Australia

the pavlova was AMAZING, a berry brown sugar recipe from epicurious.com, a wonderful finale to a fabulous week 

heavenly

 

All of our children were named after capitol cities, including our daughter Adelaide who was named after the capitol of South Australia. And, a few years ago we hosted a girl named Abegail who was adopted by an Australian family. This is why we chose to study this fascinating country. 

*dltk-kids.com was a great resource for our activities this week 

Day 1–Geography 

Maps of Australia were colored after we located the city where sweet Abegail lives and the city of Adelaide and placed stars in the appropriate places. Flags were then colored with red, white and blue. Globes were spun and maps studied to find the location of the 7th continent. 

Day 2–People/Art 

First we reviewed the location of Australia and the specific cities we learned about. Then we read about the country in our Scholastic Atlas of the World book. We learned about the Aboriginies and their interesting dot art. Q-tips were dipped in paint and used to decorate pictures of the Sydney Opera House with skyscrapers in the background. The kids loved this unique type of art, even Cardiff, who, at almost two, pretty much just smeared paint everywhere. 

 

Day 3–Animals 

First, I pulled out some postcards of Australia that I had saved from when my soccer team journeyed there 20 years ago.  Some had animals, some maps. Next, we read a book my mom picked up on a visit to Australia a few years back called Dangerous Australians, about the many different animals in Australia that you likely don’t want to cross paths with. Using toilet paper rolls and print-outs of Koalas and Crocodiles, we painted and glued, creating fun toilet paper roll animals. 

Day 4–Music 

Short on time, we used today to watch a couple of youtube videos. One was a video of a man playing an Aboriginal Digeridoo and the other a compilation of Australian pictures set to the Australian national anthem. 

Day 5–Food 

I had really hoped to incorporate the kids more in today’s cooking, but we were short on time, once again. Wanting to make something really delicious, I researched Australian recipes on epicurious.com and this is the menu I came up with 

Steak with Salsa Verde 

Roasted Beets 

Berry Brown Sugar Pavlova 

I bought a bottle of Australian wine with a kangaroo on the front. Tallinn even pointed out that the kangaroo was decorated in the Aborigine dot art style. We had a wonderful meal, but the pavlova was absolutely divine. I think I ate three pieces! 

Throughout the week we prayed for Australia and the people there, especially Abegail and her family. The kids looked forward to our activities each day and have wanted to do dot art everyday since. They can find Australia on the globe and find its flag. They learned about some of the animals and enjoyed the different food. Success!