The story of Lachlan Macquarie

I wonder what you know about New South Wales' fifth Governor, Lachlan Macquarie.  If you're like most Aussies, you'll recognise his name because of the things named after him - Canberra's suburb of Macquarie and Lachlan Street, Sydney's Macquarie Street and Macquarie Place and Hobart's Macquarie Street, Macquarie Island south of Tasmania, Lake Macquarie on the NSW coast, the Macquarie River in NSW and the Macquarie River in Tasmania, Port Macquarie, and the Lachlan River to name a few.  Maybe you've sat it Mrs Macquarie's Chair, overlooking Bennelong Point and the Sydney Opera House. The inscription on his tomb on Mull in Scotland names him "The Father of Australia" and yet we know longer know who he is. Should we?

Arriving in Australia in 1810, Macquarie took up the position of Governor vacated by William Bligh who had been deposed by the military during the 1808 Rum Rebellion (remember that?). From the beginning Macquarie saw the colony as both a settlement as well as a penal colony.  "This country," he wrote, "should be made the happy home of every emancipated convict who deserves it." He was frustrated by what he referred to as 'the party spirit' - the class divisions and factional fighting that were so rife in the colony. "Free settler in general...are by far the most contented persons in the colony," he wrote to the colonial office in England.

Macquarie believed that the solution to the convict problem was to put them to work. During his 12 years as Governor Macquarie was responsible for over 250 new buildings, including churches, schools and hospitals.  He built roads and tidied up the design of Sydney's streets. He built Sydney into a city as fine as any in the world. But England was not keen that Sydney become too attractive.  New South Wales was meant as a place of punishment and they worried that people might actually commit crimes in order to be transported!

Macquarie produced the first official currency for the new colony. He authorised exploration of the 'west' beyond the Blue Mountain where well watered grassland and forests were discovered.  It was Macquarie who ordered all traffic on New South Wales roads to keep left. He encouraged the creation of the colony's first bank. He drew up plans for Castlereigh, Pitt Town, Richmond, Wilberforce and Windsor.

The Startling Story of Lachlan Macquarie - Founding Father of Failure by Michael Sedunary and illustrated by Bern Emmerichs goes some way towards introducing Australian kids to the unfairly forgotten  Governor Macquarie.  It's an oddly sophisticated book, and I am not quite sure who its written for.  It is aimed at kids of 10-12, but I suspect that without some prior history knowledge the story would go over the heads of most of them.  It's a long book using complex language and discussing deep questions, and  I suspect that most kids would lose interest long before the end. That said, it is wonderful for use as part of a study of Australian History. It is well balanced, discussing Macquarie's considerable accomplishments with his many less than stellar decisions.  It covers Macquarie's treatment of the Aborigines in a way that is sensitive to our native Australians but without falling into the trap of revising history inappropriately with the wisdom of hindsight and putting our modern worldview onto past events.

Sadly the book paints Reverend Samuel Marsden as a villain, referring to his moniker as 'the flogging parson' and telling the story of the public lending library - which is probably true, but without balancing the considerable good also accomplished by this powerful man of God.  I am saddened by this. So it is not perfect, but in general The Startling Story of Lachlan Macquarie is an excellent book for a child keen to learn more about the early history of our great country and willing to put in the work to understand it.  It is also great for use as part of a history study for school.  Those of you using my Australianised AmblesideOnline will want to grab up a copy for use during both cycles through Aussie history - it is well worth using twice, and who knows how long it will be in print?

The Startling Story of Lachlan Macquarie is the third in a series by this author - illustrator trio and published by Berbay Books.  The first two are The Unlikely Story of Bennelong and Phillip and William Bligh - a Stormy Story of Tempestuous Times.  I haven't seen either of these but I am keen to.  I am sure they would be excellent.

So there you are.  Hopefully you now know more about Governor Macquarie.  Perhaps once you read the book you will be able to decide whether he deserves to be remembered as the father of Australia.  Do tell me what you think. Can a country really have a father anyhow?

We're all Australians now.

I'm a big believer in commemorating Anzac Day and remembering those who fought so we might be free. I'm also a great fan of our National bard, Banjo Paterson, and of the illustrations of Mark Wilson. Put them all together and you're going to have a pretty special book.

We're All Australians Now was published in 2015 but I only discovered it the other day in my local Australia Post store. Have a look and see if yours has a copy too. It was $9.99.

When Australians went to war in 1914, Australia had been a nation for all of 13 minutes. Well years, really, but it's still a really short time to forge a national identity, isn't it? The brave men and women who fought together in WWI as Australians played a great part in defining us as a people, as a country, as Aussies. By 1915, we had already suffered through Gallipoli when Banjo Paterson penned an open letter to Australian troops there at The Dardanelles , a poem entitled We're All Australians Now.

The book is Mark Wilson's beautifully illustrated rendering of that poem.

Here's a copy of the poem if you really can't find the book, but do try. As I say, it's pretty special. It's times like this that I remember that living books really are still being published. And that's a really good thing.

We're All Australians Now'

Australia takes her pen in hand

To write a line to you,

To let you fellows understand

How proud we are of you.

From shearing shed and cattle run,

From Broome to Hobson's Bay,

Each native-born Australian son

Stands straighter up today.

The man who used to "hump his drum",

On far-out Queensland runs

Is fighting side by side with some

Tasmanian farmer's sons.

The fisher-boys dropped sail and oar

To grimly stand the test,

Along that storm-swept Turkish shore,

With miners from the west.

The old state jealousies of yore

Are dead as Pharaoh's sow,

We're not State children any more —

We're all Australians now!

Our six-starred flag that used to fly

Half-shyly to the breeze,

Unknown where older nations ply

Their trade on foreign seas,

Flies out to meet the morning blue

With Vict'ry at the prow;

For that's the flag the Sydney flew,

The wide seas know it now!

