’s the play most people think of when they think of Shakespeare, and the epitome of doomed love and great romance. And yet…
Perhaps I’m getting old. I found myself getting irritated by all the teenage emoting. When I was apparently meant to feel the weight of their great love through flowery speech I just felt like shouting “Get a grip!! Where’s your sense of PROPORTION!!!” I also may have shed a tear when Juliet’s parents (and nurse) find her “dead” on the morning of her wedding to Paris – that affected me far more.
On the other hand, I do appreciate the poetry and artistry involved, and that there are layers to the play. All in all, it was worthwhile watching it, and interesting to discuss later. But… young love? More like an infatuation of less than a week, with six people dead by the end of it. Hardly a story to aspire to.

Well, tomorrow’s the start of the holidays. Sweet Bean’s excited about being able to sleep in (and so am I!) Lots of books waiting to be read!

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on April 4, 2019 at 10:20 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Romeo and Juliet

Back To Basics, With Cabbage In Hand

Yesterday we finally got around to doing an experiment, using red cabbage to find the pH of various household liquids. Pouring boiling water over red cabbage and leaving it for 30 minutes or so produces a purple liquid (the indicator) that can be used to find out whether a liquid is acidic or basic. The indicator changes colour depending on the amount of hydrogen (the H in pH) in the liquid. The pH scale goes from 0 to 14, with 7 as neutral. Below 7 indicates an acid, above 7 indicates a base.
We decided to line up glasses with various liquids in them in what we thought would be acids to bases, with plain water (neutral) in the middle.

All substances were diluted in water. From left to right we had – vinegar, lemon juice, apple juice, sugar water, plain water, milk, dishwashing liquid, washing powder and bicarbonate of soda. We were unsure how the slight colour of some of the substances (especially the dishwashing liquid) might affect the results. In the end it didn’t make too much difference – the milk was the hardest to read, but the others were OK.

The red cabbage indicator made the water purple, as there was no reaction to change the colour, but we were unprepared for how quickly and dramatically the colours changed, and how beautiful the colours were! Generally acids range from reds to pinks, and bases from blues to greens/yellows.

It was quite exciting! 😀
As you can see, we got some wrong. The sugar water needed to go to the bases side, and the dishwashing liquid to the acids. The washing powder was extremely basic, and we were a bit undecided on the vinegar and lemon juice, but eventually decided to swap them round – the lemon juice seemed a bit redder. Here’s the finished line up.

It’s an easy experiment which doesn’t really take that long for the practical work. Part of science learning this year is improving the documentation of experiments, so there’ll still be some research to finish writing it up. It was a satisfying end to the week, though!
Here’s another view of the lovely colours, with the jug of indicator tucked into the top right corner…

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on March 23, 2019 at 9:13 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Acids and Bases, pH Scale, Red Cabbage Indicator, Science Experiment

And We’re Off!

Second day of the new school year, and everything’s going well so far.
Monday was a holiday here, so we used the time to make sure we had the technology sorted for online lessons. Thankfully, that meant we were able to race in to pick up a new microphone/headset when we found the one we bought was incompatible with the laptop…
It also meant I could pick up an Irish cream flavoured coffee…

That helped.

Sweet Bean is doing some online live classes this year, which he’s not really done before. He had orientation for grade 11 yesterday (he’s doing grade 11 English and maths), an English lesson at 11am, and a maths lesson at 9am this morning. He loved it! 😀
The first week back is usually spent settling in to the year and working out how things fit together. Looking forward to how things progress this year – seems there’ll be a lot more online interaction, with both teachers and other students.

Onward to learning and fun!

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Homeschool

on January 30, 2019 at 10:33 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: First Week of School

Rhapsodising

We went to see Bohemian Rhapsody earlier in the week. Loved it! Here’s the trailer – watch it and then go see the film. 😀

We took Sweet Bean along, even though it was still school time, and he had some exam/assessment work to do (which he finished well by the end of the week). We had the chance to go, so we took it – I’m putting it down as music history 😉

It’s an experience. We went in the afternoon. This was the cinema when we went in –

We did get some companions by the time it started. Only around ten people. That’s one of the perks of going during the day in term time…
This was the first time in a long time I’ve been to the cinema where everybody has stayed in their seats until the credits finished – no-one wanted to go.
One question for anyone who goes to see it – how long did you last until you began to sing along? I held out till this…