Governor Lachlan Macquarie believed in emancipation - rights for freed convicts read more in Janette's Pictures of Australian History.

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Price for use within your own family $46.20 (including gst) plus postage.


For use of an entire classroom in a school $66.00.


These pictures are drawn after works held at the State Library of NSW and the National Library of Australia
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HI AGAIN

WELL, THE NEW INFORMATION AND CHAT BOARD IS NOW OPEN FOR ALL TO SHARE!!!! It's called Janette's Pictures AND Australian History, but it's not just about using my pictures it's also about AUSTRALIAN HISTORY in general.

There's a place where you can add PLACES TO VISIT; and a place to put down your IDEAS. There's a place for an AUSTRALIAN HISTORY CHAT where you can meet others interested in Australian history and places to share ways you cover Australian history, the books you use etc. I've added a place for your CHILDREN's WORK too. Under the BOOK IDEAS section there is a MUCH easier to read copy of my children's booklist and I am working on a POETRY list and an ACTIVITIES/ideas and QUESTIONS list that go with the package.

I decided to build the board largely in answer to the interests and questions people shared with me at the Big Picture Conference held in Kurrajong, NSW this year, THANKS everyone! So, now we can all pool our resources so to speak and how wonderful to meet and hear stories from all over our Australia.

And of course there are opportunities to read more information and share more about using the Pictures of Australian History. I have tried to lay the board out to make it easy for you to find what you are wanting to read and/or contribute to.

Please join so that we can meet you and find out more about this Big Country of ours.

AT http://janettecassey.proboards100.com/index.cgi HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

In Jesus' love


Janette Cassey Ingham

NB All the pictures in this blog are drawn after original works held in the various State Libraries and The National Library, Australia.

AT LAST I've worked out how to give you an idea of how a whole page looks but unfortunately, the image comes out unclear and smaller in size if you print it, this is because of the program that has to be used to upload whole pages online. However, there are clearer single images further down this blog. All 35 pages in the package are A4 sized pages and all the images and text are clear.

Remember the special introductory price is $44 including gst till the end of April TO ORDER click on the following link which is my email address: janettecassey@bigpond.com. If you are wondering how to pay; I take cheque, money order, direct credit and paypal.

Dear Big Picture Conference customers, if you are visiting this site could you please contact me on the above email regarding some updates. I would also like to have your email address as I am opening an information and message board about Australian history soon called Janette's Pictures AND Australian History, I already have some homeschoolers interested in joining, and if I have your email address I can invite you to join too. :)

Warmly

Janette

WORKSHOP NOTES FROM THE CONFERENCE

BIG PICTURE CONFERENCE
Saturday 19 March, 2006
~ Workshop on Enjoying Australian History ~

Hello and welcome! I hope this workshop will encourage you to think more about taking the time to enjoy Australian history as you learn at home with your children and family.

When I was at school I can vaguely remember learning something about Captain Cook and Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth so they must have left some impression, but they are minor details in the story of our country. I’ve always had something of a fascination with history, but it wasn’t until I started home schooling my dear children that I started reading really wonderful historical and living books that took me backwards in time and taught me so much. The stories I love best are about average people all over the world, although famous people are fascinating too. Sadly however, I’ve noticed that people often have trouble getting off the ground with Australian history, which I think is a shame, because we have some great stories and some great advantages in studying our history:

• First of all it’s not very long – unlike world history;


• Secondly, there aren’t ANYWHERE NEAR as many people involved as world history;


• Thirdly it’s OUR history and therefore WE, more than anyone else in the world should be learning it;


• And fourthly and most importantly to me, it is and has been going on under our feet ……. WE ARE RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF IT!

