I have always wanted to go to Australia. It’s on my bucket list. Given that it is around 22 hours flying time, I feel like I should commit at least a couple of weeks. There is plenty to do and see, so filling up a two-week itinerary should not be a problem. It will not be cheap, given that there are four of us now, so that will require much planning. I also need to wait a bit longer since I want the boys to be old enough to appreciate it, and most importantly, not whine about any hiking. Graham said I was, “the best mom in the business,” the other day, but that does not mean I intend to re-enact the final scene of The Sound of Music, carrying children over hills in the outback. This week was awesome and easy to fill up with all sorts of cool activities and new things to learn. The boys were technically out of school, so we were done juggling zoom calls, but I kept up the themed weeks, because as you well know, the lock down of last year went well into summer. These activities were fun, helpful in taking our minds off lockdown, and last, but not least, they minimized screen time. We went everywhere, virtually, of course. Read on for an amazing, packed week of learning about the outback, the Great Barrier Reef, some Aboriginal art, Australian lingo, and animals, both the deadly and the adorable. It was a perfectly normal Sunday night. We brushed our teeth, went to bed, and dreamed of velociraptors fighting storm troopers. Situation normal. Until we woke up, and it appeared we had traveled to a land down under. The boys got up, got dressed and that’s when things got interesting. They met a strange lady, who made them nervous. She took them in and gave them breakfast.
Labor of Love
As we started our journey in the land down under, I introduced our theme by showing the video in the link below from National Geographic Kids. Today’s specific Australian focus was learning about the Aborigines. We also watched a short video introducing the culture of these indigenous people groups. After our introductory videos, we learned some Aussie lingo prior to tackling our first activity. I chose three words per day and decided to let the boys guess their meaning. Our first words for the week were g’day, brekkie, and bludger. It was fun to see what they came up with. My little one thinks g’day means ‘good day,’ brekkie means strong and bludger is a plunger for the toilet. After revealing the true meaning of the words, (g’day=hello, brekkie=breakfast, bludger=lazy person), we moved on to making our own dot paintings. I read the article at the link below which includes some book recommendations and then looked up examples of Aboriginal dot art for us to use as a guide. I decided to show the boys a fish, a lizard and a turtle and let them choose what they wanted to make. My little artists enjoyed making their dot paintings. At some point, Graham decided to connect the dots on his turtle, and we ended up with some pretty great art. Our snack for the day was fairy bread, a popular children’s treat in Australia. Consisting of white bread, butter, and sprinkles, it is not the healthiest snack, but it will earn you ‘best mom award,’ because your little ones will love it. Take the white bread, cut the crust off, spread some butter and apply sprinkles in a container so you can control the sprinkle application.
Intro to Australia video:Nat Geo Kids: Australia Destination World
Aborigines: Aboriginal video for kids
Australian-aboriginal-dot-painting-for-kids
At this point, we were fueled up and ready to make our own didgeridoos. I included a link below with instructions for making one out of cardboard tubes, but I had the idea to use some of the bamboo forest for ours. Turns out, cutting down bamboo is a lot of work. I had to use really big hedge clippers. I also had to use sturdy stalks because if they were old and dried out, they would not hold together. Let’s just say I broke a sweat. Once we each had a stalk, we went outside with some paint, and I let the boys decorate them however they wanted to. We added pieces of balloons to the end that I poked a hole through and once completed, the boys could blow into their homemade musical instrument. I feel as though I was extremely dedicated to our craft given that I ended up hacking my way through the bamboo forest. That is why the perfect song for this day is “Labor of Love” by the Australian alternative rock band, Frente! Go ahead and throw that on your playlist for the week next to “Down Under,” by Men At Work.
