Australian Natural History - The Emu

On our trip to South Australia a couple of years ago we saw plenty of emus in the open areas of land along the way. These large flightless native birds are second only in size to the world's largest bird, the African ostrich and are also related to the cassowary and the rhea. We've gotten up close to them in captivity and they are ungainly, formidable looking creatures but when you see them in the wild, running through the scrub, they are quite spectacular and beautiful.

This year I read Karrawingi the Emu by Leslie Rees to Moozle. The story follows the life of an emu (Karrawingi is one of the Aboriginal terms for emu) from its birth through to adulthood. It presents a vivid picture of the dangers a young emu encounters, sometimes even before it's hatched out of the egg - wedge-tailed eagles, dingoes, other emus, Aboriginal hunters and farmers are their main enemies.

Karrawingi grows to adulthood, finds a mate and becomes a leader of a great flock. He has numerous children and grandchildren and with the other emus, keeps his distance from man. But hunger and curiosity bring the emus back to the lands where they had roamed previously. They find the land fenced off and farmed and they begin to wreak havoc; breaking fences, devouring the crops and then for a bit of fun, they get in amongst the sheep and their lambs and send them in all directions.

The day comes when Karrawingi is captured and taken to a small town zoo. For ten months he is fed, looked at and laughed over. He becomes used to soft living and at night he dreams confusedly - sweet, yet painful dreams.

One morning Karrawingi awakes to unusual movement. Men come in a van and the gate to the yard opens. His keeper grabs his wings from behind and places him in a box-like van:

What was happening to him now? He was sick with fear of the unknown. So long he had lived at the small town zoo, where the things to do and see hardly varied from month to month, that the sudden change was terror itself, no matter what life was in store for him. He wished he were back in his strong-fenced zoo. There nothing happened, but he was safe.

The van, racing along the gravel road, is far from the nearest town when Karrawingi's eyes fall upon a sight which makes his heart pound - a flock of emus on either side of the road, pacing themselves with the van:

What thoughts the sight sent pounding through his mind! Now he felt himself among the emus, racing with them, now he was a prisoner in the van, his nerves and muscles itching with the desire to get out...

Mile after mile sped by and the emus kept up their gait.

Karrawingi could stand it no longer.

This is an exciting story which conveys in a realistic fashion the nature and habits of the emu. Karrawingi is a very likeable larrikin and while the author isn't overly sentimental, the emu's personality is endearing. I was relieved that the old bird got a chance at freedom again after a great escape, and that the story ended satisfactorily with this realistic comment:

For how long Karrawingi would roam the bush a second time no one could tell. It was enough now that all the wild hot joy of the old days was surfing through his body.

Karrawingi the Emu has been published as a separate book and also as a part of A Treasury of Australian Nature Stories, which contains four other stories by Leslie Rees of various native animals. Both books are out of print but keep your eyes open; it is a real treasure of a story. I think around the age of 9 or 10 years is a good age for Karrawingi. It's certainly not dumbed down and would appeal to anyone interested in the natural world, Australian or otherwise.

Younger children (aged about 4 to 8 years) would enjoy Emu by Claire Saxby. I discovered this at the library and was pleasantly surprised with it. Although not as detailed or literary as Karrawingi, it is well done. It is a good sized picture book - 'a narrative non-fiction.' The left hand-side page contains the story while the right hand page is written in a more factual fashion.

There is a PDF document designed for classrooms that has some suggestions for using the book as well as some emu facts. There's a 'look inside' feature on Amazon if you want to have a better idea of what the book contains.

An Educational Manifesto - Ambleside Online Year 4

Every scholar of six years old and upwards should study with 'delight' his own, living, books on every subject in a pretty wide curriculum. 
Children between six and eight must for the most part have their books read to them.

School Education by Charlotte Mason  

This year is the 7th and the last year I'll be teaching 4th Grade in our home but it's the first time I've used Ambleside Online for this particular year. Being the year that covers the mid-sixteen to late seventeen-hundreds, Australian History comes alive for us, so I've had to give some thought as to what substitutions we could make - preferably using what books we already have on hand.

