The Flower Hunter

My love for the flora of Australia, at once so unique and so fascinating, together with my desire to complete my collection of floral paintings, has carried me into other colonies, Queensland and some of the remotest parts of the great continent of Australia. The excitement of seeking and the delight of finding rare or even unknown specimens abundantly compensated me for all difficulties, fatigue and hardships.  The pursuit has made me acquainted with many strange phases of colonial life; it has carried me into the depths of jungles, to distant lands, to wild mountain districts, and has brought me into contact with the Aboriginal races, often in peculiar circumstances.

Ellis Rowan, A Flower-Hunter in Queensland and New Zealand 1898  Preface

Ambleside Online is remarkably good at unearthing marvellous books about characters that embody the Charlotte Mason lifestyle, who live lives embodied by nature study, faith, literary habits, high moral standards and virtuous character traits.   As I write this I think of Michael Faraday, Lilias Trotter, George Washington Carver and Beatrix Potter, all of whose lives we have studied with AO in the past year.  Inspiring, all of them.

When I look at Australian substitutes for AO books, I strive to find fine men and women in our own country's history who embody these same virtues.  Sadly I often fall short.  Often, but not always.

Ellis Rowan at first glance is the perfect Charlotte Mason heroine.  One of Australia's finest artists, Rowan was also, somewhat amazingly for a woman born in 1848, an extraordinarily intrepid adventurer. Hers was a life of single minded determination to achieve her goal - to document and paint as many unknown plant specimens as she could discover throughout the Colonies, and later the whole world. Petite, elegant, high class, and always perfectly dressed, Ellis travelled right through the unexplored areas of Australia - Western Australia, tropical North Queensland as well as areas closer to home.  She visited India, Europe, America and New Guinea, and everywhere she painted.  Upon her death more than 3000 works attested to her prodigious production.

Her work was highly acclaimed and received many awards, but her reputation was contentious, and she was much maligned, particularly by her male contemporaries, including Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin.  Despite being raised Church of England and attending church regularly as a child, the Christian faith has little impact on her life. Ellis was obsessed with her work to the detriment of her husband and son.  She was highly ambitious and ruthless in getting what she wanted.  She promoted herself continually, but divulged only what she wanted others to know.  She embroidered and hyperbolised her adventures to such an extent that it is difficult to know where truth ends and fairytale begins.

Ellis' life has much to excite and inspire young minds.  Her artwork is sublime, and in documenting plants she has created a pictorial record of many species that today are endangered or extinct. With some care, she is a wonderful choice for Charlotte Mason Artist Study, and we looked at her art and life in AO5.  These are some of the resources we found helpful in our study. Maybe you will too. Enjoy.

1. Video biography

This video is a wonderful introduction by the marvellous Betty Churcher to Rowan's life and her changing style throughout the years.  Some teaching notes are here.

2. Lift the flap book

This video contains the whole text of this sweet little book suitable for AO0 or AO1.  In the book the fairies are revealed from under flaps in the paintings.  It's cute, but the video says it all.  Jemimah liked both.

3. Long Picture Book

We used Wildflower: The Life and Art of Ellis Rowan by Cassy Liberman as a sort of spine. A longish book liberally interspersed with full page prints of Ellis' paintings, Jemimah read and narrated a few pages each week in addition to studying the pictures.  Unfortunately, Liberman tells Rowan's tall tales as fact, not fiction, but Jemimah and I had great discussions about that.  I have never, ever, seen an alligator in the wild in Australia.  Have you?

4.  Exhibition catalogue

A year after Ellis Rowan died, 952 of Ellis Rowan's paintings were purchased by the National Library in Canberra, where they were hidden away on dusty shelves and were forgotten. It was fifty years later in 1982 that the first exhibition of her work was mounted.  A few years later in 2002, 100 of these works went on display in Canberra and then toured through the States. The catalogue of this exhibition, The Flower Hunter: Ellis Rowan by Patricia Fullarton is the catalogue of this exhibition.  It contains an interesting biography, as well as lovely prints of the 100 works of the exhibition.  The book contains photographs of works other than paintings done by Rowan - cups and saucers, plates and screens covered with her beautiful designs.  We used this book to better appreciate the scope and variety of Ellis Rowan's painting. The paintings are chronological, allowing the changes in her style over the years to be easily seen.

5. Adult biography

I adored reading Ellis' biography, The Flower Hunter: The Remarkable Life of Ellis Rowan by Christine and Michael Morton-Evans.  All her warts are shown clearly in the book, making it a selection for only adults or older teens, but hers was truly a remarkable life, and I thoroughly recommend this book for your own knowledge.

 Ellis painted mainly in watercolour and gouache, and one of the few oils that she painted - Chrysanthemums, the work with which she won the gold medal in the 1888 Centennial Exhibition, is included in this book.  It is her best known work, and really needs to be one of the pieces chosen for a full picture study of Ellis' works, but since it is in a private collection, this is really the only place to see it.  It is quite magnificent!

7. Other resources

The majority of the Ellis Rowan works in the National Library's possession are online here.  Have a look at this amazing Australian woman's beautiful work for yourself!

A lovely article by Rosemary Johnson in Australian Heritage magazine is online here.  It contains some marvellous photographs.

A lecture presented by Dr Judith McKay as part of the Sir Robert Philip Lecture Series is here.

8 More books to watch out for

Ellis' own book is wildly expensive.  It's called A Flower-Hunter in Queensland and New Zealand by M E Rowan, if you ever find it.  It was republished in 1991 at a much more affordable price and is available from Abe here.  I haven't read it.

Helen Jo Samuel, the children's author, wrote Wild Flower Hunter: The Story of Ellis Rowan in 1961.  It's available here.  I haven't seen it, but she is a pretty good author!

This chapter makes me mad

So let me get this right.  Jo and Meg have been invited by Laurie to see the Seven Castles.  When little sister, Amy, discovers this, she demands to be able to go too.  What a spoiled brat!  She hasn't been invited, and she isn't wanted.  In addition, she has been ill and her mother thinks she should stay home because her eyes haven't recovered sufficiently from her cold (whatever that means).  She is not even going to miss the show, because she is to go the very next week.  She harps on and on at her sisters, who stand their ground.  It isn't often that they're invited anywhere, and Jo doesn't want the responsibility of overseeing her fidgety younger sister.  Eventually, after putting up with her younger sister's insolent and arrogant behaviour for some time, Jo snaps.  The spoiled one begins to wail.  Not whimper, wail.  As her sisters leave she threatens revenge on Jo.

While the girls are gone, Amy takes Jo's prized manuscript and burns it in the fire. Several years worth of irreplaceable, much cared for work.  Jo, as you can imagine, is inconsolable.  As you would expect.  This is just devastating.

The girls' mother returns home and takes some time to explain to Amy that what she has done to Jo was wrong.  Of course it is blooming well wrong.  It was nasty and spiteful and vindictive and almost unforgivable in its malice.  Amy is made see that she needs to apologise to her sister.  She goes to Jo, but Jo is not yet ready to forgive Amy, and spurns her.  Totally reasonable behaviour, in my opinion.  Jo is still terribly upset.  She is not yet ready to forgive.  Amy is not punished in any way by her mother, who carries on as usual.  When bedtime comes, Jo is counselled by her mother to forgive Amy, but refuses.  She still isn't ready.  Grrrrrrr.

