Teaching Children About Australia Day

The Australia Day public holiday was held on January 26. Dave and I kept mentioning that we didn't know what it was about, so I did some research. It turns out that January 26, 1788 was the day that the captain of the First Fleet of convict ships planted a Union Jack on Australian soil. 

I began to think about how to teach Elnathan about Australia Day when he is old enough. I found a great page of printable colouring sheets, including flags, birds, flowers and animals. However, none of these sheets teach about the history of Australia day!

One idea I had is to teach the history of the day through constructing boats from boxes, and having figures made from sticks (or something similar) with paper heads to act out the story. We could have a mini flag to plant on a mound to represent the land. We could also have darker coloured stick people who were already on the land, and talk about how they may have felt about the newcomers.

Have you ever tried to teach history to tiny ones? If so, do you think this idea would work?

For older children, I thought it might be fun to find a map of the known world in 1788 and have them track the journey of the First Fleet. Upper primary and high school students could also research life at that time, including indigenous cultures. By the way, it is not my Mum's fault that I don't remember the history of Australia Day! She tells me that we made a project book about the First Fleet. Mum also taught us about indigenous cultures, and has readers about Australia that she may pass onto me. If we want Elnathan to remember the meaning of Australia day when he grows up, we may need to repeat history related activities every year. Repetition aids memory, and if the activities are fun children can look forward to them.

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Martin Luther King Jr. Day

We have a great calendar from Creation Ministries International that includes the public holidays of other countries as well as Australia. This is great for remembering South African holidays, and now I am also trying to use it as a prompt to research. In the future I want to teach Elnathan about the holidays other countries celebrate, as this can be a fun way to connect history to the present day and to our own lives.

I have checked out several children's books from our library which include sections on Martin Luther King Jr. These books also include other men and women who are considered to be heroes or campaigners, so I'm learning about lots of other people as well. Even children's history books raise many questions that would be worthy of discussion. They simplify history, and I hope that we will be able to discuss the complexities and the different presentations of the same events.

The history of the civil rights movement provides rich opportunities to discuss the way God uses sinful men and women to accomplish his purposes, the necessity of personal efforts to love people different from ourselves, and the tendency we have to ignore evil. The history of racism in the US has obvious connections to what happened in South Africa.  

Driving Miss Daisy would be a good film to watch at this time of year. It is a touching story of the friendship and respect that develops between an elderly, crotchety Southern lady and her black driver. Miss Daisy goes to an event where Martin Luther King Jr. speaks, and I vividly remember one of the lines from his speech. Evil triumphs because of "the fear and apathy of the people of light".

Right now, though, my little baby is calling out from his cot because he has finished his nap. Right now "ma, ma, ma" is one of the few words in his vocabulary, so it will be a while before I find out whether he is interested in discussions of racism and personal responsibility and US public holidays. In the mean time, I plan to add a book of Martin Luther King's speeches to my reading list.

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The Zulu of Africa

 It has been fun to check out some books from our local library that could be useful in teaching Elnathan about his South African heritage. The Zulu of Africa is full of lovely photos. It focuses on traditional and rural Zulu culture. This means that it does not give a detailed idea of what Zulu life is generally like today. However, it is useful from a historical perspective. It is also an enjoyable read because it focuses on the province of Kwa-Zulu Natal, where Dave spent several happy years. We have also spent a lot of time together there. Thsi book might be worth owning. I believe that it is good to own books that you want children to identify with as part of their childhood and history. I remember reading and re-reading books about Tasmanian aboriginal people as a child, because we had these in our home.

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