Show Holiday

We are show-offs! How bazaar that in this day and age of sky rocketing interest rates, petrol prices and immediate harm to the environment that local shows still occur and that we get a public holiday for them? I can understand the original reason for both the show and the holiday but I am thinking that in modern life, the tradition appears a bit extreme. We are not going to the show because we prefer to be show-offs.

I can only vent my thoughts though, because Boy is not here to hear them. He has gone off a day early to his Dad's place. Over the moon he is at getting a day off school (I could have lied about the holiday but kids just seem to know these things!!!). Show-off! He's gone to another town where it's not a public holiday because they had their show last week (and because he's home schooled he got to go to that show as it suited our flexible hours).

Accountant husband has gone to work (his work ethic is protestant and interest rate driven) and I intend to spend the day planning home school unschooled moments that will look natural, effortless and less educational that normal. Some time for personal reflection is also greatly needed, so I may take a coffee and sit by the pool, in the sun, to reflect upon why I get sucked into thinking that education has to look a certain way.

Oh it annoys me that I fight with Boy because I am so stringent about him reaching particular levels of assessable learning. For goodness sake - even with all the public holidays we get, Boy's learning and understanding is so much better that many kids who attend traditional school - and at times like this when he gets to be surrounded by other kids, he's a real show-off with the unusual and broad range of knowledge, skill and curiosity that home schooling has developed in him.

The Mafia Project

We have dead bodies all over our lounge room floor. A Mafia hit was ordered and their handiwork is scattered like cushions and rugs on our cold hard white tiles. The red blood of the Sicilian born family has spread like tomato paste on a pizza.

The History of the Mafia project is coming along great guns. I have been amazed at Boy's ability to maintain his concentration. He has looked up sites, printed interesting snippets off, found pictures that fulfilled his need for blood and gore and learnt so much trivia about Mafia bosses that I hope he has a chance to one day correctly answer a quiz question.

Did you know that Al Capone died of syphilis? What's that, enquired Boy. Smiling wickadly, I thanked this teachable moment that had been thrown into our home school day. From Mafia to sexual health without any planning. I love this home school stuff.

Without a vehicle to go and purchase cardboard for Boy's Poster project, we improvised with an empty beer carton. The uncoloured cardboard looks fantastic as it gives a rough, ready, prohibition feel to the project. Rather than glue everything down immediately, we thumb tacked the printed information onto the cardboard while we decided upon best placement. Boy is not stuck on the idea of the thumb tacks but I love it. I think the tacks add another metaphor - a stabbing of criminal activity. Boy thinks I'm weird and has opted to await step father's advise about placement and more pictures or written information. What - he must think his step father is some kind of Don!

Mafia is bad parenting business: While we were tacking information to our poster board, a workman came in to tell me he was finished his task. He asked Boy about his project and commented that it was an interesting choice for a nice little boy. Almost embarrassed at my perceived bad parent status as intonated by Mr Workman's statement, I immediately explained why we home school and how we work through Boy's obsessions.

As I defended our choice of project, I could hear the voice in my head tell me to be quiet: I had no need to defend why we were learning about the Mafia. As it turned out, I had jumped to conclusions about Mr Workman's intonation. He was genuinely interested and he and Boy had a great chat about gambling, prohibition, and family values. More teachable moments thanks to a workman we've never even met before.

Boy and I are now going to watch The Godfather movies, just to make the learning cement in Boy's head and to hopefully rid him of any Robin Hood romantic notions he may have about the original reasons for the birth of the Mafia.

Related article: Mafia Madness

Movie Review: The Mummy Returns

Today Boy and I negotiated over Math and English. Rather than do a set curricula unit of English, Boy agreed to do a movie review and write the blog himself (we are moving into setting up a simple website for technology). Below is his own review and entry into blog editor.

The Mummy Returns

by Boy age 11

''The Mummy Returns'' is about five people who set out on a adventure and came across a weird book that brings the dead back to life. Two of the people can read the Egyptian writing and the other three just help them kill the Mummy that they bring back to life.

The two people who can read the writing are a boy aged eight and his mum. His parents are archaeologists and his mum has specialised in Egyptian history.

The movie is a great movie to watch because it has history in it and other great things; the scarab beetles, mummies and golden artifacts.

It is M rated because of violence. I give it a rating of two and a half stars out of five.

Mafia Madness

Boy loves guns, war stuff, crashing planes, murder, weapons and anything that produces pain and blood. I am a conscientious objector: the daughter of a decorated, three tour, now retired Army officer. I grew up in Army camps overseas. Boy grew up with me trying to minimise weaponry in our home. I lost the war against Boys with Aspergers and their obsessive interests in things that stress their parents out!