The mettle that a race can show

Is proved with shot and steel,

And now we know what nations know

And feel what nations feel.

The honoured graves beneath the crest

Of Gaba Tepe hill

May hold our bravest and our best,

But we have brave men still.

With all our petty quarrels done,

Dissensions overthrown,

We have, through what you boys have done,

A history of our own.

Our old world diff'rences are dead,

Like weeds beneath the plough,

For English, Scotch, and Irish-bred,

They're all Australians now!

So now we'll toast the Third Brigade

That led Australia's van,

For never shall their glory fade

In minds Australian.

Fight on, fight on, unflinchingly,

Till right and justice reign.

Fight on, fight on, till Victory

Shall send you home again.

And with Australia's flag shall fly

A spray of wattle-bough

To symbolise our unity —

We're all Australians now.

Here's Wallis and Matilda's version set to music. It's pretty special, too.

 

Book giveaway

Old Bob's Birds by C K Thompson, which I used in AO1, came up on eBay earlier this week for the ridiculous sum of $140.00. Which is frankly scandalous. No book is worth that much, and I offer some alternatives in this recent blogpost. The eBay listing caused some amused banter on our Aussie CM Facebook page, along with some lighthearted ribbing over the fact that I don't lend out my books. Which is true, I don't. I do, however, sometimes give them away.

Which made me think about the fact that I have a spare copy of C K Thompson's Wild Canary, and it might be time for a book giveaway. Yay!

Canaries are obviously not native Australian birds, and this book tells the story of a caged canary, Boofie, who is accidentally released into the bush. How can an ordinary canary, born and raised in captivity, survive the perils of the Aussie bushland? The story is delightful, and during Boofie's adventures you and he meet lots of other birds that do happen to be Australian, making this a great substitute for Old Bob in AO1, or in later years.

You can see the book in the picture. It is in pretty good condition, with a decent dustcover, which I will wrap in plastic for the winner. So how to enter? First of all, this give-away is only open to those who will actually use the book. That probably means someone in Australia, or an Aussie living overseas. Sorry to the rest of you, but I hope you'll understand.

1. Leave a comment here explaining how you plan on using Wild Canary in your homeschool. Next...

2. Like my FB page, and join the conversation. I like to know who you are. If you've already liked us (thank you), leave me a message there telling me so! I know counting follower numbers isn't cool, but I have never been one of the cool kids.

Edited to add: You need to do both to be in the running!

I'll choose a winner next Friday 10th June. Good luck.

 

Karlimoot the scarlet robin

 

The sweet little Sarlet Robin, Petroica boodang, has returned to our patch of Central Victorian bush for the winter, and I was delighting in their antics this afternoon. They're impossible for me to photograph, though - too quick and too small, so I grabbed a photograph from this page. Pop over there to find out about Victoria's other red robins -we have five.

Noongar Aboriginal legend tells us that long ago during the Dreamtime, Chitty-Chitty the wagtail and Karlimoot the scarlet robin were in a dispute over hunting rights. The two were forever fighting, and one day Chitty-Chitty attacked Karlimoot, hitting him in the face and making his beak bleed. The blood ran down his breast, forever staining his feathers red.

The fight still goes on to this day. Chitty-Chitty continues to chase Karlimoot from his territory, and remains king over the hunting ground. Bit of a bully, really.

 

Substituting Aussie books in AO1

I thought that today we might have a chat about substituting books. The post is for Grace, who asked for it, and for Melissa, Tara, Becci , Agnes, Belinda, Kathleen and LouLou, who got excited about the idea. Grab that coffee, girls, and let's talk books.

Okay, firstly, I've spoken about substituting books before. That post is here, but Ambleside Online is written for Americans living in America, not Aussies living in Australia, and part of the curriculum just isn't relevant for those of us living over here. A certain amount of substitution has to take place, and this is what I want to chat about.

Set?

I'm going to start today by looking at AO1, since that's what you most wanted to hear about. If you like, we can continue on to other years after that. So let's take a look at the AO1 booklist as written. You'll find it here, but you might want to print out a copy to scribble on. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Okay, so you'll see that AO1 covers the years 55 BC to 1066 AD - a huge time period, basically overviewing the time from the invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar up until the...er...invasion of Britain by William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings. Now, the history of Britain is really the history of Australia as well, so you're not going to mess much with the books under history, are you? Here they are cut and pasted:

Trial and Triumph, by Richard Hannula ($ K) ^{[2] [3]}An Island Story, by H.E. Marshall β Δ ($ K) Ω ^[4] (Kings and Queens Timeline Figures)* ** Fifty Famous Stories Retold, by James Baldwin, selected chapters β Δ ($ K) Ω Ω Κ ^[5]** *** Viking Tales, by Jennie Hall , ch 1-11β Δ ($) Ω ^[6]

Viking Tales is there mainly because the first discoverers of America were the Vikings. You could leave it out for this reason, or substitute, but I didn't. It's a really interesting book. Trial and Triumph is church history. You'll want to read this, unless you're Catholic, then you'll want to read this first and decide.

Next up is a group of books entitled American History Biography. Here are the books:

* Benjamin Franklin, by Ingri D'Aulaire ($)** George Washington, by Ingri D'Aulaire ($)*** Buffalo Bill, by Ingri D'Aulaire ($)

At first glance, people are inclined to leave these out of an Aussie AO, but I'd encourage you not to. Firstly, the D'Aulaire books are delightful, and are beautifully written. You might want to read them just for that. Secondly, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington were really great men. They also happen to be American, but really, they're men important to world history, not just to America. You are going to want your kids to know about Ben and George sometime. Now, here's the rub. If you continue following my Australianised version of AO, you're going to discover that I leave out pretty much all American History, so if you want your kids to know these men, this is your chance. These books give your kids a delightful introduction to two men that they're going to need to know about. Leave them in. I leave in Buffalo Bill and Pocahontas, a free read by the same authors, too, because it is good for your kids to know these stories. You could substitute, if you want, but you'll struggle to find books as good as these, and most Aussie heroes you'll want to save for later years. Leaving the books out completely is an option. Do that if you want, but I wouldn't.

