Honey4Boyz

A rare full cold moon brightened up the sky on Christmas Day. It's the first time in 38 years that it's full moon on Christmas. December's nights are the longest of the year so we could see the full moon much longer and it's a typically cold month. What a rare treat indeed to end my homeschooling year with Brandon!  Drawings By Brandon:- On a still winter night H.M.S. Resolution in a Gale,  original painted by Willem van de Velde the Younger (1670) The cannon shot, original painted by Willem van de Velde the Younger (1680) Shipwreck on a cloudy night Hong Kong International Airport The Starry Night, original painted by Vincent van Gogh Brandon wrapped up his  Charlotte Mason  homeschooling year. It has been a very eventful year for him, and the family as well. We've thoroughly enjoyed the journey and saw the benefits of exposing him to a wide spread of interests and lotsa free time for him to explore and connect with things...

There're so many creative things you can do with children, and the list is never exhaustive. We did a lot of projects together this school holidays, mostly with resources from our backyard. There's not much grass left on our garden, more like a weed jungle! We even started a project to identify the names of the weeds. The weeds also have their roles in the eco-system, so perhaps we should accept them as part of our garden plants?  A few weeks before Christmas, the pine cones from our neighbour's tree started to fall in dozens every day. It has a very unique durian-like structure and we still didn't know the specie name yet! We've so much fun collecting them, in hundreds and hundreds.... ...until we must think of something to do with them.... We put a hook on each of these cones and the boys made their imaginary creatures with them. ...like owls... caterpillars, porcupine, bees, UFOs, monsters, etc etc ... we hung some of the cone...

Brandon was really looking forward to the recent school holiday so he could draw as much as he wanted to. He drew for hours every day. No interruption from class or school.  I bought him a set of Sharpie pens and he started to use colours, next watercolour and so on. He started drawing ships since early this year, but only have time in between school to do so. I also tried to distract him to draw other things, but he's too fascinated with different types of ships. I used to be concerned whether my boys are spending their time productively during the school holidays. I kinda like to plan something so they will learn and not be idle or - we often hear this - 'bored'. But, over the years, I observe how some local homeschooled kids excel under self-directed learning rather than structured-based learning . So when Brandon shows an interest in ships, we let him lead the learning, whether he wanna do arts, music, history or science. We didn't send him to any class to ...

I just realised that this is my 101th post!! On 15th April, it's also the 101th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic. And this post is Brandon's drawings especially on Titanic. What a coincidence.  Since our visit to the "Pirates of the East" exhibition in Marine Life Park, Singapore last Dec, he had started his drawings on ships. He spent a while drawing pirate ships, then this year, he came across the study of Titanic at school, and he has been on it ever since then. On his own, he looked through the internet for stories about the ship, how Titanic sank, went through the National Geographic documentary video on the ship and  even simulated the sinking with his Lego . It's not just his drawings, but we find it quite amusing watching his enduring interest on one subject. Hopefully he'll move on to some other things soon cos we're tired of listening to the Titanic soundtrack. These are some of his recent Titanic drawings. ...

A host of meaningful events was held in the old Chinatown on the Independence Day to bid farewell to some of the well-loved, heritage sites around the Petaling Street area. See old Kuala Lumpur before the heritage sites disappear to make way for the MRT development.  Victor Chin and artist Long Thien Shih organised the Urban Sketch along Jalan Sultan on Merdeka day. My boys joined in the fun of this meaningful event. Hive of activities in Petaling Street with people from all walks of life who came for the heritage walks, cycling tour, films, open houses, etc. Boys warming up with the other artists, photographers and enthusiasts in the Urban Sketch. Quite shy to sketch in the open and attracted many passers-by to stare at their work..... What's this? A TV crew!!! Errr, what to say ah??? Tips from the real artist!! Young and old sketchers... including Liyin, our talented artist friend, who's so kind to invite us to jo...