After our week of trauma and negotiations around how our new life is going to look, Boy and I have discovered that an hour of our Monday morning school time will be spent in the car, travelling. He wants to use Monday as excursion day. He wants to explore every nook and cranny between Innisfail and Cairns.

Photo by Denzani.

"Is there any like, Army stuff we can go see," he seriously asked. I seriously wanted to Court Marshall him and measure out geography lessons as more than punishment: more like sheer hell boot camp for him.

Interested only in his learning and my mental health, I delayed my gratification of forcing topography down his throat and suggested we use this particular time in the car to think about a project we could work on for the rest of the week.

"Could I do a project on the Mafia," he asked eagerly.

"Sure." My mouth looked like it was smiling but I was in fact gritting my teeth and grimacing because my last chance at raising another conscientious objector was never really a chance at all!

This morning we added Mafia type words to our spelling list and Boy searched for Mafia history on the net. The doubting Thomas and pure pragmatist in me wondered at the validity of the information but I am hardly going to condone Boy interviewing a gangster to get an insiders view of organised crime. I wouldn't know where to find a gangster anyway, nor do I wish anyone to point me in the right direction.

Boy has printed off Mafia information, family tree (just love the pun here) and photographs. Step father and I will be privy to a poster presentation on the History of the Mafia and I am sure that we will have to watch Al Capone and the Untouchables another 50,000 times. I am sure it will be madness, but, the learning will be invaluable. From Mafia Madness to modern and contemporary history: I can easily make the link and locate the teachable moments around peace and honesty. Will Boy?

Circus Goes Back to School

First day back at school after the two week term break. Oh joy!!! Boy was a pleasure - he did exactly as expected: tried every excuse under the sun to get out of doing any school work!!! He was a monkey in a circus confused because no-one was clapping at his tricks!

We had a great holiday. Camping, camp fires, sleep ins, lots of kids to play with and best of all, we caught up with another home school family who live in our region. We LOVED them. We spoke their language and understood their strive toward quality of life for their children. Although our children are different ages and genders, I fully intend to link with this family and share home school treats.

But today - it was a circus. Boy morphed between sloth and lion in record breaking time. Lucky for me, one of his friends was online and it was that which dragged Boy's holiday craving body from his bed. After allowing Boy a short time of online talk, I rang the school bell.

The circus really is in town. Boy went last year and I didn't see the sense of going again this year when the money is needed for more pressing pursuits. Boy did however, begin to show some interest in alternative Circus discourse - the argumentative and demonstrative type (which in reality is animal libertarians simply pleading their case).

"Why do some people hate circuses?"

My in - thank goodness for teachable moments!

I feigned ignorance and suggested that we look it up. "People must have a reason to demonstrate. They wouldn't do it just because they're bored, would they!"

Nope - didn't work. It was school holidays and he was not going to be drawn into anything remotely educational.

So, I looked it up (lesson plans specifically) and was ready to go this morning with a nice little lesson on a circus assessment task. The completed assessment task is expected to demonstrate the following qualities:

• capacity to argue a point of view relevant to a given role


• use of persuasive language and techniques appropriate to audience and context


• control of both verbal and non-verbal language.

Using a feature article on a local council saying no to a Circus setting up in a local park, I had Boy highlight several concept words and read me what their definitions were. I read the article and Boy followed. He had his pre prepared list of words and definitions beside him and kept saying, "slow down Mum, I can't keep up". This was evidence that Boy was at least attempting to understand and not miss any words.

Tomorrow we will build on the activity and we will take turns in debating the two sides as portrayed in the feature article. We will also keep the list of concept words as spelling words for next week (this weeks words are chosen from a 6th grade list: ache, assignment, address, again, although, Pacific, February, fourth, fuel, hemisphere) and I want to make a match the definition to the word card game.

Boy managed an english and math unit from Kinetic Education and it is official - Boy is MUCH BETTER at Math than I am. Whereas Boy got 70%, I scored a high 40%. Ummm....I may need to get accountant husband to explain the rules of change to me again!

It is incredibly cold here in tropical North Queensland. So much so that Boy has shown interest in following the rise and fall of the temperature gauge and understanding the difference between Fahrenheit and Celsius (we measure using Celsius). I found a neat website sticker (below) and I am about to show Boy how to load it to the front page of his site. Part of Boy's technology study this term is to create a very simple web site - uploading the html code for the temperature gauge is going to be the first step toward his web development career.