Explore and Discover for Yourselves

I would like to encourage you to explore the history where you live and discover a place to start your Australian History studies right there. There are so many wonderful stories right in our backyards so to speak. The wonder of history to me is that I think of it as alive, not just in a book. When I am in a place, like here at Kurrajong, I imagine what it must have been like in the past. I imagine here in the mountains the sound of a group of Darug Aboriginal people chattering to themselves in the still morning air as they show Archibald Bell the way over these Mountains. The road up here is named after him. You know it took them years to find a way over these massive mountains called The Great Dividing Range, which by the way extend to Far North Queensland in the North and Victoria in the South. If you take the time to look at its rockiness and the denseness of the forest, the rugged cliffs and valleys you can begin to imagine why. Here is one of the rhymes from my pictures that describe their effort….

I also imagine a woman, in long skirts and boots picking her way slowly through the bush. She stops often to examine a flower or shrub and finally snips one to add to her collection. These new discoveries she will send to Baron von Mueller at the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne. Her name is Louisa Atkinson and she spent her childhood in the Southern Tablelands around Berrima at a big old house called Oldbury, which is still there.

The Baron came here from Germany because he was afraid of catching Tuberculosis and dying of it as most of his family had done. Isn’t modern medicine wonderful, there are so many things that don’t kill our children or us anymore, and many children died young in those days.

Reflections

That’s another thing I love about Australian history, it takes you on a journey of reflections, as you learn you can almost continually reflect on life now and back then. I can’t think of a better way to study history than to have good discussions with your family about those comparisons.

Dark Patches and Godly Reflections

I must warn you though, that just like world history, Australian History has its dark patches. Then again, since our written history started with 11 boatloads filled mostly with convicts and marines that landed in a place surrounded by tribes of Aborigines, no questions asked or answered, it has some rather LARGE dark patches. The good thing about looking at dark patches in the light of God’s wisdom however, is that you can expose them for what they are and what they aren’t. That makes for a great way of affirming with your children what God’s wisdom and love would and could have done and will always do if it is practiced. It gives you opportunities to discuss practicing God’s love as taught in the Bible in difficult situations and helps you to put yourself in their place and it also makes the love and kindness shown by those in our history with a Godly spirit shine out all the more. Not to mention the lessons we should all be learning from history’s mistakes as a man called Satayana once said: “Those who aren’t willing to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it.”

Ideas for Covering Australian History:

• Exploring: Find out about the history going on where you live and take some outings to go and see places together, use the pictures to aid your child’s narration and as a springboard to find out more when you get home.

• Poetry: Find some good poetry on Australian history to read aloud with your children, we have used this idea in our home school and it is such a succinct and enjoyable way to spend time with Australian history that I will be building a poetry list that relates to the Pictures package to my blog when it is ready. Henry Lawson in particular was able to paint wonderful pictures of the early days of our history and its people with his words. Reading some of his work is like stepping back in time, he creates an atmosphere as well as telling the story of his subject. Indeed some of his poems have been made into children’s picture books. For example this book “The Teams” by Henry Lawson (read poem aloud here). Of course, always pre-read short stories and poems to check their suitability for children.

• Books: Of course the tried and proven way of reading ‘living’ or good books for all ages is another great way to enjoy Australian history. For instance the Australian’s in History and Southern Cross series tells the stories of some wonderful characters of the time and there are of course library books and books like the My Story books that are in print at the moment to choose from.

As you share each book together you will come across characters, events and aspects of Australian history. This gives you and your children an opportunity to add the Pictures that relate to the story to your history books or timeline and as a springboard to study more about those things if you wish.

• Using an Overall Australian history book: There are Australian history books that tell the main sequence of our history from beginning till now. Some are listed in my booklist on my blog and I hope you will let us know of any others on the new Australian history information and message board when it is open. There are plenty to find, often with names like ‘Story of Australia’ they will probably be in the children’s section or in the Australian history section of second hand bookshops. Look in the Australian history section of libraries and bookshops too, often there are separate books for themes like gold, bushrangers or government etc. Once again each time you come across something included in the Pictures use them as part of your narration/review.

