Well.... AT LAST with the help of God's grace, I have finally finished this project. What a relief but I must say how exhausting! Anyone thinking of doing something like this let me warn you it is tough, especially along with being a wife, mother, homeschooler and homemaker. My charming daughter Jessica (I praise the Lord for her daily) worked for me and helped and gave so much moral support. My dear sister in Christ and friend Michelle kept me going to the finish line and helped with editing and child care etc etc right when I needed it most, just when I was thinking that I just can't make it and another dear friend Jocelyn who also helped with my ds. THANKS ladies!
Trying to get this ready in time for the Big Picture Conference has been a HARD deadline with a few VERY late nights. Working on text, scanning pictures and setting them out, and edit after edit till I couldn't see straight; and liaising with libraries, it's amazing they all think so differently! As you see However, it's finished, at last, the first 100 years.
It has turned out to be more of a resource than a set of timeline figures so please don't expect something like that which is already out there, it is unique.
If you are still keen to order please email me. If you have already ordered a copy or contacted me I will contact you when I return from the conference, btw thanks so much for your encouragement - you have kept me going too.
In addition, I hope you will continue visit this website to see the resources here. I plan to add some resources if they upload (I am having trouble uploading some pictures) including:
A booklist and an activity list to go with the Pictures that can relate a lot of other subjects to your Australian history studies, I've found this to be a way of keeping learning alive in our lessons. This involves using the clues or hooks in the rhymes/notes and exploring them further but more about that later.
I will also be providing a list of image nos to refer to at the online Pictures Catalogues at the libraries and I'm planning on writing a few stories as well.
And, a great way to liven up your Australian history studies; a related poetry list by well known Aussie poets, so you see this relates poetry to Australian history too and makes it fun, at least I and the kids think so anyway.
PRICE: I AM OFFERING AN INTRODUCTORY PRICE OF $40 to last the month of April.
The package ended up being 100 years instead of 50 years of Australian history, it became longer with more pages than I anticipated, 35 in total there are also indexes and a 'How To' page in the package.
So I'm off to the conference tomorrow morning 6am from Canberra, see you there if you are going. May the Lord keep us safe on those roads. Please make a comment on the blog anytime or contact me with questions.
Wearily but warmly
Janette Cassey Ingham
I dedicate this project to my two lovely children with whom I love to homeschool!
posted by Janette Ingham | 3:18 am
2 Comments:
Dear Janette,
I don't know where the time at the conference went! I fully intended to talk to you at length about how you present Australia History as its obviously a passion of yours (and mine). Your workshop clashed with Leonie Westenberg's on High School and I opted for hers as we've just entered those realms.
I wonder if it would be at all possible to get a copy of your notes, if you used them, for the workshop. We basically are studying our country's history chronologically using Page and Ingham's "Turning Points" and Manning Clark's "A Short History of Australia" as spines, taking occasional detours to Baillie's "Sunburnt Country" and MacDougall's "Great Treasury of Australian Folkore" and then reading regularly and generously from living books. I say this so you have a bit of a background to how we currently approach this great subject. You no doubt have many other wondeerful ideas that I would dearly love to hear about.
We use Diana Waring's books and Amy Pak's Timeline Figures for the basis of world history so I tend not to set projects ,as such, for Australian History but rather encourage the children to undertake activities, like making a pioneer cookbook with calico book covers, and drawn narration pages on each time period or subject we cover. I don't have a consistent approach, though, and often find myself relying on devine inspiration....thank God, He hasn't let me down yet!!! It just is not as organised as my approach to World History. We've just read "A Saddle at Bontharambo" and for that the children drew various scenes inspired from the book to create a border for the mapwork depicting the family's journeys. Enough from me!!!
If you have some time, whenever convenient, I'd truly value any recommendations you can offer. I regret very little from last weekend but one thing I'm kicking myself over is not seeking you out. I don't tend to like to push myself forward when there was so much obvious interest in your timeline product - which are simply excellent, by the way!
Thank you for undertaking to produce such a quality product for us to use. It's existence and your committment speak into our children's lives conveying the relevance and integral importance of our own country's history.
Warm Regards,
Jennifer Stephens
Hi Jennifer,
It was wonderful to meet you and so many people that are so keen on AH. Thanks so much for your encouragement and for sharing our common interest! I would have gone to the High School session too, was it good? I found Jay Wile's information on high school very relieving as my dd Jessica who has just started that road.
How did you find it?
Never mind about not catching up in person, there will be plenty of chances to email etc. and plenty of other people that love AH too, I hope people comment on the blogspot. I'm toying with the idea for a chat board where we can share and discuss also but I don't want the extra hassle of the technical stuff, as long as everybody looks after themselves that would be alright???? hmmmm??
About ideas for how to do AH, on my blogspot here there are some suggestions as well as those on the How to Use page at the back of the pictures package. I am planning on elborating on and adding to those, and will be 'publishing' my notes on the blogspot too.
These are the things I will be adding to this blog:
- A booklist, adult's and children's.
- A blog on ideas for 'doing' Australian History and for different age groups,
- An ideas and activities table that specifically relates to each page of the Pictures and
- Eventually, a poetry list that relates to each page/theme.
- Also there will be some thematic diagrams showing how you could choose a theme from the pictures for 'x' weeks and approach Australian History that way.
Your ideas for doing AH sound wonderful! Maybe if I work out this board you can post them there, would you be interested in joining a message board? It would only be open to people who are willing to work out how to post etc for themselves and be nothing fancy.
As mentioned above we also use living books and, poetry (which I've found shorter and marvelous) and obviously 'mum's pictures' and narration. We use them in an ad hoc fashion when we go somewhere or as they come up in the book we are reading along with discussions and notes. Sometimes my dd (12) uses them on her own. For example, now that we have visited some of Windsor's historical sites (we went there after the conference) she can write about Lachlan Macquarie and add anything else we learned.
The pictures are also great for honing/practicing art skills eg blending coloured pencils to give them sunburn (smile) or using watercolour with just a teeny bit of water. Practice first though. How old are your children? My ds is (10) and he will colour them with pencils but using a small brush is good to develop his fine motor skills too. They can be enlarged for littlies of course.
We have used an Australian History book but lately have been putting them in the modern history section of our Book of Centuries/history book. I am constantly revising how we do this though. I am thinking more and more that it is a great way to tie in modern history (we also use living books and Amy Pak for that too) since it would be Australia's perspective on modern history rather than Britain's or America's.
That was another thing I mentioned in the workshop, the idea of doing other subjects in at the same time which the pictures help you to do as a lot of them contain clues from which you can expand your learning eg when you colour in Captain Cook's picture you could for science and geography take a look at the Great Barrier Reef etc etc etc. It's what I call exploration and discovery learning.
Anyway, must off now, got to do the shopping and errands. Could I post your kind and generous words on the comments at my blogspot? Or could you please post a comment there yourself? It's so nice to have things from other people than me there. I do check for messages and will reply to any I see.
Keep checking for the resources I mentioned above also at http://janettecassey.blogspot.com .
All the best and hope to talk to you again soon.
Warmly and with thanks
Janette
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