Nature Weaving Craft {Homeschool group in Poatina}

 

We recently did some Nature Weaving with the children in our Homeschooling group. It was a lovely, sunny day and the children LOVED their masterpieces! The little girls and I went collecting the "pieces" to weave, it all looked sooo wonderful!

 

  Amy taught us all how to do square lashing to hold our looms together!

 

 Now to the fun part!

 

 

  Hannah

 

  Esther

 Sophia's weaving complete with flower bunting!

 

 River

  Eva

 I really enjoyed seeing how each child made there art and what they liked best to weave with!

 

 

 

We happily displayed ours along the window, which we found out that Cobweb enjoyed as Nature was brought indoors!!
Smiles The Torrents'

Water study for Kids {part 3}

Our last week of the water study here in Poatina saw a field trip to our amazing Sewage Farm! We started at the top of the hill where Hannah told us about the different ways water is collected and natural paths it flows, one way or the other downhill which is called Watershed.

Hannah pointing out The tribes - above us on the mountains - Big River Tribe; below us on the plains - Midland Tribe; Across - Ben Lomand People.

Demonstrating the path the water would naturally run with people on either side of the hill.

We also ran as water drops down the gully, looked at the dam, talked about swales (ditches on contour that hold water and help it slowly soak down through the soil).

The Poatina dam, complete with wonderful wetlands plants!

Found some tracks in the wet clay on the way to the sewage farm! 

This is from a Wallaby (we think!?)

Steve giving us the low down on how the sewage farm works. It is German designed, gravity fed, passive flow system that uses beneficial bacteria and water flow to break down waste.  The Hydro put them in at different towns all across Tasmania. This one is capable for managing 3,000 people's "waste." We only have 100 people in the village at the moment!!

The vintage map of the set up!

So there ends our Water study! We all learnt HEAPS and might I say what a wonderful job Hannah did in informing us all about our water and the wonderful ways God has made things work!
Smiles The Torrents'

Water Study for Kids {part 2}

Another fun week of looking how the wonder of Water brought us to observe flow and pressure!
Is there better pressure in different parts of the village?? The top of the village faster than the bottom??

 

 

We checked out the main Water valve for the village. Amy demonstrated how valves work with the children and got them to use their arms to show it being turned on and off!

It was all tested and found that it really didn't vary that much, but there was a certain lack of pressure the further you went down the village!

Billy had a great time in timing how quickly the bucket filled for the experiments and his Mum had a great time filling them!! Well it looks like she was, though it was a wet job!

Once the testing was done the older children filled out questions, while the younger ones did some drawings of water and enjoyed talking about all they had learned.
What a fun study this has been!
Smiles The Torrents'

Water study for Kids - in Poatina

For the last few weeks we have had the opportunity to look closely at WATER and all the ways it comes and goes in our Village! The first week we looked at where our water comes from. We drove up the mountain a little and then gathered round to listen to the lovely Hannah.

 

 

 

We looked at maps learning all about markings of valleys and mountains and contour lines! Then the children demonstrated what that's like with wonderful exercises from Amy!!

 

It was raining the whole time we were out but it was really quite fun to be out and about in it, learning about water! We found the reservoir and the creek and the Weir that helps sift out all the yuckies from our Mountain water!

 

 

The children all had a great time and certainly know a lot more about our water system after our field trip!
Smiles The Torrents'

Promise with a Rainbow

This last week we have seen more than 4 rainbows!! There have been two in particular that have lasted for more than 30 mins and were a complete arch!! They have been totally amazing!!! Hannah and I were driving home from Evandale and there was one that stayed the whole drive! At one stage it looked like we were about to drive under it but as it turned out you actually can't do that, they aren't "permanent" in one spot due to light reflections.... BUT...you probably already knew that!! (I actually did not!!)

This isn't the best picture of it, taken from the side of the road after we "almost" drove under it. Hannah and I were sooo blessed by this wonder and reminded us of all the promises that God has given us. I've never seen rainbows like the ones we have seen this week since living in Poatina, it's been spectacular!!
Smiles The Torrents'

Fossicking for Fossils (Poatina, Tasmania)

Recently the homeschool families went on a field trip down to the creek to fossick for some FOSSILS! There are some AMAZING finds in one particular spot and we certainly found some fantastic samples.
Hannah Cooper (from ROCKsalt Arts) lead the talk and showed the children different rocks and what to look for when searching in God's wonderful world!

 These are dolomite rocks and are very easy to find at the top, surface level of Poatina.

 

Wonderful example of smokey quartz lodged in the ground.

 Finding FOSSILS!!!

 Sea shells and what looks like a starfish! AMAZING!!!

 

 Sophia and Mrs Dougal extracting a rock from the side of the path.... what will be on it??

 

Now the rock is out, look what is in/on it.... Lots of delicate shell print fossils!

What a super cool time of discovery and wonder and learning and finding! I've taken some of the fossils we found to the Queen Victoria Museum (In Launceston) to have them assessed! Can't wait to find out exactly what we found. YAY for fossicking!
Smiles The Torrents'