15yo's cardboard armour had been getting more and more detailed each iteration. I hadn't seen any for a while and thought maybe he'd finally lost interest in it but one day some parts came in large boxes and suddenly there was more.
It was quite detailed with individual pieces cut out and taped together (an entire roll of packing tape was used in this endeavour). I think it was a potential practice run for making larger cosplays (he had dreams of making a Space Marine cosplay like the one he'd seen at the Royal Show and then he realised how much effort was involved and that it wasn't going to be a few hour thing like his previous projects.
15yo also unexpectedly developed a borderline obsession with violin, but sat on it for a little while knowing how expensive violin and lessons were. After doing a lot of research and occasionally telling me a lot about violins and their history, he then said he wanted to see where this obsession took him. We sent him for a trial lesson at a place that taught violin, the violin teacher said he seemed to be enjoying himself and apparently he's a natural at bowing, 15yo was enthused and so he was signed up for the term.
We initially decided to just hire a violin for the term and buy one if the interest persisted. After checking prices for violin hire, J figured it wasn't that much more expensive to buy a student violin and so went that route.
He has been practising daily for at least half an hour as he wants to make a lot of progress and get as good as he can as quickly as possible.
he has only beeen stymied recently as one of the strings snapped, must have been a day for it as one of 19yo's guitar strings snapped earlier the same day, we haven't yet sourced new strings and probably should get onto it
And the endless Warhammer painting continued.
Okay not completely true, it ended briefly when he ran out of models to paint again.
States happened for the bigs with great results, 19yo was part of history making as he was in the first MAG7 team the club had ever had (so it didn't even matter that they were also the only MAG7 team in that competition and thus won by default), and 17yo finally made state champion which is something she's been working towards for a few years.
December brought the end of year display with its usual mass loot bag shopping and packing.
After initially being uncertain about how to convey her theme for her display piece, 17yo went with my idea of making a sign and threw it together the morning of the end of year display.
As we were leaving after cleaning up and resetting the gym after the display, I noticed that either the boss or the 2IC had stuck it up on the wall.
We headed up to Jurien Bay for Christmas (following a new tradition of sending at least one of the kids up with the grandparents in their much bigger and more comfortable 4wd, this time it was just 15yo as 19yo and 17yo were going out with friends on the day the outlaws were going up). Sadly the boat was still out of commission but the boys learned how to throw and pull crab pots at the marina. They did catch two crabs but both were very slightly too small.
end of an era
17yo "graduated" at the end of the year and we are currently in the process of trying to get her a "leaver's jacket" (unfortunately the company that we chose that had a design that she liked and spent a bit of time customising are not getting back to us about a problem we're having in the checkout process, so we may have to go with another one).
She has otherwise just been working. There was a plan for a uni bridging course which had been deferred from semester 2 2024 due to the amount of stuff that was happening, but she may have prematurely withdrawn from it to enrol in a TAFE course which apparently didn't get back to her. It's not really a huge deal either way as she's still not entirely certain which direction she wants to go (she's still jumping between early learning/teaching or some graphic art/design or game art thing).
15yo discussed the idea of pursuing music with me, he had some reservations as "everyone" who pursues music "started when they were foetuses" so he didn't think he stood much of a chance especially as it seems this area is extremely competitive. I reminded him and he agreed that there was no way he could have started any earlier and definitely not at the age that "everyone" did (he had some piano lessons when he was 4ish and that didn't work out too well). I had told him I would like him to go to TAFE and do at least up to Certificate II in General Adult Education this year, ideally up to III and IV if he wanted to, and he eventually agreed to help with some other life goals (just normal little ones like trying to land his first job) that he had.
With this new direction, it looks like academically he will need a Cert III to be able to get into ECU's UniPrep course or Cert IV to possibly go straight into a uni course. UWA doesn't seem to have their own uniprep courses but apparently will accept results from another one, or STAT results for getting into one of the music degrees. Assuming he actually wants this and works for it, doing Certs II and III should take this year and then we'll see what happens from there. He also has to talk to his music teacher about what he wants to do and see what his advice is as the courses we were looking at also wanted AMEB levels and I only have a very vague idea of what those are.
As the General Adult Education course is counted as full time tertiary education and 15yo will be in year 11, he'll be automatically deregistered from homeschooling as TAFE should issue a Notice of Arrangements to the Department of Education once they've processed the paperwork they have.
If everything goes well, this will be my last homeschooling post, and if it's the last one, I think this particular life chapter has hit a satisfactory conclusion.
and if for some reason it doesn't go well then obviously I'll be back
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Oh wow, end of an era! I hope you don't feel too lost as they transition to their next steps into adulthood. Lovely to see so much enthusiasm from the youngest as well. I hope he goes well with the course.
Not lost I don't think but definitely mildly confused when I started doing my usual beginning of year scheming XD Very definitely satisfied though.
Thanks! ^_^ he's currently determined and I hope he can stick it out.
A very satisfactory conclusion! You and they have done well. It should like the violin practice is going well. Apart from the cursed broken strings that is. I hate that!
Thanks! I think they've turned out alright XD
As I wrote the post over a period of a week or so I forgot that I'd written about the broken strings!
and even though I kind of reread them as I'm copying the posts over I still managed to miss it x_x
That got fixed about a week later, the strings were acquired but 15yo wasn't confident following Youtube tutorials so just waited til his next lesson when his violin teacher could show him how to do it. Apparently he had to change all the strings in one go because it would sound weird otherwise. This instrument is complicated.
I don't know if new guitar strings were acquired at the same time but either way the guitar remained broken until earlier today when 18yo's new boyfriend was over and decided to restring it (he just used the old string so I guess there was enough length, I hadn't actually looked at it not that it would have helped as I haven't done it before) and tune it so it's all good now.
New strings are a bugger. I messed up some new acoustic ones lately and I kept beating myself up for being a guitar newb. 😀
You should be very proud of your crew, its a great feeling to see them get on the road to greatness!
Right if you're messing them up I got no chance XD
I'm not even sure how you'd mess up new strings but I'm sure I'll find every way possible
I am and it is ^_^
I was astonished as I havent made a booboo with strings for many many years and I was showing my daughter and cut the string at the nut too close before I had even got it properly in tune and then it snapped right at the nut making it too short. I was like WAAARGH. :OD
Ohhhh noooooooooo XD