Plan your trip Local Radar Detailed Forecast

End of Term Excursion: Aboriginal Culture

We went walkabout for a week. To complete this term's study on the geography and cultural melting pot of Australia and Aboriginal Art, we took a week long camping trip to Cape York Peninsula.

The Laura Dance Festival was the pinnacle focus of the trip and neither Boy, Step-father or I were disappointed. Some photos appear below but also check out my info article over at Imaginif: The Culture of Dancing Corroboree for Child Safety.

Whereas Boy has previously visited Split Rock at Laura, my attendance (and a handy tour guide book) ensured a degree of Rock Art painting, culture and myth appreciation. Boy has grown up around Indigenous Australian culture, has heard the words, the language, and knows some of the myths (Quinkins are a favourite in our family), but he had no deeper appreciation than knowing that bread from the bakery can be bought sliced or whole.

Imjim Quinkan - A malevolent spirit. Still very feared.

The story has it that the Quinkan bounces across the rocks on his long knobbed penis. OUCH! The women who married Quinkans are portrayed with breasts that stick out sideways. The breasts were also used for bouncing across rocks.

These Aboriginal Rock paintings and etchings (top pic with Boy) below are approximately 50,000 years old.

1) Woman, Quinkan, Echidna. 2) Flying Foxes (staple tucker [food]). 3) Woman, Red Dingo, Quinkan

Tall Spirit
(they like to hide behind tall Gum trees and can be hard to see)

Another focal point at the Dance festival was meeting up with my foster brother - Joseph McIvor: a celebrated Aboriginal artist, who lived with my family in Cooktown and Cairns during his high school years. Joseph was my brother's best mate and they were always together. It seemed logical that Joseph just live with us and have the opportunity to extend his art through training and access to resources that he may not have otherwise been able to gain access to. Joseph held a Didgeridoo making stall at the Laura Dance Festival and Boy got right into the making of a Didj (pictured).

Boy with his completed Didgeridoo and Joseph McIvor.

Following our attendance at the Laura Dance festival, we spent 3 days in Cooktown, a place I lived as a teenager and young first time mother. The weather was miserable and freezing (by Far North Queensland standards) but Boy's highlight was the abundance of Wallabies around our cabin. The following photo's are of wild wallabies - not zoo tamed creatures.

We are currently on school holidays and Boy refuses to raise any blogs on what he learnt on his camping trip to Laura and Cooktown. Guess how our new school term will be beginning then!!

Search and Destroy Spelling Bee Mission Achieved.

Today is the 12 month anniversary of a particularly traumatic event in Boy's life. As a result of the trauma, it is also the anniversary of the last time he had contact or conversation with his biological father. Is it any wonder that Boy has been experiencing an over stimulus of emotions and meltdowns leading up to anniversary day!

Although not the last day of attending traditional school, it is a significant day of what school means. The traumatic experience partially occurred at school and goes a long way to explaining why Boy rejects institutionalised learning. Therefore, to honour having made it to a year of forward growth, we are going out to morning tea at a gourmet tea and chocolate shop and step father is taking Boy to EB Games to purchase a new PS2 game.

But, ever on the lookout for that teachable moment and possibility to manipulate some learning material, I carried through on yesterday's Spelling Bee. Boy happily chose 10 "B" words and hid them (all together - he didn't want to hide them in 10 different places) to give them a spell in a place that starts with "B".

We had a quick tally of Aussie related "B" words and Boy came up with quite a few that I had not considered: barbeque and beer were Boy's favourites and he reckons that the words will be said by nightfall and he'll get to test our spelling of the list currently having a spell. Funniest thing is though, as I was processing the list, I spelt one of the words wrong!!!!! This is going to be a hoot when Boy catches us saying an Aussiecentric "B" word and tests our spelling of his compiled list. Like a radar searching for enemy planes, Boy is on a search and destroy mission to catch us saying one of the discussed words.

I am glad to report no meltdowns or anxiety and that Boy had a decent nights sleep. I on the other hand am now aware of why I coped so poorly yesterday. I have a very sore throat, ear ache and headache. I am grateful that the most stressful thing on my plate today will be choosing which hand made gourmet treat to choose. Chocolate. Yummmm....it soothes many life difficulties!

Spelling Bee

Think of every swear word that starts with B. That's how our school day ended.

"What's for school today Mum?"

"We're going to finish your origami fish, do some Australian spelling and a Kinetic Math and English unit."

We managed the origami fish okay (well, Boy did. I could not understand the instructions at all!!!). Spelling though: B**!!"""___!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a beautiful hook in to a melt down.

We're studying Australian culture. Therefore, I thought it appropriate to include some Aussiecentric words. Did he carry on!

