Jocelyn's blog

Sep. 30, 2009

Music at Midday - Irish Style

Canberra Theatre Centre in association with the Royal Military College host the Music at Midday Concerts six times a year, with proceeds supporting many local charities. This celebration of the Big Band sound has grown from its humble beginnings and now attracts hundreds of Canberra residents at each performance.

The lunchtime concerts, held at 11am and 12.30pm showcase the talents of the RMC Band and presented with Canberra Theatre Centre provides an opportunity to give something back to the community. Entry to the concerts is by gold coin donation, with all proceeds going to a local charity.
(Taken from the Canberra Theatre website)

What do Guinness, Waterford Crystal, Robert Boyle and the Irish Ambassador have to do with Music at Midday? Well, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Guinness, the band decided to hold an Irish style concert and invite the Ambassador along. They talked about all things Irish, and many things that were not, as they joked, laughed and played their way through the concert.

The band played two national anthems, not one and some great pieces: An Irish Rhapsody, St Patrick's Day March, Finnegan's Wake and Riverdance. Joined by a male soloist, some ballads were sung: "What would I be?" "What's in a Kiss?" and "Danny Boy", all adding to the Irish flavour.

Toward the end of the program was a surprising number : "The Irish Blessing". This sort of item should be expected but I'll explain why it touched me. During the concert, the versatility of this group easily became apparent and several musicians changed instruments and positions within the ensemble. When they reached the blessing, they stood as one, instruments down and sang accapella, with some nice harmonies. I wasn't prepared for that and it was just lovely.

We enjoy going to these concerts as the conductor has a great rapport with the audience and the band shows how much they love their music and performing it for us.

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Sep. 25, 2009

Mesmerizing Moods of McCubbin

Posted in excursions

Yesterday, I took the boys to see the McCubbin exhibition on the the National Art Gallery.

Though Frederick McCubbin is most well known for his earlier works depicting the Australian Bush (see picture below), this exhibition was more about his later works.

"The Pioneer"

McCubbin went on a trip to Europe and England in the early 1900s, saw many of the Impressionist and Pointillist paintings on display there and came back with a new vision for his painting. His work became less about telling a story, such a in "The Pioneer" and "Down on His Luck" and more about the scene, the landscape, being the focus.

The guide who took us through the tour was just wonderful. She spent time teaching the children how to study a painting - the foreground, middle ground, background, the underpainting that would have been done on canvasses, and tools used to paint and create certain techniques. She also got them to examine colour, especially the use of complementary colours throughout his later work. One painting "Violet and Gold" even has those aspects highlighted in the name.

"Violet and Gold" 1911

Our guide was enthusiastic, focusing on the atmosphere, light, the reflections and moods of each picture. One, showing two men using a double saw to cut down a fallen tree, she described as "mesmerizing". The absorption of the men, the rhythm of the work was instantly evoked in this painting. I loved the fact that our guide didn't talk down to the children but rather explained terms and descriptions as she went along.

Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the art work. My younger two, with me in this group, found it interesting as well and they want to see McCubbin's earlier work.

We'll have to schedule that in when we next visit Melbourne, which houses the best collection of Australian Impressionists in Federation Sq. For those who can, go to the exhibition, it is a wonderful collection, set out beautifully in the temporary exhibition hall. You have until 1 November but I would suggest NOT leaving it until the last minute!

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Dec. 3, 2008

Camping at Lowden

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Andrew took the older three boys out on a camping trip over the weekend. A few other families from church went out for the weekend as well.

Campsite looks beautiful, doesn't it? The canopy in the forest was dense but in moments like these, when the sun was glinting through the trees, it just seemed idyllic...

Even though the kids had some pleasures, like playing on old engines

and enjoying the marshmallows around a campfire,

A lot of the weekend was spent like this:

...sitting under a shelter while it rained!!!!

There were alternative places to be....

but that still didn't help when most of the time it rained and the best place to be was by the fire!

Hopefully, Andrew will recover enough to go camping with them again. I enjoyed a quiet weekend with Mark.

Andrew is thinking that next time they go camping, it would be fun to go down to the coast, in nicer weather and hit the beach!!!

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Oct. 29, 2008

The Glass Workshop ~ 23 October

Posted in excursions

Last year, Stephen went to the Canberra Glassworks for a workshop. This year, both Zac and Stephen were able to join in with other homeschoolers and go to a workshop being run by local artist, Kristie Rea.

Kristie showed them around her gallery space, explaining some of the different porcesses and effects that can be achieved with glass. Here's some examples:

Etching on plain glass

Glass houses

Sculpture inspired by tractors and grates.

Kristie ran a beginner's class, where they made the flat, postcard designs and an intermediate class, where they made a bent design. Here's some examples below:

They could choose a concave or a convex bend, and a shallow or a deeper one. That decided, it was down to the design phase:

Kristie had such a range of colours, thin straight pieces, crushed up ones, thin spaghetti and almost every variety in between. She was also able to cut the pieces down to fit the shapes they required. I think some found all of this choice difficult and then ran out of time to actually utilise all that was available. Most rose to the challenge and I was so impressed with their work.