Meanwhile, the spoiled Princess is offended - much offended the book says - at being repulsed, and begins to flaunt her superior virtue.  Superior virtue indeed.  What she did to Jo is unforgivable, and she has not been punished in any way whatsoever by Marmee or anybody else.  Amy carries on all day in this snidely arrogant way until eventually Jo decides to ask Laurie to go skating with her in the hope that her friend will help her get her act together.  She, at least, is trying.

What does the horrid little brat do then? Does she stay put and think about how nasty she has been?  Oh no, she tags after her sister again.  When will she learn?  Admittedly, she does plan to apologise again...perhaps truly, this time...but Jo doesn't know that. 

When Jo discovers her younger sister has followed her, you can imagine how angry she would feel.  Well, maybe I'm assuming you feel like me.  I can imagine how angry she would feel.  I would have been livid. So was Jo.  She makes a poor decision, and doesn't inform Amy that the ice is thin in the centre of the river.  Of course, Amy falls in.  At last she gets her just deserts!  Hurrah!

Amy is rescues by Laurie and is taken back home to be nursed by Marmee. Poor Jo is distraught, and filled with remorse.  She instantly takes all the blame and is in despair.  How differently she acts from the superior little minx safely asleep in her bed.  She vows to do differently and to control her terrible temper, and mother and daughter have a pious little tête-à-tête over how she can do better next time.  'How could I have been so wicked?' she ponders, and is so relived when little Amy forgives and forgets.

About here I am ready to throw Little Women out the car window.  This chapter makes me so mad.  The sister with the character flaw in this chapter is not Jo, Ms Alcott, it is that sanctimonious brat of a child.  I'm glad she fell in the river because otherwise she would have got off scot free, and that makes me see red.  Where's the justice in that, I ask you?

I love Little Women, but Chapter 8 never fails to rile me in this way.  It is the most aggravating chapter in the most wonderful book.  I am irritated just thinking about it.

Anyone agree?

In a nicer note, has anyone seen the Japanese anime version of Little Women?  It's on YouTube if you want to take a look. The whole of Chapter  8 is missing from the story.  Which can only be a good thing. 

The Battle for Gaza

At the end of Chapter 16 of Reverend Joseph Bowes' novel, The Aussie Crusaders, its heroes, Major Jack Smith and Sergeant Jock McThirst have escaped from the Bedouins and Turks that have held them captive for much of the story up to this point and have rejoined their regiment in the Australian Lighthorse in the lead-up to the taking of Gaza.

At this point in the book, where the action turns from  the fictitious but highly exciting escape to the account of the actual fall of Gaza, it seems Rev. Bowes realises the need to add little historical, geographical and military detail to his narrative.  He does it well, in the form of letters home and interesting acecdotes, but his intention is evident, I think.  Normally I dislike vehemently books where an author tries to cram information down his readers' throats thinly disguised as a story, but Bowes manages this extremely well.  (Not so Mary Mapes Dodge in her surprisingly well acclaimed novel, Hans Brinker; or, the Silver Skates: A Story of Life in Holland, which has its pages cram packed with must know historical and geographical information about the Netherlands that is completely irrelevant to the story.  Ugh.)

Anyhow, the following paragraphs from Chapter 17 about Gaza and its historical importance, rather than its military one as gateway to Jerusalem and the Ottoman Empire, absolutely fascinated me, and I thought I would share them here.  Maybe you will find them interesting as well.

What soul-stirring memories cluster around that ancient town!  From time immemorial she has stood on the great warpath of the nations, and was to Africanders the gateway to Asia.  What Damascas was in the north, that Gaza has been in the south of Palestine; an entrepôt, receiving the trade from all routes stretching from Egypt to Arabia.

What conqueror has not seen he?  Those mighty Pharaohs, Tothmes and Rameses; Alexander the Great and his ten thousand invincibles; and Pompey with his Roman legions.  By this gateway, also, Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar entered Egypt.  Later on the streets of Gaza echoed the footsteps of Richard Coeur de Lion and his crusaders, in his campaign against Saladin.  After him came kings and innumerable nobles from all countries, culminating in the savage onslaughts between the Knights Templars and the Saracens.  Last of all, but greatest of all in military genius, came Napoleon in the spring of 1799, on his way to the Euphrates - then back again, making a holocaust of blood and fire to minister at the shrine of his insatiate ambition.  Here Sampson the Strong performed two of his greatest exploits, and here, too, the great Jewish patriot and hero, whom one has called the William Wallace of Judaism, Judas Maccabeus, fought some of his notable battles against the Syrians.

...This was the place the Commander-in-Chief of the British forces was asking his men to seize.

Joseph Bowes, The Aussie Crusaders

We're reading The Aussie Crusaders as part of our Australianised AO5.  The curriculum this year covers the period of history that includes WWI, and the significance of this war on Australia's national identity and its newly emerging status as a federated nation independent from Britain makes it more important for Australians to study in depth than for Americans.  For them it is the Civil War that consumes their time and interest here.

The Aussie Crusaders has been a valuable adjunct to our studies this term, as well as being a thrilling adventure.  I recommend it.  Of course it's out of print, but Abe has a few copies.

The Blood Mobile

Hey, it could be that standards are slipping a little in our Peaceful Home on our second to last week of school, but we really enjoyed these today:









Twaddle? Maybe.

This close to the end of the school year most kids are playing games and watching movies and being babysat. At least this was educational as well as fun.

Well, I can justify it, anyhow.

Testing time

Jemimah is sitting the IPMA Level 5 test today. It is hard to believe that she has completed Level 5 of MEP. Where has the time gone?

She is working on the computer and the house is very quiet. It's strange. My job is to supply the busy worker bee with hot cups of milky tea and chocky bikkies, but I find myself wandering in and out of the room and feeling generally superfluous. I will not like it when my girl does all her work independently, that is for sure.

I still have nothing but praise for this free maths programme. It supplies a complete, rigourous maths education in a simple and interesting format. There are no gimmicks, no coloured workbooks, no fun manipulatives. What there is, though, is sensible explanations, little busywork, interesting applications, good teaching materials for mum, sufficient repetition and adequate practice, and plenty of variety.

We've used MEP from the beginning and think it's great. I'll be interested to see the results of the test today.

Now what should I do? More biscuits perhaps?

A School for Wives

A woman is like a Pizza Supreme that another bloke is looking at.
She’s part Prawn, Bacon and Feta, part Satay Veg, part Pepperoni,
She’s Meatlovers’ Special and Chicken Monaco, though in his case, she’s Create-Your-Own- i.
But if another man steals the tiniest bite, if it’s just half an olive he’s got,
The jealous man becomes a Fire Breather, ’cause he thinks he’ll eat The Lot.

That Bell Shakespeare's A School for Wives is modernised is evident by Alain's speech on the jealousy of men above. The original says something like this:

Tell me, is it not true that, when you have your broth in your hand, and some hungry person comes up to eat it, you would be in a rage, and be ready to beat him? It is just the same. Woman is in fact the broth of man; and when a man sees other folks sometimes, trying to dip their fingers in his broth, he soon displays extreme anger at it.