"Those aren't Grade Six words. I'm not learning high school words. What, do you think I've got a photographic memory! You're stupid, you're a bitch," etc, etc, etc.

This is the spelling result:

Aboriginal - Abarikanl
Indigenous - Indichaness
Culture - colcher
Barramundi - Baramundy
Australia - Austalya
Southern Cross - Southen Cross
Rock Painting - Rock Painting
Kangaroo - Kangkaroo
Campfire - Campfire
Koala - Cawla

While I can accept that Boy spelt some of the words phonetically, I was shocked at how his anger appeared to block his ability to sound some of the words out. Boy knew he couldn't spell the words but used his anger as a smoke screen - a way to divert my attention and give up on the spelling exercise. I persevered and stayed calm during the barrage of abuse hurled at me.

Kinetic Math and English though: Oh dear!!!!! I confiscated Boy's lap top as a result of the school refusal. Step father saved the day though. He and Boy are great mates and when Boy calmed down he went to step father to apologise and discuss what had just happened.

Step father backed my confiscating action up. Boy knew that he could get around neither of us so finally agreed to do a Kinetic Math and English unit, but with step father.

It's now hours post the incident and I am still smarting. I know it's a passing thought yet today I have wondered why I home school. Why do I put myself through this? Why do I insist on my son being educated?

I home school my child because his anger tantrums and Asperger meltdowns do upset other people. His anger and excellent articulation of a range of put downs do block teachers ability to stay learning focused with Boy. His meltdowns are a result of his disability, not because he is a naughty little boy and our decision to home school was based on taking the stress off Boy and enticing him with knowledge that does not look educationally institualised.

Bxxxx##**! It was me who buggered up - AGAIN. I tried to make Boy do what I thought was the best thing for him. I disempowered him by expecting him to be like children without Aspergers. I became too teacher orientated and forgot that we value natural learning, as far removed from instutionalised curricula as possible.

Tomorrow we'll have a spelling bee. I will allow Boy to pick ten words that start with B. I'll write them on slips of paper and ask him to give them a spell - a rest. He will have to hide the B words in things that start with "B" (bureau, biscuit tin, bathroom, etc). The next time he hears either myself or step father say an Aussiecentric word that starts with B, Boy's task will be to find his list of hidden "B" words and to test both step father and I. If we wrongly spell any of the words, Boy can pick another ten B words for us to spell.

I will make a spelling mistake on purpose. I will do whatever I have to to help Boy learn how to spell. Boy has Aspergers, I do not. It is my job as his home educator to educate him, not further reinforce his hatred of anything that looks like school.

And right now....Boy and step father are playing Monopoly. We figured that this was a nice way for Boy to have some additional Math learning without us having to suffer the trauma of another meltdown. Beautiful.

Employment Opportunity for Boy with Aspergers

Boy has been offered money in return for making clay figures that represent emotions. He is a dab hand at the clay work - one of his strengths. Step-father and I were proudly showing off Boy's clay figurines to a colleague of mine and she immediately offered Boy money in return for making her a bag full of symbols that somehow express a range of emotions.

A sandplay therapist, my colleague stated she struggled to find symbols with faces on - not the normal happy, angry or sad faces readily available on cheap children's toys, but faces that capture the range of human emotion - curiosity, grief, anxiety, etc. One of her students had made some faces out of clay but they were now broken, stolen or worn. It was time to replace her feeling symbols and in Boy's clay work she recognised an opportunity.

The cottage industry started during this mornings home school. Boy has been requesting arts and crafts so I pulled out the Sculpey clay and informed Boy of my colleague's offer. Boy heard "money" and jumped at the chance.

During his eagerness Boy made things that he wanted to make. While I sat beside him and calmly moulded clay, I attempted to inform Boy that this was a contract that meant he had to make what the client wanted: symbols that expressed a range of emotions.

Bad move! What an argument we had and I bought into his Aspergers melt down and insults toward me. I'm an idiot, I know nothing, how would I know what kids like, etc, etc. It went on for 45 minutes. I was so angry that I yelled at Boy: "Stop acting like an Aspergers person." Oh good one Megan! He is a kid with Aspergers.

Despite the toxicity and heightened emotion of our today's home school, we did manage to produce a few emotion symbols (pictured). I think he modelled the angry and scary ones on my face!!!! We have now made up and resolved to start afresh tomorrow. He stated that when I was naming all the emotions his head got jumbled up and he started to melt down. Good learning for me here. Tomorrow I will simply allow Boy to check his emotions against the "feeling faces" poster we have on the wall.

This is Boy's employment opportunity - his cottage industry. I will keep my emotion and professional knowledge out of this and allow Boy to experience the exchange of cash for goods and services for himself.

