It’s so busy at the moment I keep forgetting to post things that I mean to, like this.

Every year the coastal walk from Bondi to Tamarama Beach hosts an exhibition of fun and whimsy, contemplation and reflection, art in the open to open our minds.

I like to post the ones the kids were moved by, I am always fascinated by what sparks their interest.

It is a big walk with many many steps so Sabi chose to take the daddy train for most of the day.

The girls insisted I take a photo of this one for Eli, he was sick at home with Grandma and Granda (thankyou) and they thought a representation of a dead human pointing out to sea from the top of a ladder would cheer him up.

Sculptures Weee!!! Lilly was hilarious she couldn’t stop dashing from one to the other, only it was always the one across the field that caught her eye so she was forever traveling its entire length.

Both the girls and every other kid there loved this brick teepee thing, we had to cue for this photo. I found it slightly disturbing like its a cross between and kiln and… well…something rather private.  Sorry, guess my puerile brain wanted an outing too, it did make the constant supply of children popping out of it all day somewhat humorous though. 

Lillian’s absolute favourite for the day.

Lani loved the spider web one, you can hardly see it in the photo but they put so much effort into their scary spider faces I couldn’t not include it.

And this is what the sculpture park looked like when the rain came pelting down.

Always knew they were a work or art…sorry sooo corny I know, I imagine this is the caption under everyone’s version of this shot.

"look it’s red men playing Duck Duck Goose!"

These guys were actually really cool in the rain. The water slid straight down their shiny bald heads and gathered in the sharp grooves around their eyes only to burst over the bottom eye lid when enough droplets had gathered, streaming down the vivid red cheek just as if the stature was crying. And now I know that really crying statues are enthralling for the under tens.

I think this piece summed up the weather nicely.

This one summed up Lani nicely

The girls sheltering from the rain in a cave (grandma please don’t notice how close the sheer drop is)

hole 18 is a doozy

miniature people

a beached whale

someone shrunk Sabrina too ahhh!!!, no wait, sorry it’s just a really big screw.

And finally a turtle you can climb inside and make it’s head wiggle, super cool. Thankyou artist people you are amazing.

When ever I sit I scribble a dragon, it’s becoming quite an obsession. I’m constantly bugging poor Glenn with requests for his opinion on their anatomical structure.

I’m ashamed to say I even scribble over the kids drawings, this is Eli’s beautiful drawing of Cat in the Hat with Little Cat’s A and B and a dragon scrawled over the top, ooops.

and when I asked Glenn for his opinion on this one he said with all seriousness “No I don’t think any Dragon ever looked like that…….non that I know off went around with purple Dog Fishes stuck on their chests”

I’m not even sure how we got to this but I guess this is what home Schooling is all about. We are putting on a play, maybe, if Eli wants to on the day.

We have been looking at Aboriginal art and culture and as part of this unit I read Tales of My Grandmother’s Dreamtime to the kids. This book is a collection of short fables from the Aboriginal Dreamtime. Most end badly for the protagonist as all good life lessons usually do. In fact I think the majority of characters in this book get eaten by a crocodile with the exception of three vain animals who dress up in bright colours and get killed by humans. We also went to see a play in which puppetry was used and at the same time as all of this the kids have gotten totally hooked on the TV show Merlin. Ok so they don’t all fit together, or do they???

Alanah is cluey, she wont just except things she has to know why and how. So we have been bombarded with questions about how puppets are made which led to questions about Merlin and all the special effect on the show. She has become very curious about the whole production process, how they made the special effects, how they know what the character should look like. As I was reading through the book at the time I used it as an example talking to them about what we would need to do if we wanted to turn the story into a play or a movie. Then of course they wanted to do it. So I let them chose a story, Eli wanted “the one where they all end up dead” but Alanah found the only story in the whole book where no one dies and insisted we do that one.

I got them to design their costumes on paper first and think about how they would be made. Then we began our costume workshop mostly involving paint and Papier-mâché. These photos are of the creation of the costumes I’ll post some later on with them wearing the finished product.

IN OTHER NEWS: Sabrina has learnt to survive on absolutely no sleep at all. She is going to make medical history by being the only child to remain teething for the rest of her life. And I have mastered the skill of holding my hair together in a bun with the aid of a single HB pencil.

As part of the unit on Australian Aboriginal art and culture we decided to have ago at cave painting, well rock painting to be precise. We used the dot painting technique that was originally used in impermanent sand art works. These were used to tell the story of their land to the younger generations. The images formed a language realised through art used to assist story based learning.

Lani’s Dreaming inspired Lizard

Lilly’s Dreaming inspired Kangaroo.

