Wildlings Homeschool Collective

A little catch up on what we have been doing at wildings.

We will be running our cooperative in 2026. If you’re living in Perth ( south metro ) Rockingham area, please reach out and we can add you to the group page .

Ages are 4 and up. We are not a drop of program . We are a family homeschool cooperative .

🌿 Whispers from the Winter Garden – A Story-Led STEM Series 🌧️

Exclusively Created for Wildings Homeschool Collective

As the winter rain nourishes our garden beds and the wind rustles through the native trees, something truly magical is growing at Wildings…

This term, we are proud to share our original winter story series, featuring Willowsprite and Frankie Fern—two brave garden gnome sisters who explore the wilds of weather, light, and soil. Each story is handcrafted to flow into a matching STEM experiment and nature-inspired craft, grounding the tale in real-world learning and wonder.

✨ These stories aren’t found anywhere else—they’ve been written especially for our collective, inspired by our children, our garden plots, and the season we’re walking through together.

📚 Storytelling. 🔬 Science. 🎨 Creativity.
All woven into a rich, place-based learning experience—exclusive to Wildings.

🙏 We kindly ask that our original content, including stories, characters, and learning frameworks, not be copied or reshared outside of Wildings. Thank you for helping us protect the magic that makes this space so special.

Rooted in My Why — The Wildlings Nature Journal

Wildlings was never just a homeschool group.
It was born from a need—my daughter’s, and my own.

We had tried the bigger social groups. They left her overwhelmed, unseen. The noise, the chaos, the pressure to perform—none of it felt right.

And the paid programs? Beautiful, yes. But expensive. Exclusive. Often too structured to allow for the kind of unfolding I knew she needed.

So we made something else.

A space that moved slowly.
That honoured curiosity without force.
That let nature lead.

After our first term, we introduced the Wildlings Nature Journal—a creative scrapbook that holds each week’s experiment, contextual information, and space for our children to add their own art and reflections.

It’s not just a book—it’s a living record of wonder, discovery, and growth, uniquely theirs.

There was nothing else like it in our community at the time.
No shared garden plots, no quiet Fridays of mud, magnifying glasses, and story.

But there were children who needed it.

Wildlings has grown, just like they have.

And while others might now echo its language or rhythm, what we built here is not a trend. It’s the result of listening deeply to what our children were telling us.

This space was never about filling a gap in the market.
It was about filling a gap in her world.

And I’ll keep showing up for that.

🌈☁️ WALKING RAINBOW + RAIN IN A JAR ☁️🌈
From Kindy to Year 4, our curious Wildings explored how rain travels and forms with some colourful science today! Capillary action came to life with our walking rainbow 🌈, and we made it “rain” right in our jars. The cloud wheel helped us name what we saw above and below.

So thankful for our wonderful parent helpers – everything runs smoother with extra hands, warm hearts, and shared wonder. 💧✨

🌿 Wildings This Week 🍄✨

1️⃣ We took a mindful walk through the Naragebup book track, hunting for mushrooms and fungi. We’ll revisit this walk over the next few weeks to see how the landscape transforms as winter settles in. ❄️👣

2️⃣ The kids explored the mushroom lifecycle with our interactive wheel — from spore to sprout to full-grown fungi! A hands-on way to connect science with what we see around us. 🔄🍄

3️⃣ Time to zoom in! 🔬 We got out the microscopes to check on our petri dish experiments — we swabbed our hands last week and now we’re watching the bacteria cultures grow. Tiny worlds, big excitement! 🧫🖐️👀

🌱 Chasing the Light! 🌞
This week at Wildlings, we explored phototropism – how plants grow towards light! 💡🌿

Our three fun experiments helped us see this plant power in action:
1️⃣ Shoebox Sprouts – Seeds sprouted in the dark with only one light opening. The result? Bendy little seedlings reaching for the sun!
2️⃣ Coloured Light Test – Clear cups wrapped in coloured cellophane showed how plants respond to different wavelengths of light. 🌈
3️⃣ Plant Maze Challenge – In our garden beds, we built cardboard mazes to test if seedlings could find their way to sunlight. And wow – they did! 🌀🌞

So much curiosity, teamwork, and garden science!

This week, our 18 Wildlings each took ownership of their own garden bed—watering, observing, and setting up a real-world science experiment using natural materials like orange peel, coffee grounds, and garlic powder to test how plants respond to their environment.

We’re exploring allelopathy—the way some plants use natural chemicals to compete for space and resources. It’s messy, exciting, and full of wonder—and it aligns beautifully with the Australian Curriculum:
• Biological Sciences (ACSSU002, ACSSU030) – understanding how living things grow, change, and interact with their environment
• Science Inquiry Skills (ACSIS025, ACSIS038) – predicting, observing, and recording outcomes
• Sustainability Cross-Curriculum Priority – nurturing care for living things and responsibility in managing natural systems

But beyond curriculum boxes, what fills my heart is seeing the joy, curiosity, and confidence blooming in our Wildlings. They are thinkers, carers, and little scientists—and it’s an honour to walk beside them in this learning journey.

First Friday back for term 2 .collective with .our.wildflowers .

We have organised a little different this term with occupying a third garden bed. We have three little groups with
Little blue explorers
Rockhopper researchers &
Penguin pufflings .

The wildings all age from kindy to upper primary. Everyone had their listing ears on and lots to add to our discussions before engaging in our first experiment .

Earthworm eruptions.
Testing our soil quality with a simple water , mustard powder experiment that doesn’t hurt the worms , rather irritate their skin so they head for the surface .

This will be our third year meeting at the environmental centre .

We have a heap to do in our garden bed to be ready for our first week back after the April school holidays.

I think a busy 🐝 will definitely be on the cards and making sure our autumn garden beds are ready.

We have had a slow start to term 1, we chose to wait out the summer heat and have social ft catch ups, awaiting the naragebup AGM .

I’m looking forward to us returning in our full capacity for Term 2 and digging into our garden space , learning along side the wildings and hearing about everyone’s summer adventures.

If you would like to meet up with us next week at our social catch up on Fridays , please message me.

Rockingham Western Australia
Fridays .

Our last session for the year , wrapping up another term of wildlings 2024 .

The wildlings

*Challenge:* Design and build a carrier to transport Frank the Elf safely down a zip line from the Wendy house.

*Learning Objectives:*

1. *Engineering Design Process*: Apply the design process to create a solution to a real-world problem.
2. *Materials Science*: Explore the properties and uses of various materials (e.g., strings, sticks, fabric).
3. *Physics*: Understand the concepts of gravity, friction, and tension in the context of the zip line.
4. *Problem-Solving*: Develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills through trial and error.

*Challenge Constraints:*

1. The carrier must be able to hold Frank the Elf securely.
2. The carrier must be able to travel down the zip line without getting stuck or damaged.
3. The carrier must be designed and built using only the provided materials.

*Materials:*

- Various materials for building the carrier (e.g., strings, sticks, fabric, tape)
- Frank the Elf (the “passenger”)
- Zip line equipment (e.g., string )

*Procedure:*

1. Introduce the challenge and constraints.
2. Have the Wildlings brainstorm and design their carrier solutions.
3. Provide materials and have the Wildlings build and test their carriers.
4. Encourage iteration and refinement of designs based on test results.
5. Have the Wildlings present their final designs and explain their design choices.

This STEM challenge encourages creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving while introducing essential concepts in engineering, materials science, and physics.