Next up is geography, where the scheduled book is Paddle to the Sea, by Holling C. Holling. You could substitute this for Alison Lester's Are We There Yet? if you want. It's a fabulous book, and a great intro to Aussie geography. The only problem you'll have with this book is that it's much shorter than Paddle, so you'll want to use it over maybe a term, not a whole year. You could do it in addition to Paddle, if you choose. That would be extra good. I didn't do that, but in hindsight, perhaps I should have done. I used it in AO0 instead. I chose to use Paddle to the Sea because it is beautiful, and I'd always wanted to know the Great Lakes myself, and this book teaches them to you. Paddle covers America, Canada, and even across the Atlantic to France, and it teaches it all so delightfully that I can't imagine leaving this book out. You can if you want, but don't tell me if you do. The two books used for physical geography, Charlotte Mason's Elementary Geography, and Home Geography by Long are relevant for Australia, so you'll want to include both of those.

Are you still with me? Let's march onward to Natural History/Science.:

The Handbook of Nature Study, by Anna Botsford Comstock Δ ($), as scheduled in Nature Study; online.James Herriot's Treasury for Children, by James Herriot ($) ^[8]The Burgess Bird Book for Children, by Thornton Burgess β Δ ($) Ω Κ ^[9]

I have Comstock, and I use it all the time. This handbook is a cheat-sheet for mum. It's designed to make you look clevah in from of your clevah kids. The idea is this: You find that aphids have taken over the new spring buds on your roses, right? You're irritated by that and try to squash them all, but your kidlets are fascinated, and want to know all about them. You know nothing about aphids except that they suck all the loveliness out of your roses, so you sneak inside (pretend to be going in to collect an icecream container or something), and grab out your book. There on page 351 you'll find a nice big juicy section (heh) on aphids. Speed-read the section, grab up the container and rush back outside. You are now super clevah, and your kids are super impressed Win! There's even an experiment listed for the aphid. Sacrifice a bit of your rose, and bring it inside. You'll learn all sorts of stuff that turns nature study into science. All this comes from Comstock. You want it; you need it. There are lots of things we don't have in Oz that you'll find in the book, but there is plenty enough to make it a useful addition to your homeschool library.

I also list Nuri Mass's The Wonderland of Nature in my curriculum list for AO1, but in hindsight, this book would be better in AO3 or 4. Leave it to then.

James Herriot's book is super lovely. Read it, adore it. Don't forget to read the Christmas story at Christmas time. That's why it's not scheduled, so you can put it where it needs to go.

Which brings us to Burgess. If you look at the footnote for The Burgess Bird Book (You do all read the footnotes, don't you? You absolutely have to), you'll see that you're to do 6 birds per term based on the season and birds that frequent your geographical area. For those of us in Australia, there are almost no birds in this book that frequent our area, so it will be useless for us. What the footnote is telling us, though, is that we are to read about 18 birds that we should be able to find and see. The idea here is to start learning about the birds we know and love. We have no equivalent book to Burgess in Australia. This book is a possibility, but even though it was only published recently, it is not currently in print and is hard to find. I used a delightful book by C K Thompson, Old Bob's Birds, but all of you gals who have followed after me have bought up all the copies, so it's really expensive, and not worth inflated prices, in my opinion. Sometimes you can get hold of his other titles - snap them up if you see them, but I wouldn't pay more than $10.00. Failing that, Leslie Rees's books are good. You're looking for the ones starting The Story of... Again, don't pay more than ten or twelve dollars. Lyla Stevens wrote a beautiful book, Birds of Australia in Colour, which is still available on Abe. Today, at least! I'm inclined to think I would use this book as a spine, reading a bird a week, but read one of Thompson or Rees's books per term to do an in depth study of three over the year. Again let me remind you to study birds you see. Put a birdbath outside your kitchen window, too, and get to know your feathered neighbours! If you really can't find a book, just study your own birds using a field guide. That will do.

Moving right along to poetry

* A Child's Garden of Verses β by Robert Louis Stevenson; ($) Ω Κ ☊ ^[10]** Now We Are Six ($ K) and When We Were Very Young ($ K) by A.A. Milne (4-Volume Pooh Library: $)*** A Child's Book of Poems, by Gyo Fujikawa ($), OR The Oxford Book of Children's Verse, by Iona and Peter Opie ($), OR AO's free online collection of 200 Classic Children's Poems. (K)

You can use the recommendations at listed if you choose, but if you haven't already introduced your child to C K Dennis's A Book for Kids, you'll want to do that this year. I would substitute it for the third term anthologies. You really need to use this book while your kids are young.

I left all the literature and free reading titles as is, and added Australian titles to them. Generally my rule is one book in; one book out so as not to overburden my student, but in AO1, the amount of reading is light enough that a couple of extra books can be added without a problem. In fact, somewhere it says that the book load is deliberately light to allow parents to add their own favourites, but I can't find that right now. Anyhow, to literature - that is scheduled books that required narration after each reading - I added Dot and the Kangaroo by Ethel Pedley, and The Way of the Whirlwind by Mary Durack. I also added Snugglepot and Cuddlepie by May Gibbs and Blinky Bill by Dorothy Wall to the Free Reading list. I did not require narration of these two.

And that, I think might be that. I do hope that's what you are after, ladies, and I'm sure your coffee is cold by now. Have I left you with more questions than answers? Let me know what else I need to address.

