Australian book traveller and other things....

This is the 3D rainbow Jaden made today. We've been doing a devotional time each morning but once a week we will be doing a more involved Bible lesson going chronologically through the Bible. We did actually start it last year but only got through 3 lessons, so today was Noah's ark. I got out some coloured paper after the lesson for Jaden to make a rainbow to put in his Bible folder but he declared that it had to be 3D, so he sticky taped together a whole bunch of toilet rolls from our useful box, then cut strips of paper to make the colours, pretty clever I thought!

This is from Jaden's handwriting book today, he did absolutely beautiful work!! I think the fact that Brett bought some ice cream last night and I told Jaden he could have some if he did nice work in his handwriting book helped the cause a bit, gotta love it when rewards (or bribery) works. :-)

These are the books we're using at the moment to start our 'Australian book traveller' journey. It's got 10 units and I am planning on getting through 3 this term. The first one is an overview of Australia's history and during that to look more closely at early naval exploration of Australia, and also at the creation of Canberra as our nations' capital. Each unit covers a different state of Australia and uses story books as the main texts, in conjunction with 'our sunburnt country' history novel pictured above. We aren't even half way through our book for this unit yet as 'The Australia book' goes from the white people finding Australia up to post World War 2, so that's a lot of reading aloud!!!! It will take us at least another week to get through it.

The program comes with some sample notebooking pages and we have been using these this week to look at naval exploration. I have been so impressed with the amount of work we have covered, Jaden seems to have gotten over his fear of writing and is doing really well. This is the title page that he decided should be done in the colours of the Aborignal flag since they were already here while white people didn't even know this place existed. Gotta love it when you realise your children have taken on board some of your own passions!!! We'll be doing work on Aboriginal life and culture with unit 2 using lots of beautiful books, which also coincides with a course Jaden is booked into on Aboriginal culture that includes storytelling, arts and crafts and Aboriginal dance

Early Spanish and Dutch exploration. (Jaden was most amused that the Spanish guy thought he found Australia but was actually in Vanuatu!)

Another dutchman and some pirates. Jaden thought it was funny that the men who found Tasmania thought giants lived there because they saw climbing notches on trees that were very far apart, when all they had to do was look at the other side of the tree to see they actually wound around it, silly white people LOL.

Captain Cook.

An imaginary journal entry for Captain Cook on seeing the east coast of Australia and pictures of what the Endeavour looked like. I can't believe how much he did in week 1!

Plus there were our 2 science lessons, spelling, our devotions and another page of handwriting. I am so proud of my boy!!!!! (if you're wondering why maths is absent it's because we don't have our stuff yet. The math u see website wasn't working for most of the holidays and when it finally came back online I had needed to use the money for something else, so we're waiting for the next pay to get our maths curriculum).

Jaden has also been doing his own reading about Australia's history thanks to Jackie French. He did start 'The goat who sailed the world' about a goat the sailed with Captain Cook, but he left it at a friend's and we haven't had a chance to get it back yet. So for the past 2 days he has been reading about a young London chimney sweep who became a convict through pickpocketing. He will then go back to the goat, followed by another Jackie French book 'The camel who crossed Australia' (he travelled with Burke and Wills) and Jaden has already informed me that means next in line is 'The donkey who carried the wounded' about Simpson's donkey at Gallipoli. I am very excited about children's books making history come alive in such an accesible way, and I especially love that my son is enjoying history as much as I do!! :-)