And...I've given up smoking today. This is not the best day to do anything stress provoking!

Message from a Home Schooled Boy in Australia

As part of Boy's socialisation skills we are helping him to reach out and make new friends. Given Boy's Aspergic tendencies toward computer obsession we have created a safe section for him to hang out in, in our child protection website. I just about live on the site but Boy is bored with chatting to me!

If your home school child is up for making some new friends in a safe and moderated forum environment, then please consider joining the site and helping to foster social understanding between international home schoolers.

The section for kids is private. It does not become visible until a person registers in the site. I have the police doing their regular internet patrols and I immediately ban pornography spammers and delete accounts of any other spammers. It is as safe as I could make it. To date, we have had no spam in the kid section.

Message from Boy below (how great is this that I am getting him to write!):

Hi all,

I'm boy and I would like you to join the k.h.k. (kids helping kids forum) in my mum's website.

The k.h.k. is about kids talking about stuff, like what they like and stuff they do. No swearing is allowed and creeps get kicked out. To enter the kids section, you have to be a member and Mum can ban your computer if you are a trouble maker. You should hear Mum go off when someone puts bad stuff on the site!

This is like the modern way of having pen-pals. It is safe, fun and cool and counts as home school learning about technology.

It is only for kids aged 10-18 and your parents have to know about it because they have to help join you up.

Thanks, Boy

Australia's First Nation People are called Aboriginies

Article by Boy, age 11

The Australian Aboriginie has been here for more than 60,000 years. When white people came to Australia they killed many Aboriginal people and they herded the rest into groups and made them work for white man.

I live in an area where there are lots of Aboriginal people (Far North Queensland). They are nice. Their skin can be balck, brown, tan or even like a bit sun tanned but not too much.

Aboriginal people live in houses like you and I live in but they love the land more than we do. Their country is very important to them. Where a person is born and where their family comes from is something that means important stuff to Aboriginies. If they are born in the rainforest they may have a rainforest bird or animal as their totem. If they are born in the dessert then they have a dessert totem.

A lot of tourists have the wrong information about Australian Aboriginal people. They only see the bad stuff on the news but there is also lots of bad stuff on the news about us white fellas. Mum said that someone told her that all Aboriginal people abuse their kids. Mum nearly had a heart attack and set them straight. Most Aboriginal people love their kids and try hard to protect them.

Aboriginal painting is pretty neat. They paint with lots of dots and colours made from mixing sand and ground up stone. Their colours represent the earth and other natural stuff like water, sky and grass.

The Aboriginal people tell their stories by either talking or dancing. They are an oral culture (Talk not write about things). The Aboriginal dance story telling is called Corroboree. We call it "shake a leg" as its nick name.

Here is a video that I found on YouTube. Mum is letting me look at YouTube for technology. Because we are studying Aboriginal culture she said I had to find some videos to share with you about Aboriginal culture or people.

Driving all the way to Cooktown

Boy and step-father recently went on a road trip. Although during a school week, Indigenous Australia was woven into their adventures (we're studying the cultural melting pot and geography of Australia this term) and Boy attended business meetings with step-father.

Step-father works frequently on Cape York Peninsula (a place of high Indigenous population) and is currently doing some work for an organisation that hosts and markets Australian Aboriginal cultural centres. The trip included a visit to ancient rock art paintings.

Boy's own review of his cultural learning trip follows:

Monday 4 June 2007
P and I left here at 3:00 to get to Lakeland Downs. P and I stayed in a caravan in winter true. P ordered a very big dinner and we could not finish it… lol. It was very cold and I felt sick.

Tuesday 5 June 2007:
We went to Laura and met a lot of new people. We met Cliffy, Allan and John. We met John in the Quinkan Center. It was very fun in the Quinkan Center and I had a good time there. Then we went on the walk on Spit Rock and looked at the paintings. Then after that we went up to Cooktown and made a fire with some fish ‘n’ chips. It was very good and I had a ball!

Wednesday 6 June 2007:
P and I went down to the Kiosk for breckkie. I had baked beans on toast and P had toast and coffee. P said the toast tasted like crap. I hung out with P for a while and spent the rest of the day with Rossco and Tom.

Thursday 7 June 2007:
We headed back and made up a song

Driving the road all the way to Cooktown
Boy he farted, he pulled his pants down
P the accountant didn’t know what to do
And shortly there after we hit a kangaroo
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10, 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10, 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Does Learning Ever Stop?

"What's a hiatus Mum?" he asked in earnest.