Here's pne mpre photo of my beautiful girl. Wasn't she cute?

 

The Nargun and the Stars

(E)very spirit appearing in this and my two previous stories, The Nargun and the Stars and An Older Kind of Magic, belongs originally to Australia and its Aborigines. Many of them are beliefs still living; some are remembered from a generation ago; a few have outlived the people who believed in them. They claim their place in an old convention, these even older and perhaps purer spirits of the Aborigines’ domestic life. And I claim a writer’s leave to employ them in my own stories in my own way.

Patricia Wrightson, The Ice is Coming, 1977

Patricia Wrightson never pretended to be an Australian Aborigine, nor did she pretend to write on their behalf. Which is why I find it sad that her name is to be found nowadays amongst those who have misappropriated Aboriginal identity. Her books, whilst incredibly popular in her time, are little known today, and few are still in print. To me, Wrightson gives these Aboriginal spirits dignity. Her books make me proud to be an Australian, they teach me something about my country, and help me to see Aboriginal myth and storytelling as something worthy of remembering and enriching to my Australian identity. While I am still excited to find quality children’s literature written by Aboriginal authors, Oodgeroo Nooniccal, Dick Roughsey, Sally Morgan, I believe there is still a place for the superb writing of this much awarded white Australian author.

Patricia Wrightson’s books bring to life the magic of the Aboriginal world. Instead of the Brownies and the Boggarts of England, her books contain Pot-kooroks, Nyols, Turongs, and the Nargan. Ah yes, the Nargan.

The Nargun and the Stars is probably the best written of Wrightson’s books, and I scheduled it as a family read aloud as part of Jemimah’s AO8. It’s the story of Simon Brent, who is sent to live with his elderly cousins, Charlie and Edie, on the death of his parents in a car accident. Charlie and Edie are farm folk, and for Simon the countryside of Wongadilla is a whole new world. How can he live with these people that he doesn’t know and can’t relate to? He doesn’t even feel that he can bring himself call them by their names, so he calls them nothing.

But Edie and Charlie are more than just farmers. They’ve lived all their lives at Wongadilla, and they really know the land. They may be white, but they have the knowledge usually held only by the Aborigines, and they know the creatures with whom they share their farm:

Edie and I used to talk sometimes: whatever there was before white men came, like elves and spirits and that, they must live somewhere when you come to think about it. We only know the Wongadilla ones, because they’ve always been here and we happened to come across them when we were kids. I reckon most people never even dream of ‘em. Never expected you to see ‘em either, at least not for a good while yet.

But Simon has seen them. And heard them. And spoken with them. Simon has also done something that Charlie and Edie had never done – he has met the Nargun. The Nargun is a great rock spirit, older than time itself, and it doesn’t belong at Wongadilla. The Nargun is angry, and when it starts to kill the sheep, and seems to be threatening Charlie and Edie and Simon as well, it is clear that it needs to go.

As Charlie works with Edie and Charlie to drive the Nargun away, he learns to love and respect them as well, but he also learns to love the land that is now his home. He comes to know the ancient spirit creatures – the mischevious Pot-koorok, the Turongs and the Nyols, and he learns to work with them to find a way to rid the land of the Nargun. But how to move something that can shake the universe? That has always been since before the beginning of the world? That is only controlled by the rhythm of the earth?

This is a great book, filled with deep issues for further discussion – the need to care for the environment, Aboriginal spirituality and ‘Dreamings’, Australian mythology, the poetic style of Wrightson’s writing. It is a wonderful book for AO8 Australian literature, and my family enjoyed it very much. Better still The Nargun and the Stars is in print here.

 

Special study: local eucalypts

A visitor to the Australian bush could be forgiven for thinking that all he could see was a whole lot of gum trees, or eucalypts. He may even be right. Eucalypts, after all, dominate our forests, and to uneducated eyes, our Aussie bush is superficially monotonous. Most eucalyptus trees are single stemmed, thin and tall. They are wispy and scraggly. They have thin tapering adult leaves bunched at the ends of the otherwise bare branches. The leave are generally grey-green, and hang vertically. They are leathery, a similar colour on both sides, and smell of...er...eucalyptus oil.

Let's have a look at what happens, though, if you 'zoom-in' a little and have a closer look at the trunks of those trees:

Do they all look the same now?

These photos show some of the eucalypts that grow in the Regional Park that Jemimah and I visit most weeks. Here you will find eucalypts with thin smooth bark, trees shedding their bark in ribbons, rough, thick, scaly bark, and still others with thick, deeply furrowed, almost black bark.  They are certainly not all the same, are they?

Identifying eucalypts is difficult in Australia mainly because there are so many of them.  There are more than 800 recognised eucalypt species, and over 100 of these occur naturally in our state of Victoria.  All are botanically similar, and yet each is also very different from the other.  Not only the bark, but the buds, flowers, fruits, juvenile leaf shape and position, adult leaf shape and position, and number of stems all differ between species, as will growth habit and size.  The challenge is spotting the differences, classifying them, and then making an identification. Yup.

Jemimah has chosen to identify the eucalyptus trees in this local forest as her 'Special Study' for this term. Each week she has been choosing a different tree, observing its growth habits, the positioning and shape of its leaves, the feel of the bark.  She has been making bark rubbings, sketching leaves, noticing size, shape, vein pattern, and noting whether they are opposite or alternate, and so on.  Later in the year, she hopes to note flower colour and buds.Since the buds are so distinctive, we plan on these letting us know if her initial identification has been correct.

So far, she thinks she has identified the following species:

Red Ironbark,  Eucalyptus tricarpa
Yellow Gum, E. leucoxylon
Grey Box, E. microcarpa
Red Box, E. polyanthemos
Red Stringybark, E. macrorhyncha

I'll let you know later in the year whether she was right, and if she finds more.

