We are enjoying our final Farmschool for the term (it is still in process) by doing a double whammy of studying two different artists.

First stop - Pro Hart.

Mission - to get paint onto the canvas without touching it.

This was so much fun! Our minds whirled as we stretched them in different directions trying to figure out various ways of projecting paint.

We filled water balloons and chucked them from various angles (including off the top of a ladder).

Splat!

Or 'bounce off canvas, splat on grass';)

We sprayed paint out of bottles and straws, as well as painting balls/flowers/sponges and throwing them at the canvas.

Some awesome effects were the results.

This was the messiest Farmschool yet!

And then everything got a bit wild...

After washing off, it was time for the India Flint eco dye part of the workshop.

Forage, design, wrap, cook, rest.

Beautiful work.

And now it's the morning after and we get to unwrap...

Love this juicy, colourfilled life!

After a rejuvenating weekend away on retreat, I remembered that part of the reason we homeschool is to allow our children to immerse themselves in our family values. What we value is modelled to them on a daily basis (for better or for worse) and it certainly inspires me to be as clear and consistent in my integral values as possible.

I found a great book at the retreat and did some really fun values based activities which prompted a decision to do a few more 'formal' lessons on what we value and how we choose to manifest that in our lives.

Our first concept is 'peace'.

What does peace look like?

This was the first conversation and had my 5 year old nephew acting out 'peace' and 'conflict' with his teddies. We acted out peaceful eating and playing and even cleaning. Good fun.

Then we brainstormed on the whiteboard for behaviours and words that either belonged to a 'world of peace' or a 'world of conflict'.

Following this I brought out a stack of magazines and everyone got stuck into finding images of peace and conflict. We laughed at funny pictures, discussed ones we weren't sure about and whooped when we found a 'good one'!

The whole family participated and great insight was flowing freely.

Kids are so perceptive and all agreed that although conflict can be tempting and seem like fun, it is actually peace that will bring us joy and happiness.

They both exist, have always existed and may always exist,and I hope the children can realise when they have one foot too deep in conflict and pull themselves back to peace as its a much nicer and more productive place to live:)

A fun, bonding and heart expanding activity to do on the deck on a sunny morning.

We have two new members of our happy menagerie here at the freedom farm - two lovely one year old blue tongue lizards called Bluey Armstrong and Neo.

They were gifted to us by a client of the music shop who couldn't move them interstate to WA.

The boys carefully researched and set about creating a comfortable habitat for the cold blooded critters...

With much excitement they were handed over and it was love at first sight...a lizards face is pretty expressionless but I reckon they were happy;)

They require daily light changes as their hours of sunshine and darkness need to be roughly balanced. The boys are also making tasty treats for them consisting of crickets from the pet shop and lots of snails, slugs, bugs, kale and dandelion leaves from the garden.

Soft and smooth and cool these blue tongues are.

Studying this revolutionary contemporary artist was always going to be fun.

And messy.

Pollock pioneered the 'drip and splatter' style of painting and would often 'dance' the paint onto the canvas.

We encouraged the children to really play with this idea, allowing them to move freely around their paper. It was interesting to see how many returned to paint from the same spot...and splattered their paint neatly!

'Go for it' we said.

Many did.

It was the first day of spring and the valley really turned it on...warm sunshine put everyone in a great mood, and even put some kids in the river ;)

Welcome back Spring!!