Happy Australia Day! - Australia Part 5

Australia Day Fun

Australians Celebrate Australia Day on January 26th. The above news clip about last years Australia Day celebrations was a perfect way to introduce my kids to the official national day of Australia. You can find out more about the history of Australia Day here.

Here are a few good resources on Australia Day activities for Children:

• Ways to Celebrate Australia Day with Children at Kidspot (Australian Parenting site) I've been following Kidspot since my daughter was born. It is full of great ideas on things to do, recipes and insights into Australian ways to raise children. 
• Top 10 Games to Play on Australia Day by Brisbane Kids (This site makes Brisbane perfect for kids.) Some of these games sound really fun! We'll try a few on Australia Day!
• Australia Day at Activity Village (A UK based site about international celebrations) On this site you can find games, coloring pages, crafts, etc...
• Australia Day and General Australia Crafts at DLTK (A mom shares craft ideas from all over the world.)
• Australia Day Recipes with a Twist Cool looking dishes to try!
• Australia Day Recipes More traditional looking recipes.

Since we have so many Australian friends, we've tried to have a bit of Aussie fun on Australia Days in the recent years. One year I decided to surprise one of my closest friends, who is second generation Australian, with an Australian themed play date at the park. I made damper bread dough (Australian bread traditionally cooked in the embers of a fire pit in the outback), brought wood for the BBQ grill, put together a plan for a boat regatta craft and game and asked my friend to bring her Australian children's books. We headed out to a park to celebrate.

When my friend realized that I had brought fire wood and bread dough, she though that I was crazy... And as crazy as it was, we had a blast trying to cook damper bread dough on sticks like we do in Finland with our tikkupulla. The traditional way of burying damper bread into the fire pit would not have worked as the kids can only wait for so long. So we ended up eating partially burned and partially uncooked bread and laughing our heads out. 

I had read about boat regatta competitions that happen in the Sydney harbor during Australia Day. So I thought that it would be so much fun to craft a wearable boat for each child and then make the kids do some running races while wearing their boats. The crafting part was fun, but the kids refused to wear their boats after they had finished decorating them. Oh well, we still had fun!

Last but not least, my friend read a few great Australian children's books and that is when my children and I first discovered Pete the Sheep by Jackie French and Koala Lou by Mem Fox. We talked about Australian animals and shared stories that connected us to Australia. It indeed end up up being a relaxing day, just like the Australians like it!

This year I will keep things simple. We'll look into Australian art, play a few games and do some of the activities from the above links. I hope that you have a bit of Aussie fun on Monday as well! I'll end this post on a high note in honor of Australia! Enjoy the following songs, Gum Tree by Justine Clarke, Waltzing Matilda and Advanced Australia Fair by The Wiggles.

Happy Australia Day! Sending much love to all of our Australian friends!

G'Day Mate! Let's Study Land Down Under - Australia Part 1

Aussie Map, Scavenger Hunt and Library Books

My first connection to Australia came in the form of geography and social studies lessons in elementary school in Finland. Somehow I still vividly remember seeing a picture of a little boy wearing big yellow headphones in my geography book. The boy was attending school via a two-way radio. He lived so far out in the bush that he could not travel to town every day. School of the air left an impression on my young mind! I also remember seeing pictures of jumping kangaroos and cuddly koalas as well as aboriginals playing didgeridoos in my school books.

I was hooked into knowing more about Australia as a young child, but my oldest friend (we've know each other since we both were 4-years-old) was hooked even more. She decided early on that she would spend a year in Australia as an exchange student and she lunged into learning more about the country. We used to go to the library together and my friend brought home piles and piles of books about Australia. One time she also wrote a wonderful essay in which she pretended to be Jørn Utzon, the Danish architect who designed Sydney's famous Opera House. I can still vividly remember our teacher reading my friends essay in which she described the heartbreaking ups and downs of the building of the magnificent structure. My friend did indeed go and spend a year in Adelaide, Australia, during our high school years. She had an interesting and exciting year in an all girls high school with uniforms and all! We had never heard of school uniforms and all girls schools before that! Now that must have been a great experience!

Since my childhood, I have had the honor to get to know and to befriend a lot of Australians. A couple of my closest friends are Australians and I am continuously blessed with invitations to Australian events and celebrations. The best part is when my friends pull out Marmite or Vegimite and try and surprise me with it's taste. (I actually quite enjoy it.) To my own surprise, I still have never made it to Australia and neither has husband nor my children. But that has not stopped me from exposing my children to Australia and it's culture. Our studies at home always start by finding the country on the map.

We have studied Australia many times before, so I asked my kids what things they remember about Australia. My daughter said without hesitation: koala bears, kangaroos, the big red rock (meaning Uluru), and the big building with sails (meaning Sydney Opera House). My son pointed out at the picture of the Aboriginal men with spears and commented that he wants one too. (Boys shall be boys!) From there our conversation moved onto our Australian friends. We are blessed with many! Some live in Australia, some live right here in Southern California and some have spent lots of time in the Island Nation. My daughter used to giggle in delight when her Australian friends spoke to her in their Australian accents. She was only four at the time, but she found it intriguing to try and figure out what her friends were trying to tell her.

I used to travel a lot for both work and fun. Australia and New Zealand were supposed to be my next big travel destinations, but then the children arrived... I had even bought some books to prepare for the trip and now I am grateful for them even if I still have not made the long trip to Down Under. During our scavenger hunt around the house we found mostly Australian items that have been given to us as gifts. Thank you Aussie friends! Especially Karen! We put on the Wiggles CD, went on an imaginary journey around Australia in the Wiggles' Big Red Car and looked at pictures from all the books. The next day, my son wore his Australian cap to school.

We were not extremely lucky at the library this time around, but we did find a few good books about Australia. It is always better to order the books online in advance. My daughter is an animal lover. She especially enjoyed learning about koala bears through Koala by Michael Leach. Postcards from Australia by Helen Arnold was perfect for my children. Reading the book makes you feel like you've just received post cards from a friend who is visiting Australia. Living in the Australian Outback by Jane Bingham gave us insights into the lives of the Australian Aboriginal peoples in the outback.

We love many Australian children's stories as well, but I will blog separately about them soon. Next I will share my favorite online resources on Australia. What Australian things do you have at your house? A boomerang, UGG boots or... wine anyone? After all, it's Friday. Cheers!