"It's what's happened to your blog entries at your Homeschooling Aspergers site. We've had a hiatus: a break, a glitch, an interruption, a burst out, but now we're getting back to normal."

"What's that got to do with that thing at the top of your stomach then?"

Oh dear, does learning ever stop? Boy and I have been having a great time even though our exploits haven't been recorded of late. We've had natural learning experience after experience and I'm sure we've used our yearly quota for home school excursions!

I have learnt a great lesson from my manipulation of teachable moments and natural learning on the run. There is no need for me to ask Boy, at the end of the day, what his learning has been. Prone to hate anything that looks like formalised education, Boy embraces natural learning and adult conversations. Try to reduce a conversation to learning and Boy gets somewhat angry.

"What is your learning today?" I now ask myself. By placing myself in the student's shoes and reflecting upon my own learning I now sit in a better situation to offer Boy a gem or two of my newly gained knowledge without it looking like education. This works for both of us and leads into discussions that may otherwise have been missed.

So....my new website is holding its own, my hiatus hernia isn't killing me, and Boy has excelled in his learning of life. We're back - see you tomorrow!

Melt and Mould Soap Making

Today we made soap as a home school activity. Boy does not prioritise personal hygiene and I'm sure that when he does bath, the soap remains dry! Not unusual for kids with Aspergers, personal hygiene is often far from their mind. We've tried the novelty of electric toothbrushes, very expensive gorgeous spelling soaps from Lush, shampoos of every variety and now we need a new trick to get Boy into the bath and washing the dirt and sweat off.

Trying the Melt and Mould soap kits that I've recently listed in my on-line protective behaviour shop, Boy and I made four different soaps (there's still enough base left to make another two soaps): two coloured and scented with Mango and two opaque, scented with Passionfruit. The opaque soap making was the hit.

Into the soap moulds we put two toys prior to poring (yes, it really is that easy: melt the soap base and pour it into a mould) the melted, clear soap liquid. One toy was a wooden key ring of Boys choice and the other - well, what can I say - I think I have a budding entrepreneur on my hands.

Boy chose a flashing LED soft plastic ring. Rather than submerging the ring and completely covering it with soap, Boy suggested that we make a soap ring. We carefully balanced the ring in the setting soap (so that the finger part was exposed) and waited for it to dry. Boy could not wait to try it out. He rather fancied the idea of wearing his soap like a ring and scrubbing himself without having to hold the slippery soap in his hand.

It struck me that Boy's slipping hygiene corresponded with the cessation of his youth worker hours. The youth worker spent ample time with Boy talking about hygiene being a social skill: if you are stinky, people get slinky. They slink off to get away from you. Now that Youth Worker is out of the picture, I guess that Boy fails to understand why he needs to smell clean. We expect cleanliness yet don't necessarily teach it. Today's activity provided me ample teachable moments to talk about the different types and styles of soap and how they often smell different depending on the chemistry of an individuals skin.

We're off to bathe now. Wonder if Boy will "ring me" from the bathroom?

An economical and fun home school activity, we've used the completely natural melt and mould glycerin soap kits from Renascent College. Now a retailer of their soap kits, we're never going to be short of creative ways to get Boy trialing our new soaps. It's not school work, it's Boy helping Mum to try new products (if only he knew the suds I sink to for encouraging his education!).

UPDATE: Big girl (21) tried out the ring soap. Her verdict, "WICKED!" When switched on, the LED flashes through the opaque soap. It is very, very cool and Boy has already had two baths.

Second update: Big girl's friends came around and thought the ring soap was "cack" (intonations and facial expressions suggested the translation was "cool"). Everyone in our house has very clean hands. This was GREAT for Boy's self-esteem.

Volcanoes in the Backyard

Our verandah table was washed away with bubbling lava and joyous laughter from three children (okay, one child, one 20 year old and one old[er]adult). Boy's kitchen science evolved into a more elaborate demonstration of the volcanic forces of vinegar and bicarbonate soda.

We made a plaster of paris mountain around a small plastic vial. Once the plaster was dry, Boy painted it to resemble hot lava flowing down and destroying trees in its path. Into the plastic vial we added vinegar (dyed pink with food colouring) and bicarb soda. The resultant eruption was pure bliss for Boy who kept adding bicarb until my box was empty!!!

A wonderful, easy and frugal home school experiment that encompassed chemical reactions and art, Boy has played with his new toy for hours. All you need is plaster of paris, water to mix, a small plastic vial/jar, a cardboard cone to place over the vial (we made one from a cereal box) and on which to plaster the plaster, and paint to decorate the plaster mountain. Add vinegar and baking soda to the vial, and watch your volcano spew its fury forth.

