Living History!

My last couple of posts have been very internally focused on what God has been doing in my life so it's time to show you what else has been going on around here. One of the things we are doing as part of our schoolwork is Australian history (my fave subject, yay!). Jaden did some lessons on the gold rush last term with distance ed but it was all worksheets and didn't inspire him terribly much, so once I officially took over his schooling we picked up where we left off when we were home schooling before and instead of endless worksheets have been looking at Australian history through novels and outings and there are more hands on activities planned head. Our first novel is "Mr Hornbeams Treasure Hunt".

It is the story of Mr Hornbeam coming from England to Australia to search for gold and he ends up with some tag alongs, such as a young orphan girl wanting to escape her miserable life in England and a young boy who worked on the ship but got left behind when it sailed back. Jaden read the whole book in a couple of hours but we are now going through it a chapter at a time discussing what happened, what it teaches us about life back then, and what the characters might've been thinking and feeling. Empathy is not something that comes easily to Jaden (a common aspergers trait) so seeing things through a character's eyes in a book helps him understand history far better than any textbook could!

We have also been out and about looking at Autralian history. We signed up for some homeschooling excursions even before we were offically home schooling and Jaden really enjoyed them. We went to Muru Mittigar Aboriginal Cultural Centre, and Jaden also went to Australiana Pioneer Village with my father in law because the girls were both sick the day that outing was on.

Jaden enjoyed the boomerang throwing.

This is Elora watching it all, snuggled up in her lovely beanie that only ever lasts on her head about 2 seconds before she pulls it off!

An exampl of an Aboriginal camp.

Jaden getting his face painted.

Bethy wanted a turn too!

These are Bethy's dots which mean happiness.

Bethy was also very fond of one of the artefacts that got passed around which was this baby carrier, the kangaroo skin was soooo soft!!

This is Jaden painted as a 'show off', I think it's official purpose in tribal life is to attract the ladies.

Having a go on the digeridoo.

They got to piant their own boomerangs too.

Jaden got some paint added to his face to turn him into a warrior.

This was in the driveway when we got home, as you can see the girls were totally worn out by it all!

This is Australiana Village. A whole town set out to explore!

Jaden learning that life wasn't as easy back then as turning on the kitchen tap.

We also got to learn about some history in context of our local area recently as the public school that Jaden attended for kindy, year 1 and 2 just turned 150 years old and we went along to their celebrations.

The building behind Jaden is the original school building built back in 1861. It is now the office and staffrooms.

They had people dressed up in costumes from different periods throughout Austrlia's history including some lighthorsemen from World War 1 and some soldeirs from the times of early settlement.

I hear people say that history is boring (history lover me is always horrified at that statement), but I think it's all in the approach. Get kids immersed into the world of days gone by and it takes on so much more meaning and relevance, and the bonus is that the information you want to impart actually sticks in their heads because it's attached to something fun and interesting!!