Riptide
Day two of our week dedicated to Australia was all about the Great Barrier Reef. We learned all about the world’s largest coral reef system. After watching the short video in the link below, we tried to recall 10 facts we remembered from the film. The boys talked about their favorite parts, and then, we introduced three new Australian terms, before launching into our main activity for the day; barbie, choc-a-block, and daks. My son thinks a barbie is a doll that girls play with, choc-a-bloc is a block of chocolate and daks are taxes. Interesting, but barbie is actually a term for barbeque, choc-a-block just means full, and daks are actually trousers. Vance Joy, another Australian artist, has a song, “Riptide,” which is a great song to listen to as you and your little ones complete your craft: the dough sea creature. Rip currents are quite common around Australia and unfortunately, many inexperienced swimmers drown every year due to these dangerous circumstances. Often, rip currents will appear as darker paths in between the white water revealing deeper channels where the water flow is different, creating such a current. If you are caught in one, the experts say to not panic, try to alert someone and conserve your energy. You can try swimming parallel to the beach and allow the waves to assist you back to shore. These are some great safety tips to throw in while discussing this great wonder of the ocean off the coast of Australia. Follow the instructions in the link below to make your own dough and then form the sea creature of your choosing. I love the starfish. The entire activity including making the dough, cooking it and painting your artwork will be a big hit and your little ones will be so proud of their creation.
Thunderstruck
I can’t very well write a post that includes Australian artists and leave out AC/DC, could I? While Australia is known for many wonderful things like the Great Barrier Reef, kangaroos, and the beautiful scenery in the outback, it is also home to some of the deadliest living things on the planet. If you’ve ever watched a top ten show in this category, just note the alarmingly high number of species that are found on this continent. Just for fun, we watched the video in the link below introducing some of the top deadliest animals found in Australia. Goodness. We learned a lot. I mean, snakes and spiders were expected to some extent, but it seems like everything in Australia is poisonous. Their stingrays, toads, fish and even octopi are deadly. The deadliest is the box jellyfish. So, just know, you aren’t safe anywhere really. I also introduced the boys to the crocodile hunter, Steve Irwin. He was unfortunately killed in 2006 by the short tail stingray but he was an Australian zookeeper who became known for his television personality as he embarked on adventures while educating about all sorts of animals. We watched some of his close calls in the video provided in the link below.
Australia’s Top Ten Deadliest Animals
Check out the famous Steve Irwin: The Crocodile Hunter
Our new lingo for the day included hard yakka, mozzie and ripper. The boys thought hard yakka was a canoe. Given our love for dinosaurs, mozzie was actually a mosasaurus, a giant sea reptile, and ripper is something you use to rip things up. I explained that hard yakka is a term meaning hard work, mozzie is actually a mosquito and ripper means you are really good at something. Better than what came to my mind, which was the infamous serial killer in London in 1888. Once upon a time, I actually went on a Jack the Ripper tour in London at night. It was very interesting. Of course, I didn’t share any of that with the children. Speaking of deadly, did you know that 170 of approximately 400 species of sharks are found in Australian waters? For our main activity, we made our own shark tooth necklaces following the instructions from the article in the blog provided below. We wrote names of different sharks found in Australia down on separate pieces of paper, mixed them up and put them in a bowl. Then, we each drew out 7 names, and those were the names we wrote on each tooth of our necklace. I drew the outline of each tooth, we cut them out and punched holes in them as detailed in the instructions. Then, we added shark names and strung our necklaces. Poor Australians. As if the animals in the top ten list were not bad enough, they have many deadly sharks swimming in their waters too. The bull shark is just one such example, given the name because it likes to head-butt its prey before attacking. So, so many ways to be thunderstruck.
Bizarre Love Triangle
Let’s move on to the softer side of all things Aussie. Our theme for day four was cute and cuddly Australia. After yesterday, we all needed to see some cute Koala bears. We watched the video in the link provided below that highlighted some of the much less scary animals. From koalas to wallabies to baby emus, this video has several adorable animals your little ones will enjoy seeing and learning about. Our Australian lingo for the day included bather, servo, and shoot through. The boys correctly guessed that bather was a swimsuit. They thought servo was a servant and to shoot through meant to parachute off a mountain. Not quite. Servo is a term used for a service station and to shoot through means to leave quickly. I hope you are learning a lot from this week’s daily topics! I know I did. I thought it would be cool to introduce the concept of a boomerang to the boys. I don’t happen to have one lying around and I was not about to whittle one out of bamboo, so I went online for some options. I found a YouTube video from the paper airplane guy, who actually has a template for a boomerang airplane you can make. The link below is to the instructional video where he walks you through making your paper airplane fold by fold. Now, apparently, these guys are some of the leading experts in paper airplanes so he has his own template you can purchase with the lines and colors outlined for you. I have to be honest here and say that after more than one attempt, I was not able to figure out how to complete the design correctly. However, I was using a plain white piece of paper, which he said in the video was ok to use, but I think it was more of a challenge when trying to line things up just right. I recommend ordering the template if you are really interested and I still think it is a really cool idea and design. In the video, he shows you how the completed airplane works, and it is impressive. In the end, I was still able to explain the concept of a boomerang and we made some traditional paper airplanes, took them outside and had a great time. Because of our love for the sweet cuddly creatures found down under and the fact that the boomerang shape kind of looks like a triangle of sorts, our song for the day takes us to another Frente! hit, Bizarre Love Triangle. The song was originally by the band New Order, but Frente! released a version in 1992. Just another recommendation for your playlist.