(Form) IIB... are expected to do a great deal of out-of-door work in which they are assisted by The Changing Year, admirable month by month studies of what is to be seen out-of-doors. They keep records and drawings in a Nature Note Book and make special studies of their own for the particular season with drawings and notes.

The studies of Form III for one term enable children to ––"Make a rough sketch of a section of ditch or hedge or sea-shore and put in the names of the plants you would expect to find." "Write notes with drawings of the special study you have made this term," "What do you understand by calyx, corolla, stamen, pistil? In what ways are flowers fertilised?" "How would you find the Pole Star? Mention six other stars and say in what constellations they occur." "How would you distinguish between Early, Decorated and Perpendicular Gothic? Give drawings." Questions like these, it will be seen, cover a good deal of field work, and the study of some half dozen carefully selected books on natural history, botany, architecture and astronomy, the principle being that children shall observe and chronicle, but shall not depend upon their own unassisted observation.

The study of natural history and botany with bird lists and plant lists continues throughout school life, while other branches of science are taken term by term. 

Charlotte Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education p 219-20

We don't know much about Special Studies in Charlotte Mason's schools, except that they did them.  The PNEU programmes mention them regularly, saying something like this:  "For out-of-door work take some special study. " Often an accompanying book will give ideas, and we notice from the quote above, that Miss Mason expected that the students would not depend upon their own unassisted observations too much.  Given the struggles Jemimah has had in identifying the eucalypts, I get what she means, here.  The observation is valuable in and of itself, but we will not definitely depend upon her results unless we can find so 'expert' who can corroborate her findings. And that is not me.  Ahem.

It seems that generally Miss Mason's students did a special study for a full term, and we have followed this plan.  Jemimah has studied wildflowers, exotic garden flowers, English park trees, insects in our garden.  She has followed six garden trees throughout a year. One term she studied pumpkins and the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae, and another, carrots and the carrot family, Apiaceae.  Overseas, she has studied local birds, mammals, flowers and butterflies in detail.

It seems that Miss Mason's students had some part in choosing their own special study, although during some terms they are asked to choose flowers or trees or twigs.  For the most part I have done the same.  I have provided the general topic; she has decided what to do within that.

Special Studies is  delightful, because the child gets to know a subject in detail. Although Jemimah will only be studying eucalypts for a term, her increased knowledge is also proving handy during our bush walks, and we look at her identified species as special friends - Look Mum, there's a Red Ironbark over there!  I'm sure that we will always look at our Australian bush with different eyes after learning to really see what is there.  The benefits of Special Studies are evident.  It is nice that they are good fun as well, isn't it?

On finding a geology book

Can I in good conscience teach my daughter using this dull old geology book with its little, grainy black and white photos, that was published in 1929? Because I'm thinking I might. In fact, despite its age, or maybe because of it, I think this may be the perfect AO8 geology book for my daughter. Now before you click away to our friend Abe to search for a copy of your own, you need to be aware that it may not be the perfect book for you. In fact, unless you live in Australia, it probably won't be.

The most logical - and enjoyable way to study geology it to get outside, and look at what's under your feet. It's easier in the country, where the soil and rocks are easier to uncover, but even in the middle of big cities, a road cutting, the banks of an urban creek, or even a construction site will reveal much. If you go to several areas, you may even begin to see differences between them - natural formations, land usage, the rocks, cliffs or hills. All becomes tantalisingly interesting. The problem is, that it's hard to know what you're seeing. Purchasing a geological map doesn't help much either. What does Tertiary mean? Devonian? Silurian? To discover this, we really need to turn to books. Books and Things. Where have I heard that before?

One of the things that makes this old book, Open Air Studies in Australia by Frederick Chapman, perfect, is that it tells me about areas that I can go and visit and walk through and actually see and touch. It mentions Torquay, a beach 15 minutes from my mum's, the ancient dunes of the Mallee, near our home, the Dog Rocks at Batesford that we pass each weekend. Other locations are a drive away. Beaumaris, Lilydale, Sorrento. Admittedly, it would take a year long trip around Australia to cover all the places he mentions and describes, but there is enough close by to really bring alive the geology of our own region, and through it, the geology of the whole world, for while the book has been approached from an Aussie viewpoint, it is not entirely limited to this part of the earth's surface.

The other thing that makes it perfect is the era in which it was written. Some quotes, I think will show you what I mean here:

Surely the chief charm of the present stories is that while they are true they are not empty of romance, and as one reads one recalled those incomparable lines of Wordsworth:

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,The earth, and every common sight,To me did seemApparelled in celestial light,The glory and the freshness of a dream.(From the Foreword)

Even the most familiar objects met with day by day are often virtually unknown to us, though on closer acquaintance they may prove a source of intellectual pleasure, especially if we take the trouble to delve after some of these hidden secrets of nature.

To the earnest seeker "question will be followed by question," until he sees that

Earth's crammed with heaven,And every common bush afire with God.

But how comes the sand where we find it? Our answer lies on the foreshore. At each succeeding tide large quantities of shells and grit are thrown up from great depths of a fathom or two, by the great rollers which break harmlessly on the strand. The shells, along with other hard material, derived, it may be, from a rocky shore, are broken and ground upon one another, chiefly by the back wash of the waves until the shells and rock fragments become changed from shingle to smaller and more rounded fragments, and finally ground into sand, for

Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.

What I hope these excerpts show you, is the literary language of the book, along with his respect for God. Now I'm not saying that Chapman was a Christian, there is no indication of that either way, but he does not denigrate those who believe, and that is incredibly difficult to find in geology books of recent times.