Here's a photo of the earlier workshop with the smaller designs (far right) and the larger ones to be bent (middle and foreground)

I'll take another photo of the finished product and put it up here next time I'm back on blogging. The boys had a great time and I think I'll sign myself up next time as I loved looking at the glass and seeing what could be done with it.

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Oct. 10, 2008

Music and Movies

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Great combination aren't they - music and movies?

Last week enjoyed both of these things in an unconventional way.

Well, Music at Midday, put on by the Royal Military Concert Band, is somewhat conventional, we just don't happen to attend it often. The concert runs for an hour and entry is by gold coin donation. These are held every couple of months at the Canberra Theatre. In fact, they are so popular that instead of there being one session at midday, there's two - one at 11am and another at 12.30pm.

After attending the 11am session, we then picked Andrew up from work and headed into Floriade for lunch. The theme for this year's tulip display is "Australian Movies". So, take a walk down the red carpet,

...grab some popcorn

.... and join us for a quick walk through.

The first photo is of "Muriel's Wedding"

After going past some fabulous floral displays, like the one below,

we came to my favourite movie design...can you guess?

This one is for "Shine". The piano keys run for a full octave and it was on such an impressive scale (pardon the pun)

Here's a few more movie designs:

"Moulin Rouge"

"Puberty Blues" - can you see the surfboard?

"Kenny"

The design for Gallipoli was hard to capture with the camera. I took a photo of the sign so you can get the idea of how it went. It also shows you how they introduced each movie.

Then below is a photo of one side of the sun.

Of course, Floriade isn't all about the tulips. There's other nice flowers, like these irises

and as it is set on the lake, it is a beautiful, tranquil environment. Just right for some "time out" with the ducks...

"Crocodile Dundee"

"The Rabbit Proof Fence"

Unfortunately, I didn't photograph all of the movie designs. A lot of the pictures were done flat in the flower beds with no elevated walkways. The pictures for "Babe" and "Happy Feet" were hard to make out.

We went twice this year. I would have liked to go another time, but it rained that afternoon. We love Floriade in Canberra, the colours, the warmer weather, the atmosphere. If you are anywhere near us why not join in one year? It's always on from mid September until mid October.

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Sep. 27, 2008

Visiting a Refugee Camp

Posted in excursions

Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors without borders) have been staging an event called, "A Refugee Camp in Your City" in different cities in Australia. Friends of ours went to the Brisbane event and gave us advance notice of the event in Canberra.

Part of Glebe Park was sectioned off and MSF had turned it into a replica of a Refugee Camp. We were led through each section of the camp on a guided tour. The lady who took us through had recently returned from Afghanistan, where she had been working in a clinic.

She told us so many areas in war-torn countries are covered in landmines. It is a grim reality.

We saw small tents and dwellings no bigger than our bathroom and were told that often families of 10 or more would sleep in that space.

The people in the camp are so resourceful, making toys. shoes and other things from whatever is at hand. Adam looked at the cars made from vegetable oil cans and said, "Those people are smart, Mummy. Look what they can make! I couldn't do that."

One of the items that was highlighted was the making of sandals from the tyres of cars. A friend wrote on her blog that she found it humbling to see this. I couldn't agree more. I certainly feel blessed to have what I do and the vast range of choices that confront me every day.

Interspersed with the tents and items directly used in Refugee Camps were some information posters. The ones below is entitled, "Where will I find food?" and has a picture of a lady, trying to put together a meal in rudimentary circumstances. These photos and the information about the harsh realities of life in other parts of the world brought one girl in our group to tears. Did it mean that the rest weren't affected? I'm sure they were, though she chose to show it in this visible way.

The photo above shows the food ration that would probably be shared between two people for a whole day. Rice, legumes and other staples are provided by the World Food programme, which is under the auspices of the UN.

We spent a while talking about water. As the picture above shows, most water is collected by women and children in developing parts of the world. In the camps, every person is given a daily ration of 20 litres a day. It looks like quite a bit of water but then we were informed that the average Australian household goes through 282 litres per day per person and we were a bit shocked!!

A few of the children tried to pick up the 20 litre container and carry it. There's a catalogue in the side bar.

Another part of the work is looking after the health of the refugees. If is all too common for people to arrive in the camps in a malnourished state. Babies are weighed (as you can see from the picture) and a measuring band is used on the upper arm to quickly ascertain whether a child is at risk. A few of our group tried the band and yes, they were all in the green zone.

So we came away with a deeper sense of just how much suffering there is in our world, the lives lived in stress and fractured environments, how blessed we are in our relative comfort and how we need to pray and support those who are reaching out to the needy.