Despite the modernisation, however, I am excited to be introducing Molière's wonderful form of comic farce to Jemimah with Bell's production of the play later this term.

The highly amusing play is the story of a man, Arnolphe, who is concerned that if he marries, his wife will be unfaithful to him and leave him for someone else.  To fix this he decides to have his young innocent ward, Agnès, sent to a convent to be raised until she is 18 and marriageable age.  His plan is to raise Agnès so that she will be too ignorant to be unfaithful to him.  Of course his plans go terribly awry the moment young Agnès sets her eyes upon Horace, and the two fall truly, madly, deeply in lurve...

We've been studying the play this term in lieu of Shakespeare in AO5.  Today we read a synopsis, as well as reading through some of the more famous quotes from each of the characters.  Next week we'll read a child friendly bio of Molière's life. Later we'll read the play together as we do with Shakespeare.



The highlight, of course, will be the production itself.  Smart clothes, a meal out at The Art Centre, a packet of Malteasers at Interval, the evening will be a real Special Occasion.  I'm sure, quite sure, that Molière will become a family favourite just like Shakespeare has, and this production will be one of the highlights of our year.  Contented sigh.
If you haven't yet taken your kids to a production like this, then do consider it.  Shakespeare - and Molière - on the stage are just super.

Do you have wonderful experiences of the theatre in your family too?

AO5 Term 3 Folksongs

I'm feeling a little nostalgic this term as we sing our new folksong, Pokarekare Ana.  It's a song I learned myself at school back in 1975 as part of the wonderful Sing Programme, the music curriculum that has been part of Australian primary schools since the late 1950s.
Back in 1975 I was in grade six, my final year of primary school.  My teacher was Mr Burgess, a purple trousers wearing, bald headed bachelor whom I remember as being at least sixty, but given the inability children have in correctly ageing the ages of adults, all I can confidently say is that he was probably older than my parents.  He was an old-school type teacher, even then, fond of the 'ruler' and the 'strap', and a firm disciplinarian. Spelling tests and times tables are my main memories of his class; that and sitting in spelling ability order up the room.  If you were one willing to listen and to learn though, as I alway was, then Mr Burgess was always fair.  I have very fond memories of my year under his care and direction.

In hindsight I find it surprising that gruff old Mr Burgess would have embraced the Sing Programme so keenly, but of all the years that we used this programme, it is the songs from his particular year that stand out most in my mind. I even remember the little wireless radio sitting up the front of the class. Most of them remain my favourites and I still know the lyrics to Andy's Gone with Cattle, Christmas Day, The Court of King Caractacus, The Drover's Dream, The Keeper, If I had a Hammer, Macnamara's Band, Ob-la-di Ob-la-da, The Pushbike Song, The Toreador Song and Tie a Yellow Ribbon, all of which were taught in that one year.  My friend, Ruby, also remembers this programme fondly.  I wonder how many of these you remember, Ruby.

Sing song books are still being produced.  Keep an eye out for them around November of each year along with their accompanying CDs.

We're doing a term of New Zealand folksongs this time, and it has been a challenging term to put together.  Pokarakare Ana was a given, of course, as was Now is the Hour, which has sold millions of copies and is popular throughout the world.  The other selection was more difficult.  I was looking for an upbeat song to balance these old slow serious ones and had quite a bit of trouble finding something.  I also wanted something in English, feeling that one and a half Maori songs was enough.  Taumarunui on the Main Trunk Line was suggested by a few, but having been written as recently as 1957, it didn't really meet my criteria.  In the end I've decided on Dulcie and the Moa, but I would value your alternatives if you have them.  According to my New Zealand sister-in-law, New Zealand's sense of national pride came in later than Australia's, so we're thinking that that probably accounts for the dearth of earlier songs. 

Anyhow, without further ado, here are our songs for the final term of AO5.

Now is the hour when we must say goodbye.
Soon you'll be sailing far across the sea.
While you're away, oh, then, remember me.
When you return, you'll find me waiting here.

Sunset glow fades in the west. Night o'er the valley is creeping.
Birds cuddle down in their nest, soon all the world will be sleeping.

Now is the hour when we must goodbye.
Soon you'll be sailing far across the sea.
While you're away, oh, then, remember me.
When you return, you'll find me waiting here.

AO5 Term 3 French songs

This website makes choosing French folksongs so easy!

AO5 Schedule

Hello Lovies.  I'm so sorry I've been absent without leave.  Jemimah and I have been beavering away on school in order to get AO5 Term 2 finished by the end of this week.  We've managed it too.  Hurrah!

For the first time in our homeschool journey we're not taking a break between terms, but are instead moving straight into Term 3 next week.  Before you harass me for being a bad mumma, however, let me remind you that we did take  a three week holiday to SE Asia midway through this term, and so we haven't really been working 12 weeks straight without a break.  I would not like to be thought of as harsh and uncaring.

We're hoping to make a head start on Term 3 because in only a few short weeks I'm off to Europe with my mum, leaving Mr PD with sole parental responsibility for our daughter for almost a month.  Jemimah and both agree that it is much more desirable for her to take a couple of weeks holidays then, since independent work for four weeks would be quite a strain otherwise.

The good side of all this is that it has forced me to actually finalise our AO5 schedule.  I've posted it here for those of you who like to follow along with us.
Year 5 Schedule

AO5 Term 3 covers the period of time between Federation up to and including WWI.  It is not a very busy time in Australia's history, this 20 year period, providing us with the opportunity to add in not one but two books on the war.  One of these, of course, has to be Elyne Mitchell's novel about my grandfather, The Lighthorsemen, but the other is a fascinating little novel by Methodist minister, Joseph Bowes, called The Aussie Crusaders.  Bowes, a minister in NSW and Queensland for almost fifty years, was a prolific writer of books for boys, including a number of war stories.  In this one, Major Jack Smith and Sergeant Jock M'Thirst are captured by Bedouins and then Turks and are present at the fall of Gaza and Jerusalem.  It is a thrillingly exciting book with much apparent accurate research.  I'll write a review once we've read it.

Other highlights include biographies of Beatrix Potter and George Washington Carver, along with the conclusion of our bio of John G Paton.  Literature includes Kim by Rudyard Kipling, Goodbye Mr Chips and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

Every term of Ambleside Online is a goodie, but this one is shaping up to be extra fine indeed.

There is a happy jig happening here.

Gully of Gold

One of the biggest challenges I face when Australianising AO is not finding good Living Books to include on a particular topic, but rather deciding on which of the ten or twelve books I have compulsively collected on any particular period of history to exclude!

I have found that especially in AO5 because fewer of the books in this year are Americocentric and so I need to be particularly careful not to overload Jemimah with too many extra books. This term we have been studying the gold rush and Ned Kelly. I had already added books on both of these topics into the weekly readings list as well as a number of Australian general titles into the Free Reading list, and I really couldn't justify adding any extra. This book though, Gully of Gold, written by Mavis Thorpe Clark in 1958, just wouldn't stay quietly on the bookshelf, but kept coming back to haunt me. Just when I least expected it.

Finally a month or so I gave in and added it to the Family Book Bag for reading on our journey to and fro Melbourne each weekend. I'm so glad I did.