Another cute idea is to make your own Koala bears using just a little felt which I happened to have in my craft closet already. The article in the link below includes a step for using a needle and thread to sew your Koala. She fluffed up her bear a bit and attached the pouch the same way. We were content to just have our bears be one-dimensional, and I just used craft glue for putting them together. I asked the boys to each think of something nice to say about each other and we tucked them into our bears’ pouches and read them aloud later at dinner. I called it our ‘Koala Kindness’ activity. I will say it’s one thing when my boys receive praise from me, but it is a whole other level of sweet when it comes from their sibling.
Don’t Dream It’s Over
It was the final day of our adventures down under and I saved this day for the outback. We kicked off our day with the video introducing the outback in the link below. Of course we talked about Ayers Rock, the large sandstone formation in the Northern Territory of Australia. The Pitjantjatjara Aboriginal group named the landmark, Uluru. The area around the rock has springs, rock caves and ancient paintings. We continued our discussion with our final set of new Australian terms, sky rocket, mate, and dunny or loo. The boys thought a sky rocket was one of those toy rockets you can stomp on to make it go shooting up into the air. Mate, they correctly identified as meaning, friend, or pal. For some reason, they thought dunny or loo meant ‘the river.’ Sky rocket is actually slang for pocket and dunny or loo is of course, the restroom or toilet. One activity that we ran out of time for but I think is a great idea is to take a walk and try to collect some smooth rocks. I found the article at the link below showing some of the Aboriginal symbols and the suggested activity is to have them paint some on rocks they find outside. Who doesn’t love a good nature walk? My boys love this kind of thing so I added it to my week of down under fun. I also included a link to an article with instructions on making a collage of some natural wonders. Ayers Rock is one of the examples and I thought it was great idea with the different color variations and the overall texture. Again, this is a hands on activity that I think most kids would enjoy.
Our theme song for our last day was from yet another Australian group, Crowded House. “Don’t Dream It’s Over” was perfect because, sadly, we had come to the end of our week of learning all about this amazing place. We said goodbye for now, because the hope is to one day make the journey in person. This dream isn’t over! For a book recommendation, I suggest Over in Australia: Amazing Animals Down Under. This is a great interactive book and even has additional pages in the back with facts about the featured animals as well as sheet music to a song. I also played “Waltzing Matilda” for them so they would be familiar with the unofficial national anthem of Australia.
Over in Australia-Amazing-Animals-Down Under
Speaking of music, I have to mention the band, INXS, also from Australia. Most of us are probably familiar with at least one of their songs that were popular in the 80s and early 90s. Some of my favorites are “Beautiful Girl,” and “Never Tear Us Apart.” You probably also remember other hits like “New Sensation,” “What You Need,” “Need You Tonight,” and “Devil Inside.”
As I thought about a verse that would go with this week, there were several that came to mind. The song, “Never Tear Us Apart,” reminds me of how we can never be separated from God’s love, although I’m pretty sure that was not the subject of the INXS song. Jesus himself reminds us of this at the end of Matthew just prior to his ascension. At the end of chapter 28, in the latter part of verse 20 of the great commission, he says, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Romans 8:38 of course comes to mind as well, stating,
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. “
Also, as you and your kids learn about the giant sandstone formation that is Ayers Rock, I think about Isaiah 26:4,
“Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.”
These are all great options for adding in some biblical truth for your little ones. I think it is great to put the verses up somewhere, practice them often and talk together about what they mean. It provides a simple opportunity for you to engage your kids in teaching them about the nature of God’s love.
I’m looking forward to throwing some things on the barbie this weekend. I hope I don’t get so choc-a-block that I split my daks! Thanks for visiting my site! I hope you have a great week and weekend. Stay tuned for more posts full of fun activities and recommendations.
For now, I’ve got to shoot through!