Hint for the volcano lava - add a drop of dish washing detergent and note the difference in the lava flow.

Boy's youth work hours on Mondays have been used up. Looking to replace this with another Monday group activity, Boy chose beading classes. At our first lesson, Boy produced a necklace that he hasn't taken off since (pictured). We plan to attend every Monday morning but I have had to place a monetary freeze at $10.00 per lesson.

Boy's eyes widened in glee as he surveyed the array of gem stone beads. While they are indeed beautiful, the cost of them falls well outside our weekly budget. And then...Boy spotted the leather thronging in all colors of the rainbow. Quiet impressive and double the price of jewellery wire it is! Even more impressive though was that Boy knew the names of most of the gem beads. Lapidary classes are paying off with overall learning.

In an effort to instill real life budgeting, Boy has to stay within the $10.00 limit. If he chooses to make a full necklace, he has to use budget beads. If he chooses to use leather thronging, he will need to sacrifice quantity of beads and rely upon a few well chosen beads separated with knots rather than spacer beads.

Eager to use the beautiful glass and gem stone beads that he was in awe of, Boy has been collecting loose change to add to his $10.00 limit. Without even meaning to teach financial skills, beading classes have opened up new teachable moments and probable presents for all the females in the family. My favourite colour is red, I keep telling him. He hasn't got it yet!

In our travels to find a Youth group replacement, we stumbled upon a supply of crystal flowers. At only $2.00 each, we purchased a bulk lot for Boy to play with and for me to use in my work with children. A most effective display of crystal growth, Boy has used so many already that I wonder if I'll have any left for work. Check it out: it's Christmas in July already!

And finally, finally...my new web site is almost ready. We are going live this Thursday, the 17th of May. For a sneak preview and to find out exactly why I've been so busy, have a look at Imaginif's new home. I hope you consider joining us in the forums and getting some good discussion going around child safety and protection.

Science in the Kitchen: the Bicarb Experiment

What happens when Bicarbonate of Soda (aka Baking Powder) is mixed with different pantry products?

What you need: Bicarbonate of soda, drinking glasses, teaspoon, a range of different pantry liquids.

Method: Boy set up five glasses and add an inch of the following products: one product per glass.

• Malt vinegar


• Balsamic Vinegar


• Water


• Mango Juice


• Coca-Cola

Systematically, and one at a time, Boy added a teaspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda to the liquids.

Outcome: The different results were marked:

• Malt vinegar fizzed


• Balsamic Vinegar really fizzed up


• Water did not fizz at all (this may change depending on the pH of your water supply)


• Mango Juice did not fizz


• Cocoa-Cola fizzed.

Variations: Add different amounts of Bicarb to five glasses of the same liquid. After the experiment was over, Boy added double the original amount of Bicarb to the malt vinegar. It produced a greater fizz and the bubbles crept up over the top of the glass and down the side to make a nice little fizzing mess on the bench!! Worked well though.

How does this work: Bicarbonate of Soda reacts with acids, releasing carbon dioxide which bubbles up through the solution. The more acidic a liquid, the more fizz produced. But what about when cooking butter, sugar and Bicarb together? That creates a fizz yet there’s no acid in the ingredients? Sugar likes to oxidize so that’s why you get a fizz when you add bicarb to a mixture on the stove (like Anzac Biscuits).

Boy’s rating of this Science in the kitchen project: 5/5.

For more simple science experiments for early and middle school years, have a look at Deakin University’s Ideas for Teaching Science: Years P-8 Chemical Change

The Art of Learning

Boy likes art. Boy HATES anything that looks remotely like traditional school. Eager to expand his creative mind and burgeoning artistic talents we spend ample time on art projects and weaving unschooling principles into suggestions, presentation and home school work time. To achieve this I have had to unschool myself and treat Boy as my academic equal – as though he is one of my university students.

This morning he begged for art. He nominated a yearning for drawing mountains. Ummm, this did not fit my plan for reading and comprehension. How could I weave my requirements for overall learning with his need for creativity?

“No worries darling. I just have to put this book away. Actually, it’s got some great photos of mountains and volcanoes if you want to have a peek for inspiration.”

I was born and raised in Papua New Guinea: a mountainous place of constant earth tremors and erupting volcanoes. A friend, who also spent most of her early adult life in Papua New Guinea, gave us a coffee table book on Papua New Guinea as a present for our recent wedding. When handing it over she said it was to help new husband understand where and how I was raised and why I am the person I am.