While they were painting I read this book:

Which is a gorgeous book that made me want to jump onto a plane straight away and fly off to Arnhem land.

I have found some pretty cool resources for the book online here and here so we will work though a few of these activities over during the week. Should be fun.

Hunt around in your backyard for coloured rocks, not the type you buy from a garden centre these ones need to be naturally occurring Australian rocks. If your garden is a formal manicured one you may need to go rock hunting in your local park. Put a couple of similar coloured rocks into a mortar and pestle. I explained to the kids that the aboriginal people would have used a grinding stone but since we didn’t have one on us the mortar and pestle would have to suffice.

Once your rocks are all smashed up nicely, you need a fairly even powder or you will have lumpy paint, a little water is added to form a paste.

A little more grinding and stirring is needed to break up any remaining lumps. Then you can add more water to thin the mixture to a paint like consistency.

Alanah’s Lizard

We chose to copy images of cave paintings and rock carvings found in our local area. This helped the kids really get a feel for the traditional aboriginal style of representing the natural world around them.

Elijah’s Snake

We also used Gum leaves and grasses to make a very light brown and a green coloured paint. There is a yellow rock and dried white clay that can make very effective colours but we didn’t have any lying around.

Lillian’s Echidna

Oh and the cutest thing, Lilly calls these little guys A Kanidnas, she just can’t get her tongue around the correct pronunciation.

When we went to see the terrifying sea monster and all his friends we also watched a  really cool performance by a company called Erth. The play was live performance puppetry showcasing characters from an Australian production called Nargun and the stars. What we saw was called I, Bunyip and was more like watching a wild life ranger at an animal display than watching theatre only the animals they brought out to let the kids pat were puppets.

This is what Lani wrote about it:

I, Bunyip

On Sunday we went to the museum and saw I, Bunyip and we saw Aboriginal Spirit creatures. There were Potkooroks that can make you see in a different way and Nyols look like half bat half owl and Yawk Yawks are fresh water mermaids. I like Potkoorok the best.

and Lilly wrote:

SUNDAY

Why. When. I, Bunyip

Turongs

Potkooroks

Nyols

But that’s Ok because she’s little, and Eli wrote:

I saw Yawk Yawks and everything was not real. They were puppets. The puppeteers were wearing black clothes because they didn’t want to be seen. I did not like it because it was scary.

Last week our next-door neighbours provided us with loads of entertainment and learning opportunities when they had pavers laid in their backyard. We did our normal maths and English in the morning ( I get in trouble if I stray from the norm to much especially from Eli) But I encouraged them to pop outside and take a peek over the fence whenever their curious minds prompted them to. They spent most of the rest of the day hanging over the fence chatting with the workmen. I asked them to record their observations in the form of a painting and a written account. This is what they came up with:

LILLY age 5

The work men were laying pavers. They bug a hole. They sand.

ELIJAH age 6

On Wednesday. the workmen . laed pavers. they dug a hole and put sand in it.

ALANAH age 8

Laying Pavers

The workmen were laying pavers next door on Wednesday because ________ and _______ wanted pavers in their backyard. They dug a hole in the ground with a Bobcat then they put soil in it. Then they watered it. After that they put sand in it then they watered the sand.

One man said that he started at 7:00am the man wos swety.

***

Then they all ran outside to show the workmen their creations. I wasn’t sure how well the guys would take being observed, painted and written about. The day after however my neighbour told me that one of the lads had been so tickled by the whole thing he told his family over dinner about the cool kids he met that spent their day learning about him.

This little flower sprite was for a baby dedication

I was aiming for the type of flower sprite that could hide in the garden and appear to be a blossom so I thought petals for hair might work. When she was all finished Lani skips into the room, takes one look at her and asks,

"why did you make Fifi the Flowertot?"

Blahhh. But I still think she looks cute peeping out of her bag, rip off of popular kids character or not.

If your kids are like mine, and LOVE having their faces painted, doing it yourself can save a lots of time and heartache. The stalls that offer face painting also offer very long queues full of hot impatient kids. Not really how I’d like to spend my time.

I truly believe one of the best things that I have bought since having the kids is a little face painting kit. The Snazaroo kit came with some simply to follow instructions. Their website also has a beginners guide and other helpful info but really little kids are happy with anything you can come up with that will make them stand out from the crowd. The little designs on my kids faces in these photos are all taken from the clothes that they were wearing, I simply copied the fish from Eli’s shirt, the Flowers from Lani’s and the Wing on Lilly came from the flying rock star guitar on her shirt but she was happy after just one wing so why fuss right?