It's the story of the Bennett family, sensible Jane Ellen, 17, self-confident Richard, 16, determined James, 10, and angelic looking but surprisingly mischievous Sarah, 9, who emigrate to Australia accompanied by their Uncle Harry in search of a better life. On the way their uncle dies leaving them alone and with the princely sum of £19 to survive on. Jane Ellen, of course would have liked them to return directly to England, but upon nearing Australia the family hear that gold has been discovered, and Richard and their friend, Peter, a young stowaway they have met on the journey are immediately consumed with a bad case of gold-fever. The young family set out for Ballarat and the diggings.

Gully of Gold is a terrific book because Clarke manages to incorporate historical knowledge into the narrative without you realising that she is doing so, and through its inclusion you learn an amazing amount about the gold rush without feeling that you're being force-fed. You hear about how ship captains moor their boats off shore to prevent their sailors disappearing to make their fortune. You see a vivid picture of historic Melbourne, its streets deserted of people as everyone leaves for the diggings. There is the Lamb Inn in Collins Street, Coles Wharf, the Botanic Gardens founded by Governor La Trobe. Princes Bridge is newly built and Swanston Street, its footpath, filled with puddles, is still unmade. The GPO is already there on the corner of Bourke and Elizabeth. Historic Melbourne comes alive.

The difficult trip by foot to the diggings is harder than I ever dreamed, but I could imagine them all the way. Even the Lerderderg River gets a mention.

All this of course is just background information for the real story - life on the Ballarat gold fields. There are the licence hunts, the visits from the troopers and the Commissioners, the echoing calls of Joe! Joe! Joe! There are the Vandemonians - free convicts and the fear and dislike that is displayed by the free settlers. There is robbery, theft, anger, rivalry, jealousy, suspicion and strife, but also mateship and loyalty and a willingness to help. There is illness and calamity and of course a lost child.

And at the end there is a happy ending. As there should be.

If you like John of the Sirius you'll love Gully of Gold. I think it is even better because these children live though history as it really was - they don't change it. At times with the John books it is hard to imagine what history was really like without John playing a major role in everything that happened. Not so Gully of Gold. This book is terrific.

Of course, as usual, it is out of print. Abe has it reasonably here.

Stradbroke Dreamtime

I discovered this morning that my copy of Stradbroke Dreamtime is signed by the author. It says 'Best wishes Kath Walker August 1972', unsurprising, I guess, since that was her name back in 1972 when the book was published and she took up her pen.

Later, she changed her name to Oodgeroo of the Noonuccal tribe,after the paperbark tree that the tribespeople used as roofing material for their gunyahs. We read about a summerhouse built of that tea tree bark in Stradbroke Dreaming in the middle of a wonderful/scary/fascinating story about Carpie the Carpet snake. Have a read of an excerpt:

He was a beauty, that ten-foot carpet snake we had as a pet... (My mother) hated old Carpie because of his thieving ways... But, somehow, Mother never was game to bring down the axe on Carpie's head. We all knew she was tempted to do just that...

We all loved Carpie except for Mother - and the dog. The dog kept well out of Carpie's way, because he was scared stiff of him. He seemed to know that a ten-foot carpet snake can wind itself around a dog and in time swallow it whole.

One day mother went away for a short while to hospital. She came home with a brand-new baby sister for us. The day of her homecoming, we were rather overawed as we watched the baby sleeping in her cot... After a while Mother shooed us out to play, placed the cover gently over the sleeping baby, and went to make herself a cup of tea. Some friends, tribal neighbours, called to welcome her home; playing in our summer-house of tea-tree bark that Dad had built to catch the cool breezes blowing from the bay, we heard the women gossiping and the chink of teacups. When the neighbours left, Mother peeped in with pride on her new baby.

Suddenly we heard Mother's voice raised in a terrible screech as she raced outside calling to Dad. Dad read the urgency of that screech, dropped his hammer, and ran.

Mother looked as though she were having a fit. She was jumping up and down, running to snatch up the long handled broom, swearing like a bullocky. We knew something terrible must have happened for Mother to carry on like this. She behaved differently in different sorts of emergencies. we knew this one was serious.

"Stop shouting, woman!" Dad ordered. "What's wrong?"

Mother pointed a shaking finger towards the bedroom, "Get that gluttonous reptile out of my bedroom!"

Dad went into the bedroom. There curled up in the cot with the baby, now wide awake and crying, was old Carpie.

Carpie seemed to sum up the situation in no time flat. He quickly slithered off the bedclothes, down onto the floor and out of the door...

Finally Mother found her composure, once Carpie had disappeared. "But mark my words, you stubborn fellow, that snake could have swallowed my baby," she told Dad.

"Don't be silly, woman, why would he want to swallow your baby when he can swallow your chooks any time he wants to?" Dad retorted, and shot out of the door before Mother could think up a reply.

Jemimah is reading Stradbroke Dreamtime this year in our Australianised AO5. I asked her what she thought of it today. She said, "Refreshing and Confronting". She thinks it is refreshing because it is a much easier read than the other books she has read recently, and it contains a bit of ironic humour. It is confronting, though, because Oodgeroo tells her story as she sees it, and sometimes she does not like white people very much at all.

I remember that back in 1992 I went to visit the War Crimes Museum in Ho Chi Minh City. There on the wall amongst stark photographs of the atrocities perpetrated on innocent victims - mainly women, the elderly, and children - were words that read something like this: 'We, the Vietnamese People accuse YOU!!' The information in that museum was biased, there is no doubt, but similarly, the photographs were real, and in them were Americans, New Zealanders and, yes, Australians, performing acts that made me feel very ashamed. That, I think, was the first time I realised completely that white Western middle class people were not always right.

Stradbroke Dreamtime makes you feel like that. In its pages you read things that make you feel ashamed. It almost feels racist - the black people accusing the white people unfairly - except that Oodgeroo was remarkably reasonable and fair in her appraisal.

Reasonable and fair, but not nice.

The first half of the book is the story of Oodgeroo's childhood. The second half is a series of traditional Dreamtime myths. In her story we read about the rations given to black families on Stradbroke Island. Miniscule wages and 'rations' not sufficient to feed a family. Rice, sago, tapioca. White man's food. We read Oodgeroo's opinion on man's greed, and read into it 'white man's greed'. She pulls no punches:

Greedy, thoughtless, stupid, ignorant man continues the assault on nature. But he too will suffer. His ruthless bulldozers are digging his own grave.

You feel confronted when you read Stradbroke Dreamtime, but sadly you are also forced to acknowledge that what she says is so. In fact, life for Kath Walker and her family was far, far worse that she writes. She grew up in the age of 'the stolen generation'. As mixed race children one wonders how they were able to remain with their parents at all. Young Kath endured racism right through her life. We don't read about those experiences in this book, but we can feel the undercurrent below the surface, and it makes us feel uncomfortable.

The thread of protest running through Stradbroke Dreamtime is what makes it better for older children. Oodgeroo tells of the joy of her childhood, but you can feel her pain and her anger. It is raw. The stark black and white drawings in the older editions match perfectly, although the illistrations by aboriginal artist Bronwyn Bancroft in the 1993 edition are also pretty good. The book is easy to read, and would appeal to an audience of 6-8 year olds, but reading it then would mean you would miss the opportunity for some fantastic discussions with your kids about what it meant to grow up aboriginal in the Australia of the early part of last century. Like Jemimah says, it's both a refreshing and confronting read.