• Discussion: Reflect and discuss what you’ve learned and continue to explore those things further, for older children write narrations/research papers that answer questions that may arise. For instance, how would you have treated convicts if you were governor would you have been an emancipist or an exclusive? (see my pictures for an explanation of those terms) Or how would you have conducted relations with the Aborigines? I will also be adding an ideas list with things like activities and questions for each page/item to my blog and board when it is completed.

• Making Connections: In the first part of my talk, I related things and people to each other. Did you notice that? We got clues about the Blue Mountains, the Aboriginal people that lived here, the explorers, and even to Louisa (Atkinson) Calvert. Through Louisa we were given a clue about botany and Baron von Mueller in Melbourne. I find this a living and interesting way to study and keep learning alive in our home. Exploration and discovery learning I call it, learning as you go, there are no rules about who we must choose to study and you can always chose particular people you believe are important or interesting and bypass others if you wish, we have to do this for world history also. You or your children can pursue these clues that are mentioned in my pictures if you wish, they may ask the question; who did make it across the Blue Mountains or what was on the other side? Another suggestion is to pursue botany for a period of time collecting your own specimens, drawing and labeling them and visiting botanical gardens, perhaps.

• I’m all for saving time and effort in preparing our home schooling studies. As parents and teachers you can also do this and can cover other subjects at the same time as Australian history. My pictures can help you so accomplish this and here I would like to introduce them.

Using Janette’s Pictures of Australian History

In the previous paragraph I talked about how my Pictures have clues in them that allow you to explore aspects of Australian history together, a sort of springboard to help your study. Relating one thing or subject to another is a feature of my Pictures package and here we can use my pictures to demonstrate what I mean.

Using the words and pictures to explore Australian history and discover other subjects at the same time:

Both the words and the Pictures contain information that could lead to exploring other topics. Let me give you an example; Australian Geography is shown here and there where it relates throughout the Pictures. On page 4 as well as finding out about Captain Cook and Mr Banks, you can spend time locating and finding out about the Great Barrier Reef and its ecosystems, or even expanding the topic to other reefs in the world and how they are formed. This way you can incorporate Geography and Science in your Australian History studies, it takes care of choosing those subjects for you for the week or however long you wish to spend and the children are interested in finding out about this treacherous reef that damaged Captain Cook’s ship. An older child may be interested in marine biology on the reef or even navigation. There are so many topics that can be studied by different ages and your child will probably come up with their own interests. I believe this is the most living and effective way of learning and home schooling.
There are many other examples of this in the Pictures package, through people such as the explorers and the regions where they explored or the significance of the Eureka Stockade and the changes in our government or the discovery of gold etc. The ideas list I am also working on will give you topics or subjects for each page or picture and will also be added to my blog and information/message board when completed.

Colouring, Cutting and Pasting and Artwork

Now down to the actual Pictures. Permission is given for you to copy/enlarge these pictures onto board/paper for your children to colour, cut out, layout and paste. As they grow more capable with their art they may wish to try blending coloured or watercolour or pastel pencils (with a tiny amount of water) and producing a better finish on a standard or slightly enlarged version of the picture. In this way you can pay attention to artwork and presentation of pages including lettering and layout. You may wish to use the principles of colour from other art programmes on the pictures. In this way you can practice art skills at the same time as Australian history. You may wish your children to research the colours of the soldiers’ uniforms etc library books or online library catalogues will be helpful here http://pictureaustralia.org/ is a good one.

