6 years

We read this picture book today

a quote from it leapt out at me :Current waiting time in detension can be up to six years.

and suddenly I'm back

to a family with 3 young children and a mother who hasn't spoken or left their room

to a visit to Baxter where three young men came up and thanked us for bringing our boys because they were beginning to forget what their younger siblings looked like and it was so beautiful to see children just play again



but they tell me:
we have limited resources



we can't take them all


their taking our jobs

why don't they just go back

and my thoughts move forward to a recent Compass programme that highlighted the reluctance of three young men to come from africa because



they'll treat us like we're monkeys

and back again i remember the privilage of homeschooling two "non-persons" for a term and celebrating the birthday of the youngest with a special picnic in the park, the oldest has a smile that could have lit up all of Adelaide..


even though she'd traveled as a "non-person" ... still kept smiling..... 6 years..........

Fly,Eagle,Fly!

Today we read this delightful book set in Africa.The author found the story in a biography of Aggrey of Africa. The story is about a farmer who finds an eagle chick and raises it amongst chickens so that the poor bird believes it is a chicken!Aggrey closed the story by saying.”my people of Africa, we were created in the image of God, but men have made us think we are chickens, and we still think we are; but we are eagles. Don’t be content with the food o chickens1 Stretch forth your wings and fly!”
There is also a forward in our edition by Archbishop Desmond Tutu:
"…we are not bound to this earth and a humdrum existence but are made for something truly glorious; we are made for freedom and laughter and goodness and love and eternity,despite all appearances to the contrary. We should be straining to become what we have it in us to become…”

African drumming workshop

What a fabulous morning the boys and their friends had at Sam's drumming workshop. Master 12 was delighted to learn a fun way to clean his teeth and the home-made toys got the boys talking when they came home.All in all it was a fabulous learning experience.

Médecins Sans Frontières

Thanks to Tracey for supplying these images of a visit to this site. My boys have so enjoyed their excursions with their friends while mum sits at home and nurses her broken ankle.

The Place of Lions

"The pride had hunted that morning. Prey was plentiful now. The wildebeest were migrating and long skeins of them filled the skylines, a million gargoyle shapes on a strange pilgrimage to nowhere."
"Somewhere below the cubs were playing. He could hear their mock hunting snarls and the soft growls of encouragement from the lionesses. They were learning to hunt for themselves. Already the lionesses had taught them enough to survive. They were almost fully grown and deep inside of him the old lion's instincts were giving him unease."
"For the briefest moment their eyes met. As the split-second click of a camera shutter captures and freezes a nick of time, so a picture flashed from eye to eye. Momentarily, two vastly different creatures, each storm-driven, harried in his separate circumstances, touched minds as they read the eyes of the other."

the Place of Lions

Continuing with more "too good to miss" quotes from our current readaloud.
Mount Kilimanjaro:
"The mountain seemed to take up the whole north-east horizon.
At the nearer end the foothills rose out of the plain, gently first, then in great thrusting folds higher and higher until suddenly, out of the folds erupted the huge sculpted dome of snow and ice. Rearing massive and blinding in the morning sun, brilliant against the pale blue sky, the eternal snows of Kilimanjaro glinted and winked fire. A long long saddle high and barren drew the eyes eastwards until they rested on a harsh outbreak of vicious tooth like peaks of brown rock, snow-speckled. A frightening place of towering pinnacles, sharp points and precipices, vertiginous,aweinspiring,dangerous.'

Africa study

We've been doing a little sewing as part of our African studies. The boys really enjoyed this. They had to "think out of the box" in parts too as we just used shapes from coloring books which they then had to transfer/make patterns from.Finally they couldn't always rely on the stitch mum had taught them to sew their animals. But they now know how to do buttonhole stitch and running stitch. plus how to thread their needle and finish off. So hopefully when they reach adulthood they will not be helpless males unable to look after themselves. ie they will be able to sew on a button, mend a small tear etc.And as a fun craft they are keen to make more animals. Master 8 suggested a zebra but Master 12 is very keen to sew a bongo.

African Readaloud

The boys and I have discovered a "new" readaloud for our African studies.
This one belonged to Duncan(do you remember the story Duncan?)and we only found it when we were trying to make order in some of the bookshelves....How do others cope with the great numbers of books homeschoolers collect?
We like to try to put all those titles of a theme together, then we try to find all the books by a particular author and put them together. Thus Historical fiction is in the hallway near the front door and all historical fiction by Barbara Willard, for instance, is put on the same shelf.
The difficulty arises when you have less shelf space for a theme than you do books...but I digress, back to the find!

We still have 7 more chapters to read but so far we are very happy with our choice. I am reading it to an 8yo+12yo(boys). Be warned though it is not a book for the squeamish: there is a plane crash and all that involves plus they are amongst wild beasts, some of whom(poachers) happen to be human!!But the language is rich in descriptive prose, we have been able to follow the journey of the characters with atlas and google maps and it is a very exciting story!

And without further ado here are some quotes:

"The map helped. It sped the days. Every day he would unfold it carefully and look at it, scanning its greens and browns and blues, savoring its names.
And such names!Names that sang of strangeness and smelled of Africa. Serengeti, Loliondo, Kilimanjaro, Massai Steppe. Names filled with sun and space, and warm winds carrying the tang of loping giraffe."

"A parting. A parting not just of two people who had grown to like each other. More than that. Much more.A parting of generations, which they both recognized. The eternal parting of the young from the old. The old regretting the times gone and the opportunities missed; the young fearful, but eager for the future. The old heart sinking to see the hopes of of his youth made flesh in another; the young heart burning to fly away. When the old look at the young they see time made flesh and bone....Chris smiled. Then he stepped out on the road to Africa."

Africa study :Kenya and Tanzania

Today we read some books set in East Africa. The boys enjoyed learning some Kenyan vocabulary, adding some art work of the masai people to their notebooks and colouring the Kenyan flag. The readaloud for this part of Africa is definitely not a great work of literature but like the picture books it has reinforced our knowledge of this part of the world. I find fiction often does this "better" for Africa as it doesn't have so much of an agenda!...and can anyone guess what we are having for tea tonight!!

Africa study

We have been really enjoying listening to this cd as part of our African study. We were so pleased to find it locally.And talking about local purchases this book is also by a local author.The colours used in the illustrations throughout are vibrant and it has really enhanced our study of the Masai people.
Here is a review of the story"Set in Ngoro-Ngoro, Tanzania, Ndito is a story of a little girl's life in Africa.It is about dreams, courage, determination and a little git of attitude.
On her journey to fulfill her life long dream of meeting her favorite birds. The Marabous, Peacock and Flamingos, Ndito is faced with many obstacles." The author, who now lives locally spent her childhood in Tanzania before moving to Sweden to study law.

Africa

Above is our geography corner with some of our African resources displayed. Below are close-up shots of our basket of flags and a basket of African art.

The Earth from the Air

We are really enjoying pouring over this book. Here are some examples from the book that relate to our current study on Africa. As well as nice clear photographs the book also features interesting art work of people.I think it is giving the boys a fresh look at photography, and although they have always enjoyed taking pictures with our camera I saw ds's eyes gleam in a way that might mean he has something a little more interesting planned. Stay tuned!