2008 in Retrospect - Joseph Hackett's 1st Holy Communion

23 November was a momentous day in the life of young Joseph as he received our Lord in the blessed Eucharistic Sacrament for the first time.

It was astonishing to see how truly devout this young lad was during the Mass leading up to that very special moment - it seemed as though the rest of the world no longer existed for him, as his eyes seemed to gaze unwaveringly at the altar and the preparation of the Eucharistic Sacrifice.

Truly moving.

2008 in Retrospect - Homeschool Bush Dance

This year we managed to get to the annual Bush Dance which was hosted by the Adelaide Hills homeschoolers on 15 November.

It was an absolutely wonderful evening - nearly everyone came dressed in colonial costume or bush/stock attire, the hall was bedecked with gunny sacks, corrugated iron, gum branches, and all sorts of bush paraphernalia. The band was comprised of many homeschooled musicians who all acquited themselves admirably. The dance callers kept the dancers from devolving into total chaos, and all the dancers wore huge smiles.

My brother, who lives in the area, managed to join us on the night - the funniest thing was that what he wore was that which he wears as a matter of course, but he fit in to the theme of the night brilliantly!

We are soooo looking forward to next year!

2008 in Retrospect - Science experiment No. 2

Alas, poor Ya-Ya, the very best of intentions don't always pay off when it comes to achieving successful outcomes to science experiments!

One afternoon while I was lying down my friend attempted to recreate for my boys the "Mentos in the Coke bottle" fountain/volcano. However Mt Vesuvius was decidedly dormant - even shaking the bottles vigorously, or adding copious amounts of bicarbonate of soda and shaking again, didn't seemed to entice even a tremor, let alone a pyroclastic eruption.

Upon viewing the photographs which my long suffering friend had taken of the experiment, a clue was discovered as to the reason for the disappointment. And, upon chatting with another homeschooling family, who have a science aficionado for a son, the light of understanding was shed upon the matter.

I have three sons, and my friend had decanted equal quantities of the cola into separate smaller bottles so each could have their own. When they added their Mentos lollies and nothing happened they shook the bottles vigorously, and when that didn't work they added copious amounts of bicarbonate of soda and shook again, but still to no avail and much disappointment.

It all has to do with the amount of carbon dioxide in relation to the size of the lolly - when the carbon dioxide in the Cola is the suddenly/instantaneously attracted to the coating of the Mentos it has nowhere else to go but up and out of the bottle, at a great rate of knots.

Hmm, I wonder if it would work on lollies other than Mentos? Sounds like science experiment No.3 coming up!

2008 in Retrospect - Science experiment, No.1

In October a family friend, Barbara Giardina (affectionately known as "ya-ya"), came to stay for a week and took the opportunity to help out with some science experiments we had planned to do during school holidays instead of our normal book-work.

We started with trying to build an igloo out of sugar cubes and an icing sugar mix ... well, the icing sugar mix didn't turn out right so we had to keep adding, and adding, till it approached a reasonable consistency. And, whilst the building began well, none of us could quite work out how to achieve an arched dome for the top to finish it. In the end we all walked away in disgust and left our poor friend to battle on!

The object of the exercise was to demonstrate what makes a structure weak or strong, e.g. narrow base as opposed to a broader base, dry packed structures as opposed to those held together by some sort of pinions (dowels or nails) or mortar.

2008 in Retrospect - Worldwide Eucharistic Holy Hour

On 3 October we attended a children's version of the Worldwide Eucharistic Holy Hour which was held in St Patrick's Church, Adelaide (where my grand-mother and mother were married, and in the grounds of my old high school) (http://www.scenicadelaide.com/2008/06/04/st-patricks-church-in-grote-street-adelaide/).

There was a properly trained choir of local children (I think nearly all homeschooled) who sang truly beautifully, the rosary and, of course, Eucharistic adoration.

What made it especially enjoyable was that all the children, right down to the babies and toddlers, were all well behaved and almost as quiet as church mice, and yet those old enough to know their prayers all joined in with focused reverence.

At one point during the ceremony my own boys went forward with all the other children to pray their own intentions on the steps of the sanctuary - they had never done this before so I was quite surprised when they eagerly went forwrd, and was even more stunned at how reverently they knelt to pray, totally oblivious to each other for a short while!

2008 in Retrospect - Buzz Honey Farm tour

On 20 June two groups of homeschoolers visited the "Buzz Honey" farm (http://www.buzzhoney.com.au/) in the lovely Adelaide Hills. We were very fortunate that this particular honey farm was owned by some fellow homeschoolers, Jude and Tim Crowe.

It was a cool and slightly drizzly day but still fine enough for the outing, where we saw and learned how bees and their hives are kept and how honey is extracted from the combs and processed.

2008 in Retrospect - Homeschool Methods Seminar

Together with three good friends, Beverley Paine or Always Learning Books (http://alwayslearningbooks.com.au/) and Linda Maher of Adnil Press (http://www.adnilpress.com/), close friend Nadia Taylor (Editor of the HBL (http://www.websouth.com.au/hbl/), and a a team of volunteers on the day, we managed to pull together a small seminar with workshops, and curriculum fair, which was held on 17 May.

Considering that we were all far flung from the venue (one of us being 4 hours north, another 2 hours south, and myself 1 hour from the city), and all of us suffering from various maladies and ill-health, it was a surprise that we managed to pull it off as well as it went.

It was a thoroughly exhausting, but enormously rewarding, experience. Whilst none of us are very keen to repeat the exercise as the main organisers, we would be very glad to support behind the scenes in the lead up, and also to volunteer on the day. If we had all been well, and not so far afield, and had just one more person on the team, it would have been a far less nerve-wracking experience, but we're all still glad we did it.

The photo shows myself in the background, Linda on the right and Anna Hackett from Fountain Resources (http://www.fountainresources.com.au/index.htm) on the right, on stage during one of the panel Q&A sessions.