We still have a long way to go before Australians - black and white - are truly one people. Reading Stradbroke Dreamtime with our kids goes part of the way to helping bridge the gap.

We read Stradbroke Dreamtime in AO5. The good news is that it is still in print. Hurrah!

What Katy Did

Probably most homeschooling parents are aware of Ambleside Online's Free Reading List of age appropriate wholesome books, whether or not they utilise the rest of the curriculum. Certainly I have been impressed over and over again at their choices - both in what they have included in a list, but also in what they have chosen to exclude. I was surprised, for example, that Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time hadn't made the grade, and then I reread it and I understood perfectly. Other books are not there simply because of time constraints - so many good books; so little time. You know the old adage.

The Ambleside Online graded list is challenging, and each year builds on those that have come before. One of my great bugbears is when parents who follow the curriculum leave out a book because it is too difficult only to discover the same thing happening in subsequent years as well. You don't leave out the difficult topics in Maths and expect suddenly to be able to do the advanced topics that build on them the following year do you? Why, then, do parents do it with reading? Persevere more, that's what I say. More of this another time.

While I follow the Ambleside Curriculum in its entirety quite closely, substituting only in order to include some Australian content, there are some certain books that, although not included in the wonderful Booklist, figure highly in my list of nostalgic memories and which I would be sad not to introduce to my daughter, regardless of whether they make to grade or not. Some of the characters in these books are the most treasured friends of my childhood, and I love to introduce them to Jemimah and have her love them too.

Katy Carr and her siblings - Clover, Elsie, Dorry, Johnnie and little Phil are just the most wonderful family, and they get up to the most jolly fun. When Katy is disobedient and has a dreadful accident that leads to her becoming an invalid, then she also learns to be good as well.Some say that the story of What Katy Did is overly moralistic, but I adored these books. I loved the mischievous Katy at the beginning, I love the invalid Katy in the middle, and I loved what Katy becomes at the end. I wonder whether the books will hold up under a re-reading or whether I might find Cousin Helen saccharine sweet and the reformed Katy boring, but I am going to take the risk and read these books to Jemimah just because I loved them so.There are two scenes in the first book that stick in my memory, and as I looked them over today I discover that I have remembered them almost word perfectly. The first is where Katy takes over the housekeeping when Aunt Izzie contracts typhoid fever, and after poring over the recipe books demands that Debby cook some new dishes. Have a read:

As soon as breakfast was over, and the dishes were washed and put away, Debby would tie on a clean apron, and come up stairs for orders. At first Katy thought this great fun. But after ordering dinner a good many times, it began to grow tiresome. She never saw the dishes after they were cooked; and, being inexperienced, it seemed impossible to think of things enough to make a variety.

"Let me see – there is roast beef – leg of mutton – boiled chicken," she would say, counting on her fingers, "roast beef – leg of mutton – boiled chicken. Debby, you might roast the chickens. Dear! – I wish somebody would invent a new animal! Where all the things to eat are gone to, I can't imagine!"

Then Katy would send for every recipe-book in the house, and pore over them by the hour, till her appetite was as completely gone as if she had swallowed twenty dinners. Poor Debby learned to dread these books. She would stand by the door with her pleasant red face drawn up into a pucker, while Katy read aloud some impossible-sounding rule.

"This looks as if it were delicious, Debby, I wish you'd try it: Take a gallon of oysters, a pint of beef stock, sixteen soda crackers, the juice of two lemons, four cloves, a glass of white wine, a sprig of marjoram, a sprig of thyme, a sprig of bay, a sliced shalott –"

"Please, Miss Katy, what's them?"

"Oh, don't you know, Debby? It must be something quite common, for it's in almost all the recipes."

"No, Miss Katy, I never heard tell of it before. Miss Carr never gave me no shell-outs at all at all!"

"Dear me, how provoking!" Katy would cry, flapping over the leaves of her book; "then we must try something else."

To this day I smile when I read shallots listed in an ingredients list. "Miss Carr never gave me no shell-outs, at all, at all," I mutter to myself under my breath - quietly so I don't have to explain what I'm saying. Mostly when I read shallots nowadays I just substitute with onions anyhow. They taste pretty much the same, and we don't grow no shell-outs in the country where I live.

The other scene is this one:

A little later Papa and Aunt Izzie came in, and they filled the stockings. It was great fun. Each was brought to Katy, as she lay in bed, that she might arrange it as she liked.

The toes were stuffed with candy and oranges. Then came the parcels, all shapes and sizes, tied in white paper, with ribbons, and labelled.

"What's that?" asked Dr. Carr, as Aunt Izzie rammed a long, narrow package into Clover's stocking.

"A nail-brush," answered Aunt Izzie; "Clover needed a new one."

How Papa and Katy laughed! "I don't believe Santa Claus ever had such a thing before," said Dr. Carr.

"He's a very dirty old gentleman, then," observed Aunt Izzie, grimly.

I don't know why this one tickled my fancy, but it does. I remember it each Christmas when I shove some long thin package down the side of a stocking.

I had the series out this morning to cover with plastic before adding the first to the book bag. (Do you protect your precious old books with plastic? I always do.) Whilst they were out I scanned the covers of the set to share with you. Aren't they swoonworthily beautiful?

Here they are on the bookshelf. I just adore shelves filled with spines like these. They just don't make books like these nowadays, do they?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to reminisce a little. I have a date with an old friend.

Poor Ned Kelly

Precisely those who plead that Kelly was the creature of circumstances, and that we are all moulded by our surroundings, ought to understand that society is bound to put the brand of failure upon crime. Other men as ignorant and as weak as Kelly must learn from him that it is wise to refrain from bloodshed; that the State is stronger than any one citizen; and that no fictitious romance, no maudlin sympathy will avail against the common sense of the governing majority.

Editorial Opinion, The Age, November 13, 1880

New Kelly was a bushranger. He was an outlaw and a convicted police killer. He was a murderer and a cattle duffer. He took innocent hostages. My grandmother, whose family lived in Yackandandah in the middle of Kelly Country, grew up strongly believing that he was a villain who got his just deserts.

Yet despite that, Ned Kelly continues to be considered by some as a romanticised Aussie Robin Hood, stealing only from the rich to support his poor and struggling relations. He's fondly thought of as loyal and brave and daring and a bit of an Aussie larrikin.

Certainly Ned was a victim of circumstance. That his family situation, the bad influence of his Uncle Jimmy Quinn, and the incessant harrassment by the police influenced his later choices is without dispute. The fact remains though, that many of those decisions were wrong. Ned Kelly was at war with society. He was at war with authority. He was at war with the law.



I suppose it is the ease with which we can see both sides of the Ned Kelly character that makes him such an enduring enigma. There have been books, films, plays, folksongs - even a ballet. His story has been stretched and distorted so much that nowadays it is difficult to distinguish the real man from the even bigger myth. And yet even at the time of his execution by hanging he had his supporters - 32,000 people signed his petition for clemency.

This week as we cover his period in Australian History, Jemimah and I have been doing a bit of a character study of Ned Kelly. We've been reading from Frank Clune's Ned Kelly,a book that clearly develops the unfortunate circumstances that lead to Ned's life of crime, but which also lays the blame for that ultimate decision on Ned's own shoulders.