Last year I read through Volume 3, School Education by Charlotte Mason and then read Leslie Laurio's modern paraphrase of 'An Educational Manifesto,' which I quote with permission below. 

Children learn best from real, tangible things, and books. Tangible things include:

     a. Natural structures for physical activity like climbing, swimming, walking, etc.

     b. Resources for working and building with, such as wood, leather or clay.

     c. Natural objects in their native habitat, like birds, plants, creeks, and stones.

     d. Works of art.

     e. Scientific instruments.

It was very helpful to spend some time thinking through this Manifesto - Charlotte Mason's 'philosophy of education in a nutshell' - as I planned out my little girl's year:

What real, tangible things have I included?

Swimming, highland dancing, cello

Nature walks, gardening

Needlework, cooking, woodburning

Caring for the cat

Drawing

Picture Study
Stamp Collecting

Have I left enough time to actually do them?

Have I scheduled them so that they will actually get done?

Do we have the resources we need? Are they where I can easily find them?

Most people acknowledge the need for tangible things in learning, as in hands-on education, but fewer people recognize that intellectual education has to come from books.

I wrote a post on substituting books after planning an Australian version of AO Year 9 for one of the boys about two years ago after spending some time reading what Charlotte Mason had to say on the subject. 

Education is the Science of Relations; that is, that a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we must train him upon physical exercises, nature, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books; for we know that our business is, not to teach him all about anything, but to help him make valid, as many as may be of

     'Those first born affinities,
     'That fit our new existence to existing things.'

A Philosophy of Education, pg xxx

With all the above in mind here is our Year 4 Ambleside Online modified for Australia. Books in this colour are scheduled or optional Ambleside Online books for Year 4. At the time of writing we are going into Week 9:

History studied in Year 4: 1640-1700's (French and American Revolutions)

All the History options, except A Child's History of the World, plus two biographies were picked up years ago in op shops, library sales and Lifeline Book Fares (I use the free online version of Our Empire Story) and cost under $10 all up. I come across these titles from time to time so they are still available.

Abel Tasman: Project Gutenberg

History & Geography

** ***George Washington's World by Genevieve Foster

* ** *** History of Australia Ch 1 to 8 (read aloud)

* ** *** Our Sunburnt Country Ch 1 to 5

* *** Our Empire Story - 3 Chapters (Pg 125-142)

* ** A Child's History of the World Ch 67-72 1st Edition

** An Island Story Ch 95 & 96

* Term 1 (1640-1720)

Our Sunburnt Country Ch 1 'The Land of the Dreamtime'
A Child's History of the World Ch 67 'The King Who Lost his Head' (Charles I)

History of Australia Ch 1 'The Beginnings' (selected sections)
History of Australia Ch 2 'South of the Spice Islands'

A Child's History of the World Ch 68 'Red Cap & Red Heels' (Louis XIV)

History of Australia Ch 3 'Piecing Together a Continent' (Tasman & Dampier) 1642-1700

Our Empire Story by H.E. Marshall - 'There Is Nothing New under the Sun' - up to 'Dampier feared to stay longer, lest his men should fall ill in that desert land. So he steered away to the East Indies and from thence sailed homeward.' (1699)

Our Sunburnt Country Ch 2  'New Visitors to an Old Land' (Pg 21-30)

** Term 2 (1720 - 1773)

Our Sunburnt Country Ch 2  'New Visitors to an Old Land' (Pg 30-37)
Our Empire Story - 'Nothing New Under the Sun' from 'Many years passed' to end of chapter (1768)
History of Australia Ch 4 Captain James Cook & The Endeavour 1770

A Child's History of the World Ch 69 ' A Self-Made Man' (Peter the Great)
A Child's History of the World Ch 70 'A Prince who Ran Away' (Frederick the Great)
Our Island Story Ch 95  & 96 (George III)
A Child's History of the World Ch 71 'America Gets Rid of Her King' (George III)

