Week One of Term Four started off with me having some solo time in the city. We had some parents vouchers that were due to expire (incentives from the government during our Delta COVID lockdown) so I headed into the city after church and went to the Hyde Barracks Museum to buy a 12 month family membership to Sydney Living Museums. The vouchers HAD to be redeemed in person so it was the perfect excuse for a little trip to the city. This will now give our family free entry into twelve different museums for the next twelve months and is an excellent incentive to start up our homeschool excursions again.
After I purchased the membership I decided to take the opportunity for some photography practice in and around Hyde Park before heading back home. As I haven't been to Hyde Park Barracks Museum in over 10 years, I had completely forgotten about these statues of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, so I started by photographing them.
I then decided to photograph St James Church. I love the contrast of the little church nestled in among the tall buildings behind it.
Those of you who are frequent readers of my blog will know about my love and obsession of photographing Archibald Fountain. I discovered the fountain is currently being restored and won't be functioning again until the end of this year (weather permitting) so I simply photographed it in the current renovation stage. I will be keen to see how it looks when all the work is completed.
My next favourite thing to photograph when I visit Hyde Park (or surrounding areas) is St Mary's Cathedral. I was drawn to the cathedral on this particular day because the bells were ringing nearly constantly the entire time I was in the city. I decided to spend some time taking a few different shots from my vantage point in the park. I briefly considered walking across the road and taking many more photos, both indoor and out, but decided I didn't really have the time. That will be a project for another trip to the city.
Finally, I browsed a photography contest that was on display in the park. The finalists photograph were lined up along the main walkway for park visitors to view and enjoy. This was a pleasant surprise and I'm glad I was there because it was the last day of the display. On my way back to the train station I stopped to watch the people playing chess with the life size board, but again chose not to take photos. There were lots of men playing/watching and they didn't seem too friendly. As I didn't have any vantage point that would guarantee backs only and no faces, I opted not to record the event.
Monday morning it was back to the school routine - though I kept the week VERY light for the two younger boys and we focused on reading and math only.
Hence my only photographs of written work for this first week are of each boy working diligently through their math assignments. I pushed them a bit and both boys completed a chapter this first week.
Monkey has discovered our "Fair Dinkum Histories" books by Jackie French. We own four of the eight books in the series and I also reserved the other four from the library.
We also finished off the final book in the A Series of Unfortunate Events books. This has sparked so much interest for both Monkey and Munchkin that they have done research (online) into different aspects of the story line. I have also reserved "All the Wrong Questions" series for Munchkin to read independently. All three boys and I have had numerous conversations about how talented and creative Lemony Snicket is as a writer.
We read these two books from our non-fiction unit studies. We have one last book to read from the Cool Tech series and then we will have completed that mini unit study.
Thursday it was back to the library for After School Activity (Lego this first week) and our usual book swap. Munchkin's best friend wasn't there and though another little friend was, not knowing yet how his mum feels about photos and the blog, I opted to simply share these photos which are taken by Munchkin on my phone. They are examples of the creations he built during our time there.
On the way home from the library, per Munchkin's request, I bought him a 3kg bag of oranges. He got right to work Friday morning squeezing fresh juice to freeze into our Star Wars icy pole mold. One of our best friends from homeschool group was coming over to go walking with us and he wanted to share with them.
I love that we live within walking distance of a river...
Boys heading across the bridge...
Munchkin walking on the footpath with his best friend (left photo) and his best friend's sister (right photo)...
Monkey and this little guy are the BEST of friends and it is easy to get them to pose for a picture.
I left this photo in for a bit of a laugh... I flatly refused to stop walking to take this photo so I ended up with a very blurry photo of the kids walking. But I still like that it shows the motion of the experience.
Photographic fun with the mangrove swamps...
Friday night dad played some games with Monkey and Munchkin... First up was chess with Munchkin...
Followed by "Exploding Kittens" with both boys.
One morning this week I walked up to my friend's house to harvest some silverbeet from her garden that she offered me. I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived, to discover this guy hanging out in the garden bed.
His name is Lucky and he is one of two Blue Tongue Lizards that live on their property.
Munchkin joined me on one of my walks this week and chose to ride his bike.
I'm still struggling with balance when it comes to walking... I'm either NOT walking at all, or walking too much. Rain is forecast all next week, but that gives me the great excuse to focus on putting some yoga back into my life.
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This is a fun new book series for Munchkin... it is recommended to any readers who enjoy Harry Potter and/or A Series of Unfortunate Events. Munchkin LOVES it. I've put the whole series on reserve (all five books are together in one volume) but whoever borrowed it previously hasn't returned it yet so Munchkin is going to have to be very patient.
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