Ned Kelly was a desperado, with a chip on his shoulder. From the moment he was released, Ned was at war with the community that had spoilt his life.

There could be no real excuse for Ned's choosing wholesale horse-stealing for his profession... This was the taking of a wrong turning for him, and he had nobody to blame but himself. An honest career was open to him...Instead Ned challenged the Law - a fight he was bound to lose.

Many times we've stopped reading for a long discussion about who is to blame for a particular outcome. Could things have been done differently? What should Ned have done? What would you have done?

Charlotte Mason taught that 'an ordered presentation of the possibilities and powers that lie in human nature and of the risks that attend these, can hardly fail to have an enlightening and stimulating effect on young children'. Certainly Clune's book has provided us with some marvellous opportunities for a discussion into Citizenship over the past few days.

I look forward with interest to a continuation 0f the discussion after we read from this book again next week.

Of course Ned Kelly is OOP - aren't they all? Abe has it here. You're looking for the children's adaptation - the one illustrated by Walter Stackpool.

What do you think of Ned Kelly? Is he hero or villain in your eyes?

In unlikely ways and from unlikely sources do children gather that little code of principles which shall guide their lives.

Charlotte Mason Towards a Philosophy of Education p 189

What to avoid and how to avoid it, is knowledge as important to the citizen whether of the City of God or of his own immediate city, as to know what is good and how to perform the same. Children recognise with incipient weariness the doctored tale as soon as it is begun to be told, but the human story with its evil and its good never flags in interest.

ibid. p186-7

Macbeth

We're off to see Macbeth on Saturday night. Want to come with us? There are still tickets available if you do, and we'd love your company.

The video makes it look like a pretty modern production, but our experiences of Bell Shakespeare have been extremely positive in the past, so I feel sure that we will enjoy this production as well.

This week we're getting ourselves prepared. We've reread Lamb's retelling of Shakespeare to reaquaint ourselves with the story, and Jemimah and I have been reading through the actual play. We've even acted our parts of it using our Shakespeare finger puppets. The witches are the most fun, of course.

For us at this stage Shakepeare is what you see performed. No doubt in the future we will study the plays as literature, but right now we're just enjoying the bard for what he is - an exceptional writer of clever - and often very funny- plays.

Gold Fever

Gold! In Australia in the 1850s, the whole country was aflame with gold fever. People were finding huge nuggets, fortunes were being won, and everybody wanted to be a part. It's a great period of Australian history to share with kids.

It was its similarity to the Holling Clancy Holling books that first attracted me to Goldseekers - full colour pictures on one side of each double spread, with small black and white line drawings surrounding the text on the other. Despite the fact that there is no acknowledgement of this, I can't imagine that this is a coincidence.

Fortunately, Greta Knudsen's writing is pretty good also, and her research is meticulous.

Goldseekers is the story of a fictitious family, the Agnews, who emigrated from England to New South Wales just before Edward Hargreaves discovered gold near Bathurst. Through Knudsen's painstaking research we learn about the goldrush through the eyes of their son, David, as he grows from a young child to being a father himself. The family encounter Aborigines, get lost in the bush, are held up by bushrangers, and trek across the Blue Mountains, meeting many real characters of the Australian gold rush era on their way.

Through the pages of the book we learn about the gold rush in Turon, Tambaroora, Sofala and Hill End, and read of real incidents like the Lambing Flat affair where the Chinese were savagely attacked. The story is vividly arranged, and the style is appealing, with historical information presented in a way that makes it read like an integral part of the story and not just an opportunity to ram boring historical facts into small minds:

The most important person in the township was the Government Gold commissioner, who made sure that every digger had his licence. The fees collected from the diggers were used to pay the troopers to keep law and order, and provide a mounted escort to take the gold to Sydney. The number of Government officials grew with the population, but even the postmaster and his clerk kept their gold pans close by and would join the diggers when their official duties were over.

A licence cost £25 each year and many of the diggers found that they could not afford to pay for their right to dig, The Gold Commissioner knew this and would patrol his area carefully every day, searching among the diggers for those who were trying to evade the law. When he appeared with his escort of gold police, someone would croak like a crow, warning those who didn't have a licence to hide for a while. All the other diggers would help to hide the equipment until the coast was clear again.

Jemimah is reading through two chapters of Goldseekers each week of AO5 Term 2. She's enjoying it, and I am enjoying her thorough narrations - the sign of a true living book. We're both enjoying those pictures by Eva Sandor. Her attention to detail make each of the illustrations a valuable source of information in their own right, and we have spent much time discussing each one and doing further research.

Unsurprisingly, Goldseekers, first published in 1969, is out of print. You can buy copies at a reasonable price at my friend Abe.

Our homeschooling day

Amongst my favourite blog posts are the ones Mama Squirrel posts about her daughter, Crayons' homeschooling days. Posts like this one.

I don't know about you, but I find it really helpful to see what an education using Ambleside Online looks like in real life, especially since Crayons is only a term ahead of Jemimah.

Today I thought I might might try my very own Mama Squirrel post. Maybe you'll find my day interesting as well. You never know!

Since I work as well as homeschool Jemimah, our days are rarely straight forward. Today I had a meeting from 10.30 am - 1.00 pm, and we needed to be finished shortly after to travel to Melbourne for hubby's work. Our homeschool needed to fit in around these commitments. We began at 9.00 am, after Jemimah had completed her Private Devotions.

We started with a bit of singing. We're studying Canada in folksongs this term. Today it was Log Driver's Waltz, which is a fantastic song except that it is an earworm. We've both been breaking into the chorus all day.

Next Jemimah ran through her memory verses and Westminster Shorter Catechism questions. Every day she says about three or four passages in English of about a chapter each, a couple of French verses and five catechism questions and answers.

I read a poem. It was Longfellow's Nuremberg, which we had read last year during our Albrecht Dürer art study. It brought back nice memories.

Jemimah read a chapter of her Free Reading book, The Story of the Treasure Seekers by Edith Nesbit. She only has a couple of chapters to go. We've both enjoyed this book.

I read a couple of chapters of our book about John Paton. This has been an exceptional book, and today's chapters about how he and the Mathiesons fled Tanna and the cannibal natives was incredibly exciting. After Jemimah narrated we had a bit of a chat about this section of the reading, and how often God intercedes in this way:

At this dread moment occurred an incident, which my readers may explain as they like, but which I trace directly to the interposition of my God. A rushing and roaring sound came from the South, like the noise of a mighty engine or of muttering thunder. Every head was instinctively turned in that direction, and they knew, from previous hard experience, that it was one of their awful tornadoes of wind and rain. Now, mark, the wind bore the flames away from our dwelling-house; had it come in the opposite direction, no power on earth could have saved us from being all consumed! It made the work of destroying the Church only that of a few minutes; but it brought with it a heavy and murky cloud, which poured out a perfect torrent of tropical rain. Now, mark again, the flames of the burning Church were thereby cut off from extending to and seizing upon the reeds and the bush; and, besides, it had become almost impossible now to set fire to our dwelling-house. The stars in their courses were fighting against Sisera!

