"Welcome to my blogspot!"

"You know, there are many second hand and new books on this subject available but I could not find an easy way to tie the events of Australian history together for my children and make it enjoyable and easy. Hunting for and discovering Australia's many stories produced in me an interest in our undiscovered past and so, with much reading, researching, drawing and composing of rhymes and notes these pictures have been borne as the fruit of that search. I hope you will enjoy reading about them."

What are they?

Janette's Pictures Of Australian History and timeline figures; are intended to be used, to teach Australian history. They are a series of pictures or scenes with accompanying notes and rhyme on Australia's first 100 years of history. They are designed to create windows and hooks; windows that give you a picture of what was going on at a given time and hooks that inform and encourage children (and adults) to investigate further. They are visual and memorable, my children enjoy learning from them, and they are something that will, I hope, create in you an interest in the history of our country.

How To Use

Permission is given to photocopy and enlarge these pictures for members within your household for learning purposes only. Photocopying onto thicker paper works best (up to 210gsm depending on what your printer can manage) then these pictures when coloured will look and survive better. Enlarging each scene into full sized colouring or painting pages for younger children is another useful idea.

Your children can cut the pictures out and colour them, discussing and exploring the pictures and rhymes together with you. They can become a part of projects or a homemade book on Australian history that is cherished and developed over the years. They can be posted on a timeline on the wall as you come to each one chronologically or taped into a historical book of centuries.

Using Literature

Of course "living" books (good books) can be read throughout the study of Australian history as can Australian poetry which has a "life" of its own and that in itself teaches so much and can often match with a person or event in history. There will be references to some Australian poetry that will help your study, this is something I hope to expand on in future using many authors such as Henry Kendall and Henry Lawson.

Book and Resource List

At the back of the completed pictures will be a list of the books, stories and websites I have referred to or researched from to form a list of resources you may wish to investigate further in libraries obook shopsps. Also there will be ideas for using the pictures and other topics that can be covered at the same time.

Quantity and Price

I will be issuing the pictures in two or three groups. The first group, which will be available soon, is of the first one hundred years of settlement to 1888AD. Each will have a note relating to the picture in the form of prose or rhyme to enjoy with your children as they learn. There will be more than 30 pages in the set and each page will contain three or four pictures or scenes for you to photocopy and use within your own family. I believe the price will be around $A30 ..... but they are not just portraits as you will see if you read on.

Added Value

Don't we all love some added value and a product that helps make a subject easier to cover. So I've taken the time to make each drawing not into a plain portraiture with some dry facts but into a type of scene representing and relating to people, events, aspects, places or themes of the time the following explains these 5 elements:

People

Portraits and people and their stories are so important to a country's history however no publication can detail everyone in a countries' history. My choices have been made through reading of historical books and stories and the people others have chosen to mention like Manning Clarke author of a six volumes on Australian history and historians such as the Rex & Thea Rienits. I have chosen some people to show integral aspects of Australian history, people who have influenced our history and people in different walks of life, some of our wonderful pioneering women also from historians such as Susanna De Vries.

Aspects

Each figure of a person is surrounded by pictures that relate to them and some of what was happening during that person's life. For instance Governor Macquarie helped emancipists (freed convicts), accomplish much and encouraged exploring so pictures and notes of these things surround him.

Place

Explorers are surrounded with the places they explored eg the deserts of Australia and some creatures from the desert to help you discuss the desert and what life is like there if you wish to with your children. Of course this means you can discover more about Australia's geography using the picture as a springboard to explore the region further for geography or science if you wish. Key colonies are covered Sydney, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), Hobart, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Darwin.

Maps

Many maps are given eg explorers, bushrangers and discoveries etc to help you to picture place. I find it much easier to remember what that person did and relate to it when there is a map and pictures of same. Wherever I go now or even when someone comes from a place I've studied about I think of the things that happened there, the stories of the place. For me personally this is one of the joys of history and something that keeps it alive. Practically speaking if you visit somewhere of significance on your holidays you will be able to look for historical information on that person/event/place.

Themes

Themes of the significant and fascinating aspects of the first hundred years of settlement to 1888 are covered as follows: animals; plants; geography; aboriginal history; discovery; convicts; government and authority; colonies; explorers; settlers and their troubles; the goldfields; mineral deposit discoveries; pastoral and agricultural resources; bushranging; famous/influential men and women; scientific and technological developments; sport and the arts eg poetry and painting.

Related Subjects

You will be able to cover other subjects by using the pictures for instance in Captain Cook's picture a Maori is behind him, you may like to investigate the Maori people of New Zealand further or perhaps their response to Captain Cook's visit to New Zealand. Using these labelled pieces of the pictures like a puzzle you could take your study further and ask questions about the people, places and aspects that catch your or your children's interest.

Homeschooling this way has been a joy to me and kept the positive learning environment alive in our home with my dear children Jessica (12) and Lachlan (10) to whom this project is dedicated. To me it's learning through inquiry, exploration and discovery and it does make for a living education.

Copyright information and credits

The pictures are all illustrated and the rhymes all composed by Janette Cassey Ingham excepting for the drawing of the boundary rider which was drawn by Miss Jessica Ingham and the portrait of Ned Kelly which was drawn by Jocelyn James. The pictures are inspired by historical pictures for which I have gained permission from the various libraries and a list of credits for these will be in the finished product.

Comments and orders

Please feel free to comment below on my blogspot or visit my email address also below from which orders will be able to be placed at. I will be able to take paypal payments, cheque or money order and direct credit.

This is a work in progress, so please bear with me as I strive to complete my drawings, words, information sheets and blogspot as soon as I can.. I AM getting there. Apologies and great thanks to those who have been patiently waiting for this our family has had a traumatic year this year.

I hope that if you like the pictures you will show them to your friends and fellow homeschoolers/educators. I would greatly appreciate your prayers for this work, as fellow home schooling mums and dads, I am sure you appreciate what an effort it is to continue work on this project which has been continuing for some time now.

Thank you again for your interest, I sincerely hope you enjoy using this gift! Any feedback would be most welcome.

Through the grace of God,

Janette Cassey Ingham

Please contact me for orders or information at:

Janette's Pictures, 106 Mt Vernon Drive, KAMBAH ACT 2902
Email c/o: : janettecassey@bigpond.com or Phone: 02 6231 6192

If you've stuck with the blog to the end THANK YOU so much for viewing! :)

These pictures are dedicated to Jessica and Lachlan my dear children with whom I have shared our wonderful homeschooling journey for nearly the last 5 years.

A special and {{{loving}}} thanks to Michelle van den Bos who has kept on encouraging me and spurring me on throughout the whole time I have been working on these pictures.

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"I'm getting there Michelle, Love Janette!"

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