I've talked before of my issues with the age of our earth. Theologically, I'm young earth, but I struggle very much with young earth science. I'm afraid that I find it shoddy, and I hate bad science. Now I am confident that God is truth. Ultimately there will be no real disagreement between what God has revealed in his Word, and what is shown to be true about his creation. If there is a real conflict then the science is wrong. However, we must also be aware that while the Bible is inerrant, theologians are not. Christians made very big mistakes in their interpretation of Scripture during the time of Galileo; it is possible and likely that they also do so today. If there is disagreement between theologian and scientist, it is not always the scientist who is wrong.

Keeping that in mind, then, I am not 100% sure about the age of the earth, and at the very least I want Jemimah to feel comfortable knowing that there are very wonderful Christian men and women who think differently upon this age issue, and that's okay. For this reason, I am happy teaching geology from an old earth viewpoint, such as that contained in Open Air Studies in Australia, provided our faith is respected. That's what I see here, and I love it!!

So what am I going to do about the age of the book? Well, not much, I don't think. This will not be the only geology Jemimah will study at school. We can cover advances in science later. We can look at plate tectonics as a stand alone topic, if necessary. We will purchase an up-to-date geological map of Victoria, and we will look at a current geological timeline and make note of where the events written about are said to have occurred. It is possible that the ages are correct, after all. We will keep an ear open for current events covering geological topics. We will read the geological information boards when we visit National Parks and areas of interest. At the end of it all, I may have taught my daughter some out-of-date science, but I don't really mind that much, because I believe that when she finishes reading this book she will be more aware of the amazingness of God's creation, and if she has questions to answer and gaps to fill then she has a whole life ahead of her to fill them. My job is merely to light the spark, after all.

Unsurprisingly, the book is out of print. There are quite a few copies available at Abe if you want to join us.

 

Remembrance Day 2014

This morning I snuggled up beside my daughter in her much loved double bed, and read aloud from some favourite picture books for Remembrance Day. She's almost thirteen years old, but still not too old for a cuggle and a story, for which I am profoundly grateful. What will happen when she is, I shudder to think.

The books we read are the ones shown above, and I'll admit to tearing up a little when I read them - as I generally do. Jemimah is, of course, too old to think this is okay. She mocks, she mocks. So cruel.

Remembrance Day in our home is a day for commemoration, not celebration. We read these books to remember those who have fought for the freedom we all hold so dear. We remember family members, and we mostly have a pretty good chat about other important stuff as well.

I'm surprised that there are so few books designed especially for Australian Remembrance Day. Most of our Aussie books are actually Anzac Day books. Still, these three are pretty good, even if one is Canadian.

You can read my pick of books for Remembrance Day here.

I'm also keen to check out One Minute’s Silence by David Metzenthen and Michael Camilleri. Have you read it?

Do you read picture books for Remembrance Day too? Have you a favourite? Do tell.

We will remember them.

For the fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,

England mourns for her dead across the sea.

Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,

Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.

There is music in the midst of desolation

And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;

They sit no more at familiar tables at home;

They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,

Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,

To the innermost heart of their own land they are known

As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

Laurence Binyon (1869–1943)

 

Amy Mack's nature books

The book of Genesis places man at the head of creation, but makes it clear that he is dependent on nature for his continued existence. In spite of the technology which makes possible synthetic food, clothing and shelter, the human species is still, primarily, a hunter and gatherer of food. Plants must be identified and processed, animals tamed and brought into subjection for the welfare of society. Small wonder that the educators of the nineteenth century emphasised the need for a knowledge of natural science, and that Rousseau's Emile was to be a child of nature. Knowledge was thought to bring mastery.

H. M Saxby, A History of Australian Children's Literature p184

We Aussies have long been proud of our native land. We delight in our strangely fascinating animals and our uniquely beautiful flora, and right from the very first Australian children's book, A Mother's Offering, written in 1841 by Lady Gordon Bremer, natural history has featured largely in our literature. Initially, children's books were meant to instruct, and A Mother's Offering is pointedly educational, moralistic and judgemental, and, to be honest, fairly boring as well for the most part, but it was not long before our new settlers came to love their new land and to delight in passing their love on to others.

It is easy to see that Amy Eleanor Mack (Mrs Launcelot Harrison) loved the bush. Her writing, both for children and adults, was intended to arouse interest in nature, and is is because of that great love that her books can counted amongst the great Australian living books, even when they are used to teach us to be good...which they generally do!

Bushland Stories, Mack's first book written for children, uses fictional stories to explain the facts of natural history to encourage a love of nature and life. The wind, waves, trees, and of course the animals and birds, are all anthropomorphised. They speak and have emotions, and have much in common with the characters in Gatty's Parables of Nature, of which this volume very much reminds me. The things of nature are used to explain the happenings of natural history to her young readers, as well as to teach character traits such as contentment, kindness and satisfaction with what we have. Because Mack was interested, primarily, in conveying botanical and zoological knowledge, however, the plants and animals still behave like their real counterparts enough that we can learn a great deal from them. In The Cocktail's Party, Bluetip the Blue Wren learns with astonishment that as he has grown his plain brown coat has turned to brightest shining black trimmed with gleaming blue.

"But I don't understand," he said. "I thought I was plain brown, like you, but there I am just like father.""When you were a little boy you were plain brown," explained his mother, "for brown is the safest colour for children and mothers. It is not easily seen and so our enemies do not notice the children who are weak, or the mother when she is sitting on her nest. But now you are a strong bird, Bluetip, and able to take care of yourself, so you need not wear your dingy brown coat any longer, and have got this nice blue suit.""Oh, I am so glad," cried Bluetip. "I have always wanted to have a coat like my father's. I am so happy," and he broke into a joyful song.

Man is the enemy, but not frustratingly so, and he can be kind too. Kids are like that, aren't they? Kind one day; cruel the next. Perhaps we all are.