The mighty roaring of the wind, the black cloud pouring down unceasing torrents, and the whole surroundings, awed those savages into silence. Some began to withdraw from the scene, all lowered their weapons of war, and several, terror-struck, exclaimed, "That is Jehovah's rain! Truly their Jehovah God is fighting for them and helping them. Let us away!" A panic seized upon them; they threw away their remaining torches; in a few moments they had all disappeared in the bush; and I was left alone, praising God for His marvelous works. "O taste and see that God is good! Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him!"

Returning to the door of the Mission House, I cried, "Open and let me in. I am now all alone."

Mr. Mathieson let me in, and exclaimed, "If ever, in time of need, God sent help and protection to His servants in answer to prayer, He has done so to-night! Blessed be His holy Name!"

In fear and in joy we united our praises. Truly our Jesus has all power, not less in the elements of Nature than in the savage hearts of the Tannese. Precious Jesus! Often since have I wept over His love and mercy in that deliverance, and prayed that every moment of my remaining life may be consecrated to the service of my precious Friend and Saviour!

The Story of John G. Paton Or Thirty Years Among South Sea Cannibals by James Paton

Jemimah studied her picture from this term's artist, Ellis Rowan, and read a few pages from the book, Wildflower about her life.

We zipped through some flashcards of our French vocabulary words.

I read a chapter about Bacchus from The Age of Fable. This was Jemimah's written narration for the week.

About then I had my meeting. Fortunately it was at home today. Jemimah went and worked in her room. Her independent work included her written narration, writing a letter in French and studying her dictation passage.

After lunch we spent a few minutes working together on MEP maths, and then Jemimah completed the accompanying worksheet on subtracting fractions with different denominators while I packed.

I read her dictation passage to Jemimah and she wrote in her best handwriting instead of copy work for today.

That was school done.

In the car I read aloud from our books - a few chapters each of Ginger Pye, Tom Sawyer, Athanasius Against the World, and Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates. The father woke up in the last book. So wonderful. I found the earlier parts of this book a thinly veiled text book on the Netherlands, but nearing the end we're all really enjoying it. We don't call this type of reading 'school', but it is a great way to read some fine books together. You all know how much I love reading aloud.

Tomorrow we're off to the Melbourne Museum to have a bit of a look at their joint exhibit. I want Jemimah to try to identify the various joints and the movement that occurs in each, as well as having a bit of a browse around. I love using 'homeschooling' as an excuse for doing stuff like that!

Burke and Wills

In 1860, the proceeds from the great Australian Gold Rush paid for a lavishly equipped expedition to cross Australia from Melbourne in the south to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north. The leader was an Irishman called Robert O'Hara Burke, and together with his companion, an ex-medical student and surveyor, William John Wills, and their team, the men crossed the continent for the first time. On the way back, both Burke and Wills (and a number of others) died from starvation and exhaustion, although the local aborigines from Coopers Creek were willing to help them. Only one of the men that completed the crossing survived.

The Burke and Wills story, although tragic, is a great one for talking about the bias of history. Who was responsible for the deaths of these brave men? How much of what we know is myth? What do we mean by truth anyway? Does it differ according to who wrote the account? Can we ever know exactly what happened?

Our Australian history spine, The Story of Australia for Boys and Girls, written by Joseph Bryant as early as 1920 places the blame squarely on Wright's shoulders:

The expedition reached a place called Menindie, on the Darling River; and there Burke left more than half his men, with some of the camels and horses, to form a camp. A man named Wright was placed in charge of the camp, with instructions to follow Burke and Wills, who went on ahead with an advance party. Wright was very negligent, wasting a great deal of time before he made a start. To this careless delay the troubles that came afterwards may be traced.

Books can be produced, however, that implicate practically everybody, and as time went on, more and more people seemed to blame Burke for the failure. In 1937, Frank Clune published the first account of the expedition as a narrative story. In his book, Dig, Clune portrayed Landells, Wright and Brahé as the bad guys, representing Burke himself in as positive a way as possible. It sort of worked too, and Dig went on to be an immensely popular book.

In 1971 Clune published an illustrated children's version of Dig as The Incredible Outback Adventures of Burke and Wills with powerful illustrations by Wolfgang Graesse. Now generally I don't like abridged books very much. Mostly they strip away all that makes a book alive leaving only the bare skeleton of a plot and a few handing threads, most of which don't link together very well.

Frank Clune's abridgement is a bit like that, but he does manage to leave enough of the covering to allow the story to live. Through its pages we recognise the huge achievement of these brave men. We realise their humanity. We hear enough of their early lives to understand them as people and to see what drove them to make this, in hindsight, extremely foolish journey. It contains excitement and tragedy, faithfulness and treachery, mateship and selfishness. Despite its abridgement it remains a really inspiring story.

This past term Jemimah and I took a week to read through The Incredible Outback Adventures and to discuss the bias of history. We looked at who was responsible. Was it Wright, as our History book suggested, or was it Brahé? Should Burke have pressed on from Coopers Creek without waiting for the stores and the rest of the party to arrive? Should the Exploration Committee have selected a relative newcomer to the colonies as the leader of the party in the first place? What responsibilities did the party members have to the expedition once they had accepted the position? How responsible were Landells and Beckler for the failure when they pulled out half way through? Did Brahé leave too early or take too much food or fail to send a search party?

Ultimately, with the wisdom of hindsight, blame can be placed on everybody. Let's face it, the expedition was an unmitigated disaster. The story, however, shows how flawed a study of history can be if you don't recognise the bias.

Jemimah and I thoroughly enjoyed our look at the expedition through the pages of The Incredible Outback Adventure of Burke and Wills. We loved the sublime illustrations, and the incredible depictions of our Australian Outback. The discussions we had were excellent, and will enhance our study of history into the future. We will read more knowledgeably and with more care.

It is important for our kids to know that the history we read will always be the perspective of the writer. This is a great book for bringing this point home.

We read it in AO5. We'll probably read Dig too, when we reach this time period again. Perhaps we'll come up with a new batch of villains by then as well.

Have you read about Burke and Wills with your kids? What book did you use? Who did you think were the bad guys? Do tell. I find this story fascinating. Such a twisted plot!

Our Ambleside Online

If you've been reading my blog and my Facebook updates this week, you'll know that I have been preparing for next term.

For those who are interested, I thought I would walk you through the process step-be-step so that you can see how it all fits together for me.

So, starting at the very beginning then:

What is Ambleside Online?

On their website Ambleside Online (or AO for short) describe themselves this way:

a free homeschool curriculum designed to be as close as possible to the curriculum that Charlotte Mason used in her own private and correspondence schools. Our goal is to be true to Charlotte Mason's high literary standards. Ambleside Online uses the highest quality books and costs no more than the cost of texts. The curriculum uses as many free online books as possible, and there is no cost to use this information or join the support group.

There are many companies that claim to offer a Charlotte Mason education, but none that endeavours to adhere so closely to Charlotte Mason's original model as AO does. To me the others are Charlotte Mason styled curricula. Used correctly and in its entirety, AO offers a Charlotte Mason education. The fact that it is free is nice too. Overwhelmingly so, sometimes.

So who is Charlotte Mason anyhow?

