Tallarook Excursion

Peter was part of supervising staff on a whole school excursion to Melbourne's ScienceWorks museum. Part of the school experience was the carefully managed public transport travel to get there. This was not a simple task and involved a country train to the city and a suburban train to the station closest to the museum (and back again). At Southern Cross Station both ways, the children were led to the public toilet where they literally took over all available space much to the chagrin of the general public. At the museum they learned how the Earth's tilt was the reason for the change of season during the cycle around the sun. That alone made the trip valuable. Their time in the planetarium looking up at the huge domed ceiling at "heavenly projections" was equally impressive and many constellations were explained. The same number of children who started were on the return train, that being the teachers other supreme goal for the day.

Tallarook Woodcraft

For the first time, Peter tried a variety of kits at Tallarook PS Woodcraft Club. They were houses, motorbikes and racing cars. It was first come first served, though Peter endeavoured to see that older children picked up the more difficult racing car. Exploded drawings of the assembly were prepared to eliminate the desperate calls for help. These worked fairly well and only the very young and those with lots of self-doubt were calling for Peter's personal guidance. The results were encouraging and included good variation, especially with the houses. Some children chose not to take a kit but instead made something completely different with the many off-cuts available from the trays.

Whittlesea Minecraft

Woodcraft Club at Whittlesea PS turned its sights to Minecraft again and introduced Endeman to the collection. It was fairly easy to prepare for Peter in the cutting and drilling side. He chose to paint black ink over the arms and legs and that took some time, given the number made. He made a few "Steves" for those who missed out on that in previous years. Each kit was placed in a clip-lock bag to manage the distribution and the session went "gang-busters". Many children had to be shown how to put the "skin" over the wooden blocks, some too young to do it. Hammers and nails were used. There was a little bit of design variation and that was amusing as well as fun to see. Some children have now asked for an Ende-dragon. Peter will have to check it out on the internet to decide whether it is materially viable and at their skill level.

Whittlesea Woodcraft

Each week during the school terms, Peter has continued offering woodcraft during one weekly recess. The projects have varied widely, some very simple to allow Peter to prepare kits quickly in the time he had available. They range from rabbits on wheels to helicopters and houses. It is a precious thing to inspire children in this context.

Family Reunion

Last Sunday our whole extended family in the Melbourne area came together for a memorable family reunion at Gembrook. Peter's brother caught up with Christmas giving, held over from last year, and our grandkids were over the moon with the quality of the "shared" Lego train set, many boxes of construction to do. It did not take the three young ones long to do the massive assembly and by the time we had to leave, it was mostly done. We shared lunch on the back decking, did heaps of chatting, and finished our visit following and participating in the beating of drums. A nice day all round.

Scrap Construction

This amazing construction has grown from the many off-cuts left over from many years of Peter's preparing woodcraft club kits at the schools. As a way of thinning out at home Peter decided to encourage our grandkids to construction something from the scraps. An earlier blog showed the start of this. What has materialised is quite astounding and has inspired Peter to create smaller versions in the schools' woodcraft clubs next term as there are still loads of off-cuts to get rid of. All that is really needed is a fast drying white glue, courage to have a go and a belief that something special will creatively grow out of it.