There are 25 stories in the original 1910 edition, although later editions seem to contain between 15 and 18. Keep an eye out for a full version. I read Bushland Stories to Jemimah as a read aloud, somewhere about AO2 or AO3, but I don't seem to have listed it in our curriculum choices, for some reason. I think it is more worthwhile than that, and would certainly recommend that you include it somewhere between AO1-AO3. You can read a story from the book online at Homeschooling Downunder, here.

Bushland Stories was the first volume in Mack's nature series for young children, followed by Waterside Stories and Birdland Stories, all published in 1910. Be careful of overkill with these stories, but they're worth looking out for if you love the first book. Scribbling Sue, illustrated by May Gibbs, was also a book of stories about how nature can teach us to be good. It's probably a bit too moralistic for my taste.

Probably the best known of Mack's books in Aussie homeschooling circles is A Bush Calendar (1909), despite the fact that it is an adult book, and was actually a compilation of articles written for the women's page of the Sydney Morning Herald. It is written as a first person monthly diary of Amy's own wanders in the bush around Sydney, and is illustrated with black and white photographs. It is just delightful - a peaceful type of book - the sort that inspires you to get out into nature to experience it all for yourself.

November 1

It was two butterflies that did the mischief to-day. I had quite made up my mind to have a nice day's sewing, and had planned two blouses to be made; but while I sat at breakfast on the verandah those blue butterflies came floating by, and the blouses were forgotten. In and out amongst the red tips of the gum saplings they flittered, living turquoise in a frame of burnished copper. A little wind, too young to be rough, flittered softly after them and set the red leaves dancing as it passed. Some sunbeams, seeing the dancing leaves, came to join in the fun, and butterflies, leaves, and sunbeams danced and sparkled together in the soft sweet breeze.

It was irresistible. I set down my coffee cup and stood up. "It's no use," I said to myself, " no one could be expected to sit still and sew to-day when all the world's a-dancing. It's a day for the bush!" So off to the bush I went.

Jemimah read this beautiful book in AO7, coinciding each monthly chapter with the correct month of the year. The book begins on August 1, but it lost little by being read January to December, and the benefits of reading the correct months were evident. Each chapter ends with a detailed list of flowers in bloom and birds to be found in and around the coastal areas of Sydney, and Jemimah found it interesting comparing these lists to happenings in our own region.

A Bush Calendar has been reprinted by the lovely Michelle from Homeschooling Downunder. Thanks, wonderful lady, for all that you do for us. It is also at Archive.

A Bush Calendar was followed quickly afterwards by Bush Days in 1911. Written in a similar style, Bush Days is a series of undated stories, quite as delightful as those in A Bush Calendar. My favourite story in this volume is about one of my favourite birds, the Silvereye. It's the story of a young lad who learns to his amazement that the 'sivie' sings as sweetly as a canary:

"I had no idea that silvereyes could sing at all," said one of the men, still gazing up into the branches.I laughed. "It's a case of the prophet in his own country.""Evidently," agreed the man. "I must listen to them in future. It's a good thing to know that we have birds that can sing.""It is," I assented, "the pity is that more people don't know it."Then we all went on our ways, leaving the small singer alone. And he, regardless of his audience, and heedless of their ignorance, still sat amongst the glossy leaves, pouring forth his song of joy and thanksgiving unto the world beautiful.

Until I read this chapter, I didn't know that Silvereyes could sing either.

Jemimah read Bush Days in AO7 as well. On the first week of each month she would read the entry from A Bush Calendar; on the other weeks she read from Bush Days. Bush Days is available from Archive.

Amy Mack also wrote another book for adults, The Wilderness, in 1922. I haven't used this with Jemimah yet, but plan to in a couple of years. I'll keep you appraised!

 

Longtime Passing

Teddy Truelove is one of my childhood friends, as real to me as the girls who lived down the street, only perhaps more so, because I could read about Teddy over and over again. She lived with her family in the remote Candlebark forests of the Blue Moutains of New South Wales in a hut that her father, Edwin, hewed from bark slabs for his wife and children, cutting the logs from the forest that surrounded them and provided their livelihood. Teddy's father has settled in Longtime with his brothers, Merlin, Sean and Vance, because doctors have told him that only the fresh mountain air will keep his beloved daughter, Teddy's elder sister, alive. It is a life of hardships, of failed orange orchards, bushfire, and the Depression, but for Teddy and her siblings, it is also a life filled with freedom, adventure, and fun. Family are always present - the uncles woo their girlfriends, the aunts helping to manage the household.

Children and older folk, too, when they planted the freshly turned earth, somehow planted themselves. So that always and forever, wherever they went, whatever season it might be, whatever the time of day, those roots would draw them back... This was Longtime as I remember it. This was the country of my childhood.

Lettie, Teddy's mother, ‘felt as though she and the children were the only inhabitants of a lost world’. Born to a life of leisure in the genteel suburbs of Sydney, she dedicates herself to supporting her husband and raising and educating her children as best she can, disappearing at night into endless re-readings of Pride and Prejudice.

Longtime Passing tells the history of the early Australian explorers and the problems they encounter 'going west', through the seemingly impenetrable barrier of the Great Dividing Range. It talks of the convict labourers, the struggles of the first settlers - and, of course, the Aborigines. Brinsmead is sometimes criticised for telling what is probably a fictional story of the ritual sacrifice of a young aboriginal woman who leads white man across the mountains, but Longtime Passing also deals sensitively with the aborigines and their cultural heritage and spiritual beliefs.

Teddy seems real, because she almost is. Longtime Passing is the only slightly fictionalised story of Brinsmead's own childhood. It is the first of three books in the Longtime trilogy, along with Longtime Dreaming, the memoir of Brinsmead's father, and the delightful Christmas at Longtime. They're out of print, but easily available through my friend Abe. We read them in AO7. You should too.