I told Boy the story she told as she handed the book across at my hen’s party:

I met Megan when our biggest children were very little. The kids were attending a group and every week, Megan was huddled in a corner poring over books and writing notes. When curiosity got the better of me, I approached Megan and began a conversation. Megan said she was studying for another degree. After only 10 minutes of talking with her, I asked if she was a “territorial brat” (a white child raised in one of the Australian territories, Papua New Guinea). Territorial brats grew up thinking they owned the world, could do anything and allowed nothing to stop their thirst for knowledge, practical learning and artful navigation of life. Megan fitted the mould to a T. It is because of Megan that I decided to go to university. Now that I’ve gone back to do a Masters degree, would you believe that: that little territorial brat has become my lecturer!

Interested in my early life that turned me into a monster (his words, not mine!), Boy began flicking through the book and asking me questions. Enthralled by my animated stories of jumping out of bed in the middle of the night to stand under doorframes until the quake was over, Boy asked a myriad of questions around lava, poisonous gas and the weight of volcanic ash. While story telling, Boy began drawing a volcano (pictured with the inspirational book).

Even more interested in how to become a “territorial brat”, Boy questioned how he also could rule the world.

“It’s all in the way you ask the questions and respond to people. Listening, responding and standing up for yourself are skills. You can them in a helpful way or a not so helpful way. That book club surprise you got last month is all about how to rule the world.”

Eager to capitalize upon the teachable moment, I hoped that I could find the book in Boy’s incredibly disorganized room. Bingo. It was right beside his bed.

“I read that. It’s boring,” Boy scoffed.

“Really? You must have just read the boring bits because check this out: "This book is all about how to deal with other people and get what you want from them, whether it’s a new bike, a fair deal, or a little respect” and “What to say to Grown-ups who treat you like a kid.”

After reading the first chapter together, Boy changed his mind about the book being boring. He completed the pop quiz that resulted in an analysis of:

“You have an okay idea of how to handle yourself, but you don’t always make the best decisions about what to say or do. Don’t worry – that’s where this book comes in! Read on to learn how to get through all kinds of sticky situations.”

How Aspergers does that analysis sound?! As I type, Boy is at the kitchen table drawing a picture of how to get me to stop treating him like a little kid. What an artful way of learning.

To learn more about the art of storytelling, have a look at this article I wrote. Here is another one on being self-assertive. Both are useful ideas to teach to children and to use as home school lessons.

Finally, and just because I cannot fit them into anything else, here are some quilt squares I made for our Wedding quilt. I had terrific fun telling Boy my story behind the quilt square symbols and listening to him embellish the stories beyond belief.

A Quick Spell for Busy Home School Parents

Poor Boy. I've been so busy this last week, preparing the new web site, that he has done nothing more than Kinetic Math and English. Like a kid made to eat only cabbage, he is so sick of it and is screaming for diversity.

"How about you wash the floor for me? That's as diverse as you can get. In fact, it's probably a new skill for you!"

"You're boring Mum. Who votes Mum gets some new jokes?" ......and so the discourse proceeded.

Stretching into my inner creativity, I attempted to find interesting yet mother labour light educational activities for Boy. While staring into my wardrobe hoping that creativity would jump off a hanger and wrap itself around me, I spotted two bags of large wooden painted letters.

"Nah. He hates scrap booking and I have to be there with him to help." As I thought it, creativity swung its foot at me and caught me in the temple. As I stooped in pain, my hand latched onto the bags of letters. Before I even had a chance to consider how to spell concussion, bags, I and a fold up table were silently conversing in a lounge room strategy meeting: planning our spelling and word formation attack against Boy.

Letters piled atop the table, Boy walked past and asked what I was doing.

"Just taking a spell darling," (where did that hypnotic suggestion come from). "I was thinking that I would sell these on the website so just wanted to ensure they are all okay."

"Can I have them?"

"No! These are precious scrap booking supplies, not toys. Now go back and do another Math unit."

Gazing upon my time saving genius, I smiled wickedly to myself. "He's not going to be able to resist it," I thought evilly. "You're very clever Megan."

By the end of the home school day and without any prompting or help from me, Boy had formed as many words as he could. While I sat and prepared copy for the new website, Boy sought out additional, little chipboard letters from my art trolley. He discovered he needed more vowels to make words.

"What are you doing?" I asked innocently as he scavenged through the art trolley.

"Nothing," he replied in an excited tone. "Just taking a spell."

For a quick spell for the busy home school parent, buy some cheap chipboard letters from an art supply store and throw them on the table. Allow your child to formulate their own activity. Spelling, word shapes, spatial practice (putting two different letters on top of each other to form a different letter) and sentence construction, create yourself a time spell and put a little educational magic into your busy life.