We were given some information to take away with us. We'll keep talking about this and going through some of the material in the weeks to come.

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Sep. 15, 2008

Snow Day 11th September ~ hold this space!

Posted in excursions

Yes, this is not the snow but the lovely roaring fire we had going at home on the day Andrew took the older three boys to the snow. I stayed at home with Mark, even though I didn't have my knitting partner this year (sob).

I'm still waiting on photos from our neighbour who went along as well. Will post about the day when the piccies come through...

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Aug. 27, 2008

Australian Science Festival - 22 August

Posted in excursions

The Annual Science Festival was on again last week and we went as a small group of homeschoolers on the Friday. Some people went on Wednesday and Thursday as well but we only committed ourselves to the one day.

Oma very graciously had Mark again for us so I could just take the older three along. Our first session was "Things that Go Bang in the Night". It was about killer asteroids, blackholes, aging stars/suns and other information about how vast our universe is in comparison to the small section we inhabit. Some of the pictures were stunning, break-taking actually, and yet, this backyard astronomer painted a bleak future for the world. He basically saw earth being blown up by one of these astronomical phenomena in the future. I'm not discounting the possibility but as Christians, we have more hope as the universe is one that is completely within God's control. He chooses to protect us with an atmosphere that makes smaller asteroids burn up before they reach us and He alone will determine the end of the earth and the means by which it will happen.

After that first session, the boys were walking into the main exhibit hall and who should they meet???

DALEKS!!!!!!

Our second class was called "Dancing Robots" and we almost had the class to ourselves. The kids had to use a computer to program the robots to go forwards, backwards, spin around, sense a line, sing a song and other challenges made up by the instructor.

Here's some of the group listening to the instructions.

Zac and Adam program their robot.

Two Kirkys with theirs...

The robots in action....

Will they do the right thing??

After this, we had lunch together as a group in the main foyer. Some of us enjoyed ourselves a little more than others...

but all had a good time.

We then wandered through the displays before going to a class in the afternoon. The boys posed for the picture below:

They all tried to pedal up to 1000 watts of electricity on the exercise bike, making some a little flushed in the face...

Stephen actually had his photo taken while he was on the bike and made it into the local newspaper.

Our last session was called "Cool as Liquid Nitrogen". The lady running this class showed us what this liquid could do and explained just how cold it is....( -196 degrees C!)

I would say that just as Professor Bunsen with his explosive show last year was a hit, this one on a cold substance was their favourite this year. A banana was super-cooled and smashed to smithereens, even a "my little pony" suffered this cruel fate.

It was interesting, fun and they did learn something about science...

I could put in even more photos and talk about a couple of other things but this will do. Thanks to those who made a "day of it" with us.

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Mar. 20, 2008

Reading Challenge!

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Last year, I signed Stevie And Zac up to be part of the Chief Minister's Reading Challenge. It a scheme run in every state and territory to encourage reading in young people. The challenge requires them to read 12 books in 9 months from a set list. They can make two selections themselves from other sources. They get a certificate of achievement for this.

Well, there just wasn't time at the end of last year to have a little presentation so we decided to have it now! We gathered at a local park, sat together and had our own little celebration.

The children were asked to do a short report on a book that they read and why they liked it.

Here's a photo of Stevie reading his report. Below is Zac:

Liz shared one of her favs (well, her son's actually...)

Then they received their certificates and were encouraged to read more books for this year's challenge.

I must admit that my older boys find this easy as they are reading constantly. Still, it's nice to recognise some good reading and have the opportunity to share about that with others. Even I found out the name of a children's book that I'd like to track down for us!

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Mar. 19, 2008

Swimming on Wednesdays

Posted in excursions

For almost 6 months now, the boys have had swimming lessons on Wednesday mornings. This means getting dressed in their swimmers just after breakfast, taking their clothes in bags and heading out the door at 8.30am. The lessons start at 8.45am and go for half an hour.

The lady who teaches them is a qualified instructor and operates from her own home. She has a dome cover over the pool in colder months and leaves it open (as you see below) in warmer months. There's still a black shade cloth "sail" over the pool to keep the extreme heat from affecting those in the pool.

We kept up the lessons this term so that Adam and Mark would be more confident in the water just before we went over to warm weather in the USA.

Adam is able to strike out on his own now. He doesn't need a kick board or flippers! He's starting to learn the freestyle stroke too.

Mark has the "floatie" backpack on in this picture but he went without it for the first time today. He loves the water and tries to keep up with the others.

Stephen and Zac do freestyle laps for a lot of the time. The one I took of Zac was blurry but he was basically doing the same thing.

Occasionally, they catch up to eachother and have a bit of fun, but their teacher is good at keeping them moving. Thankfully, they are the only ones in this class so they do get a lot of attention.

We're looking forward to extended "pool" time as we prepare for our trip away. It's also been a good habit for the boys and they enjoy the morning exercise.

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