 

An Australian book list

Nationality

Mary Gilmore

I have grown past hate and bitterness,
I see the world as one;
But though I can no longer hate,
My son is still my son.

All men at God’s round table sit,
and all men must be fed;
But this loaf in my hand,
This loaf is my son’s bread.

My friend, Silvia, asked me last week for the name of a single book to explain Australia - the quintessential iconic book, as it were, and in doing so, she put me into a state of panic. A friend did the same thing to me on FB once too, and I found the brief just as hard.  To define an entire country within the pages of one single book is, for me, at least, almost impossible.

Finally, after harassing me endlessly, she agreed last night to a list.  Now a list, I can do.  So here, my demanding friend, is my list of must read Aussie books. It is not complete.  There are many, many great Aussie books.  Some you may not like; others you will.  But by reading them, you will at least get some idea of what makes my country different from yours.  And that was what you were asking for, I think.  So, without further ado, the list:

Poetry:

Everything by A B Paterson, but especially The Man from Snowy River
The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, but especially Doreen, by C J Dennis
No More Boomerang by Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Short Story:

The Drover's Wife by Henry Lawson

Children's/ YA Books:

Seven Little Australians 1894) by Ethel Turner
The Billabong Series (1910 and following) by Mary Grant Bruce
The Getting of Wisdom (1910) by Henry Handel Richardson
The Magic Pudding (1918) by Norman Lindsay
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1967) by Joan Lindsay
Longtime Passing (1971)by Hesba Brinsmead
Storm Boy (1976) by Colin Thiele

Adult classics:

Robbery Under Arms (1888) by Rolf Bolderwood
Such is Life (1897) by Tom Collins
His Natural Life (1872) by Marcus Clarke
My Brilliant Career (1901)by Miles Franklin
We of the Never Never (1927) by Mrs Aeneas Gunn
A Fortunate Life (1981) by A B Facey

Adult novels:

The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith (1972) by Thomas Keneally
Monkey Grip (1977) by Helen Garner
Tirra Lirra by the River (1978) by Jessica Anderson
Milk and Honey (1984) by Elizabeth Jolley
The Fatal Shore (1986) by Robert Hughes
My Place by (1987) Sally Morgan
Cloudstreet (1991)by Tim Winton
True History of the Kelly Gang (2000) by Peter Carey

So there you are, Silvia.  These are not all easy reading - they are not all your kind of books, but by the time you read all these I will need to accord you honorary Aussie status.  At the very least you'll have a pretty good idea of what makes us tick!!

For the rest of you, what would you add?  What would you leave out?  What are you scandalised about? This is just a start. Let's make it better!

Hopefully it will at least get Silvia off my back. (Tee Hee)

Ash Road

A friend asked me recently if I recommended Ivan Southall's books, and I couldn't really answer. I knew that I had loved them as a child, and I knew that Southall as an author was still very highly regarded, and I knew that his books had won lots of awards, both here and in America, but would they live up to the standard of a Living Book? I wasn't actually sure.

Last Sunday, the 12th of January 2014, I started reading aloud Ash Road, coincidentally on the very same day that the book was set - 12th January 1962. And so we have been reading about Victorian bush fires and north winds and temperatures in the 40s (or 100s) during a week that those very same conditions have been repeated in real life. Temperatures of 44°C for days on end, that same, hot, dry, unbearable north wind sapping our energy and removing the very last drops of moisture from an already dry landscape, and fires burning out of control all around our state.

And so now that we've finished the book, is it Living ?  Definitely yes.  With a capital Y.  Let me tell you about it.

Ash Road is the story of three boys who accidentally start a terrible bushfire.  Very quickly it is out of control:

The fire was getting away from them in all directions, crackling through the scrub down-wind, burning fiercely back into the wind.  Even the ground was burning; grass, roots, and fallen leaves were burning, humus was burning.  There were flames on the trees, bark was burning, foliage was flaring, flaring like a whip-crack; and the heat was savage and searing and awful to breathe.
"We can't, we can't," cried Wallace.  "What are we going to do?"
They beat at it and beat at it and beat at it.
…"What have I done? We've got to get it out!"

But they can't get it out, and the fire keeps growing, and growing, and growing.

Then they saw flames to the right, flames at tree-top height exploding like surf on rocks: waves of flame, torrents of flame, flames spraying in fragment, in thousands of pieces, in flaring leaves and twigs that rained on the road in a storm of fire.  It was upon them in seconds, or they had come upon it so swiftly that there was no turning from it: no time to turn, no chance to turn, no place to turn.

Just over the range from the fire lies Ash Road.  It is home to the Tanners, the Fairhalls, the Robertsons, the Georges, the Pinkards, and the Buckinghams.  On Ash Road are their farms, their homes, and their children.  When the fire gets bigger, all the fathers on Ash Road leave to fight the fire. All the mothers leave to help in the first aid centres.  Leaving the children at home alone…

Southall paints an incredibly realistic picture of that terrible day.  Time moves so slowly.  Everything is surreal - the sky, the heat, the smoke, the strange behaviour of the adults. Finally, the children realise that they are alone.

Southall is renowned for his ability to understand the way young people grow and change in the face of adversity.  The way he does that in this novel is extraordinary.

Ash Road begins with the climax of the story - the realisation that the boys have started an uncontrollable, terrible bushfire.  It is a rare novel that can maintain suspense of this type from beginning to end, but this book does it incredibly realistically, and incredibly well.

We read Ash Road as a Free Read in AO7, but I highly recommend it not only for the Aussie, but for anyone who wants to know what summer in Australia is all about.  You won't get a better description that this.

Ash Road was the winner of many awards including the 1966 Children's Book Council of Australia for Book of the Year, and the1966 New York Times Book Review for Children's Book of the Year.  It was also commended for the 1966 American Library Association Notable Book.

Believe it or not, this book is actually in print.