Aha, the million dollar question. Even Ambleside Online will be only a booklist if you don't know what Miss Mason's philosophies were. She wrote these in her six volume The Original Homeschool Series, which are available online here. If you don't know what she thought, then you'll only be skimming the surface, even with AO.

Charlotte Mason was a British educator who lived at the turn of the last century. She believed that education was an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life; that education is about who we are and how we fit into the world that God created. She believed that even very young children were capable of formulating their own ideas from the information they were given, and that they are not blank slates or empty sacks waiting to be filled with information and facts.

A curriculum based on Charlotte Mason's methods will use narration - telling back - instead of comprehension questions; copying passages of fine writing to model handwriting, grammar, spelling and literary style, nature study instead of early science, and fine literary books, poetry, art and music to feed a child's imagination and provide ideas for their minds to work on. There are no workbooks, and no mindless busy work. Lessons are short allowing plenty of time for individual exploration and outside play.

Miss Mason advocated an awful lot more than that - six volumes worth, in fact. If you need to know more, you'll find it here.

If you're interested in learning more:

•Join the Ambleside Online yahoo group and ask lots of questions.
•Print off and read the Frequently Asked Questions.

Miss Mason was British and Ambleside Online is American. How do I make this work for my Australian child?

Ah yes. It's a problem, isn't it? I've been posting my attempts to Australianise AO for my daughter, Jemimah, here at A Peaceful Day. Currently she is in AO5. In Victoria she is in Grade 4. She is 10 years old. We have been using AO since I discovered it when she was 3. For the first few years she was in AO0 - the preschool programme - she started Grade Prep at six using AO1.

You'll find a summary of what we've done in the Our Curriculum tab at the top of the page. Click here and you'll go right there. If you have a look there you'll find our Australianised History Rotation. AO is a history based curriculum, cycling through a six year history cycle twice in the 12 years of schooling, and so it is important to make changes based on location here first. Currently I've only done Primary School. I'll need to think about the Secondary rotation soon. Ugh!

So how do I make it fit together?

But enough about the theory. Here's how I make it work in practice. This is what I've been doing this week.

Step 1: The Schedule

Firstly I cut and paste the term booklist into an Excel spreadsheet. You'll find the one you need here.

I highlight the weeks in a dark colour, usually green so that I can see what I'm doing. I then remove the entries for Bible, poetry and Shakespeare, since I use the list to keep track of which book selections to read, not to keep tabs on subjects. I use a timetable for that.

From there I go through the list adding page numbers if they are omitted. For example, AO5 term 2 has a choice of biographies. I've chosen the Lilias Trotter option, a book with 26 Chapters. I allocated two per week with three the first and last weeks. It is always good to read a bit more at the beginning of a book to 'get into' it.

I am using Exploring Creation for science, so I remove the other science options, leaving Madam How and Lady Why because it is interesting and we were half way through it from last year and wanted to continue. Wild Animals I Have Known I moved to Free Reading; The Story of Inventions we read in AO3 before the curriculum changed.

After that I format the cells of MHLW and Abe Lincoln so that the text wraps around and fits neatly onto the page.

Next I add some colours so that it looks pretty - I look at this a lot, remember, and also to organise things in my mind. History is pink, geography orange, literature green and science yellow. MHLW is blue. Don't know why, really!

When I make an addition to this list I always remove something as well. AO is a very rigorous curriculum. I am very hesitant to add much to the workload.

Next I move on to Australian history. Some years AO includes biographies that dovetail into the history period. In this case I generally replace the American options with Aussie heroes. In Term 1, for example, I replaced the biography of the explorers Lewis and Clark. This term the bios are of people I want my daughter to know about, Lillias Trotter, missionary to the Muslims in Algeria, and Alexander Graham Bell and so I leave them in place.

That leaves only the American history spine, This Country of Ours. I replace this with readings from two Aussie spines, History of Australia and The Story of Australia according to our Australianised Year 5 History page, which I will post when I finally get it finished. You can read more about how this works in this post, Making it happen. I thought I had reviewed our history choices, but it turns out I haven't. Soon. I could stop here, but I want to include a couple of stories. This term I'm using Frank Clune's Ned Kelly instead of a spine for four weeks. I'm also adding in a book about the gold rush, Goldseekers, which we'll use all term. I would dearly love to read The Golden Dream by Nancy Keesing as well, but we just don't have space, so I reluctantly add that one to Free Reads. We'll see how we go.

Once I get to here, I print. It looks much like this:

Year 5 Schedule

Step 2: Printing stuff

Once I've done this - or actually, while I'm working on it - I give my printer a workout. Although Ambleside Online doesn't use workbooks, there is still stuff to print. This term I need to print our poetry (Longfellow) and our life from Plutarch (Dion) with its accompanying obligatory study guide. Madam How and Lady Why has a study guide too, but that continues on from last term. I add a nice cover page using Windows 2010 software and pictures from Google images and bind them using a comb binder. They end up looking quite smart, don't you think? (Photo coming soon. Sorry.)Some terms I print off ebooks like our Spelling Wisdom, Mission Monde and Downunder Copywork, but I don't need to do that this term. I bind them the same way.

Step 3: Choosing songs and other arts

Next is choosing the songs to sing. AO makes this easy by preparing titles for each term. I'm afraid I'm naughty, though, and choose my own folksongs. I explain why here. You can look at what I selected there as well. We also sing three folksongs in French each term, in line with Miss Mason's recommendations. I select karaoke versions to make them easier to learn. This term's French songs are here.

Miss Mason recommended children learn three hymns, and AO suggest this as well. Since our denomination practises Exclusive Psalmody, we sing Psalms in English and French instead. I select these from our church Psalters. (yes, I have French Psalters - don't you?)

Our next decisions are over memory work. We memorise verses from Scripture in French and English, as well as questions from the Westminster Shorter Catechism. This term our verse will be Matthew 6: 25-34 in English. In French we are learning Psalm 23, and we're up to verse 3. Catechism question 89. I print these onto cards and put them into our file box under the 'Daily' tab at the front.

This term we're following the AO selections for poetry. We're one life behind in Plutarch. We'll be studying Macbeth for Shakespeare because we're attending the play in June. I have a copy from my school days, so I don't need to do anything for that.

Our artist this term is Ellis Rowan. I have several books containing her paintings as well as a bio to read, but will try and get some postcards of her work to add to our Book of Masterpieces. It would be sad to have none of her work included in that.

We're attending Opera Australia's The Barber of Seville in a few weeks, so instead of Composer Study we're getting to know the music and the story of Rossini's wonderful opera. After that we'll listen to Rossini's William Tell. Two operas is probably enough for this term, especially when one is a production.



All this arty stuff I keep together on a chart like this. It looks really simple, but just keeps me on track, and helps me to ensure that I've covered all my bases.

Year 5 Arts Finally, there is Nature Study. We're starting a Book of Firsts this term. I'll blog more about that another day.

I'll talk to you more about out timetable another day as well, because we're changing it substantially this term for the very first time, and I'm not quite sure how it will fit together. That's next week's project!

This is a really messy and not very good post. It started out one thing and ended up another. I should really scrub it and begin again, but do you know what? I'm not going to. I'm going to press Publish and then walk away. If any one of you finds a gem in there well that's good. If not, well there's always tomorrow.

Happy Easter everyone.