Make a Timeline

This is enjoyable whether you have a separate history notebook or not and great for younger children who love visual aides such as these. If you prepare a long strip of cardboard and stick it low enough on the wall the children can add their own coloured and cut pictures for each theme or person you chose to study. Another option is a large piece of rectangular coloured cardboard for each child or a display board for the whole family. The display could show characters or events following a theme or period of time and would be great for reviewing and remembering what you have done. This is also a great option if you choose to also follow the scientific/geographical ideas in the pictures such as a study of the Southern Alps or Australia’s Deserts. Children can add to each poster pictures, notes and even things collected that come from any place you have visited. For instance in studying the Wetlands environment feathers of water birds could be collected and displayed. It can be an easy way to review and be reminded of what you have learned, easier for busy home schooling mums to remember too! (

Start a History Notebook

Have your children start and make their own book of Australian history or add this to your home schooling world history book. Initially we made a simple book and started working on it but later I decided to consolidate all our history in one history notebook binder along with world history. We still use a binder for world history which we covered with rustic paper to look and feel nice. This way we can add or rearrange pages as needed and we can use different coloured board, use board as paper will be ruined fairly quickly. Into these we stick (with double sided tape) timeline figures/pictures that we colour beforehand. We also have a pocket stuck to the back of the folder to keep odds and ends in i.e. pictures that are cut but not yet glued in. Children can write their own notes from what they learn like those in the pictures which can be added to each page on cut paper and longer narrations made into little stapled books I type my younger son’s narration but my daughter aged 12 writes/types her own. This year we may change our ideas again, I think that some change is a good thing and with home schooling you have the freedom to try loads of fun ideas. If you have a binder or notebook style of book it is easier to change the format.

Using the Maps and Geography

There are plenty of maps in the Pictures that show where things were going on in Australia, where the deserts and rivers are, where bushrangers prowled and gold was discovered etc. Children could locate the place on a full sized Australian map you have hung nearby and identify where the history took place on the map. They could find out more about those geographical regions as mentioned before and when you go there for holidays you will have an idea what to look for historically speaking.

Refer to the Pictures Incidentally and With Books and Outings

Use the pictures after visiting historical places or when something or someone comes up in a book or even on the television etc. For instance we began with learning about the Aboriginal people and used the pictures pages at the beginning with that. You could use the pictures as a springboard to go and learn about something, or as a resource to find out more by looking up the person or event in the index. For some people this will be an easier option taking the pressure off mum to plan or come up with something to organise all the time. Learning as you go is a wonderful aspect of home schooling we use it in many ways why should Australian history be any different? You can always plan some dedicated time to do it chronologically as well.

Start a Journal

Some of the best historical stories are those of this era when naturalists were important, they were in fact paid more because of important discoveries that were being made. Just think, potatoes and cocoa (chocolate) were plants that have changed the whole world’s diet since the discovery and exploration of the Americas. Often these people were able to travel in the wilds of the Americas and Australia trusted by native tribes, they were thus able to record wonderful things for posterity. We have had some of our own naturalists like Watkin Tench and Alan Cunningham and some women like Georgiana Molloy in WA. Starting a journal of your own could be a way to record the beginnings of Australian history and the exploration and discoveries made. Picking up ideas for writing, drawing, and scientific study as you go. As an adult, you may enjoy this idea also it could be put together as you go as though you are making a journey through Australian history.

Called something like ‘My Australian History Journal’, think of it, first you discover the mysterious Great South Land itself hidden for many years. Then you discover its fauna and it’s indigenous peoples and then you see it through the eyes of the European discoverers, convicts, explorers settlers and your own discoveries about places you go and so on and so on, I could go on and on. I am hoping to write some short stories about our history that relate this kind of a feel before I get on to the next set of pictures which by the way took me a few years, these things take a long time.

Getting Set Up

A great idea is to buy a notebook with plastic sleeves in which to place your Pictures pages. I have been able to use this as I would a book to refer to people we have done or will do, it also protects the pictures and makes them more easily available. Another idea I’ve used is to have a copy of the entire set made for each child onto board not thin paper and spiral bound, then the child can cut out each picture from his/her own book and you will be able to keep track of who has been done over the years.

I hope I have encouraged you to think more about taking the time to enjoy Australian history with your family and that if you purchase my pictures package it will be a much used and valued tool. Please stay tuned for the link to the new information and discussion board entitled Janette’s Pictures AND Australian History.

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