*** Term 3 (1773 - 1780)

Our Sunburnt Country Ch 3 'They Came and Stayed'

History of Australia Ch 5 'Bound for Botany Bay' (The First Fleet, 1787)
Our Empire Story - The Founding of Sydney (1788)

History of Australia Ch 6 'Settlement'

History of Australia Ch 7 'Convicts'

History of Australia Ch 8 'Completing the Coastline' (Matthew Flinders)

Our Sunburnt Country Ch 4 'Rum and Rebellion'

Our Empire Story - 'The Adventures of George Bass and Matthew Flinders' (1796)
Our Sunburnt Country Ch 5 'Bass and Flinders Map the Coastline'

History Tales and/or Biography

Trial and Triumph by Richard Hannula (with some omissions)

**James Ruse: Pioneer Wheat Farmer (1760 - 1808) by Jean Chapman

** ***James Cook: Royal Navy by George Finkel
*** Matthew Flinders by George Finkel

Geography

* ** Long's Home Geography - free online 

*** The Old Man River of Australia by Leila Pirani (thanks to Jeanne for this suggestion)
Map work

Natural History/Science

All the Ambleside Online selections with the exception of the optional title plus:

* How Did We Find Out About Numbers? by Isaac Asimov (short review here)
** How Did We Find Out About Vitamins? by Isaac Asimov ( Ch 1-3)

** Karrawingi the Emu by Leslie Rees
*** Monarch of the Western Skies: The Story of a Wedge-tailed Eagle by C.K. Thompson

Literature

All the Ambleside Online selections plus:

*** Trim by Matthew Flinders

Latin

Getting Started with Latin by William Linney

Grammar 

No set programme but I use this book as a guide for me.

French - selections we use are in a blog post I did last year.

Group Work

Devotions, Shakespeare, Plutarch, Hymns, Folksongs, Composer & Picture Study, Read aloud.

Free reads - as scheduled at Ambleside Online.

Other Options for Australians & New Zealanders:

Young Nick's Head by Karen Hesse

(Also published under the title Stowaway) Fictional but based on fact. Written in the form of a diary by a young boy, Nicholas Young, on board The Endeavour who was the first European to sight New Zealand.

At this age, I'd suggest reading it aloud. It was a while ago that I read it but do remember doing a little editing as I went.

All About Captain Cook by Armstrong Sperry - an easier book than Finkel's but still good.

The Cannibal Islands by R.M. Ballantyne - preview first. The author's style is similar to G.A. Henty but his descriptions can be a bit gory!

John of the Sirius & John of Sydney Cove by Doris Chadwick were books Ruth (have a look around her website for other Australian options) introduced us to over 13 years ago. We managed to find our own copies about 10 years ago ($2 each) but they're hard to find now. They're a fun read aloud if you have younger children also and fit the time period studied in Year 4.

I considered adding A Dutchman Bold: The Story of Abel Tasman by George Finkel (152pg) in Term 1 but between the three main texts of Our Empire Story, History of Australia & Our Sunburnt Country, I thought I'd covered Tasman well. It might be a good addition anyhow if you're looking for a biography choice.

This chronological list of books for Australian History at Aussie Homechool was put together years ago by the CM&Friends-ANZ email group.

 
Scheduling

I keep this very simple and it's basically the same format I've used for everyone. Before the beginning of a new week I look at the AO schedule for the coming week and put in the next chapters etc for that week. I don't have everything written on the page - eg. in week 8 we did History of Australia whereas the week before we did a chapter from Our Sunburnt Country so I do some cutting & pasting & add or subtract the boxes where necessary. There are certain things I like them to get done first (Maths & music practise for example) but that's not reflected on the page. They just know that certain subjects need to get done earlier.

'Education, to be successful, must not only inform but inspire.'

T. Sharper Knowlson