Cold Milk and Milo

Hi, this is Grace's mum, Sharon. I'm helping Grace get this blog post up because she feels that writing the whole post is just a bit too much work at the moment.  The school year is almost over and she has been working very hard with her learning, so it's understandable that she feels the way she does. She did, however, write a small piece which is the focus of this post. I just wanted to add some further details so readers can put what she's written into context.

Two days ago, it was Remembrance Day - an ideal time to have a discussion about the concept of war and a brief look at Australia's involvement in war throughout history. We watched a short 'Behind the News' segment on Remembrance Day, and read the poem 'Flanders Fields' by Dr John McCrae (Grace ended having to read most of it as I was too emotional to even read to the end of the 2nd line). After the 2 minutes silence I decided that the movie 'Australia' would be appropriate for us to watch as it recounts Japan's bombing of Darwin during World War 2. The movie also touches on the racism in Australia at the time, specifically the way the Australian Indigenous people were treated by the majority of white Australians, and the issue of the Stolen Generations.

We watched the movie together, pausing every now and then to talk about certain things that were happening, and for me to explain things when Grace needed me to. She seemed very interested and sat through the whole movie (which goes for over 2 and a half hours).

I'll now let you read what Grace wrote earlier today:

Yesterday morning, I was having a glass of cold milk with a spoon of Milo in it. I started thinking about a movie I watched the day before called Australia. The movie was set in the Northern Territory at the time of World War 2 when a lot of Australians were racist and treated the Aborigines really badly. I remembered my favourite quote from the movie – ‘just because that’s the way it is, doesn’t mean that’s the way it should be’. It was talking about how people treated the Aborigines.

I realised that my glass of milk was like the white people and the Milo was like the black people. The spoon mixing them was like the people standing up and saying ‘just because that’s the way it is, doesn’t mean that’s the way it should be’. I hope that one day all racism will disappear because we are all human beings and we all have value, no matter what we look like.

Just after the Milo goes in

After a little stirring

After more time and more stirring

Just a few specks to go

As Grace was telling me this yesterday morning, I felt so much pride in my daughter. I think it's an excellent analogy and she came up with it all by herself. It's an analogy that can be used for thinking about other contemporary issues such as homophobia. I think it's really important for us to discuss issues like this with our kids. They are our future leaders and decision-makers. And I must say, it's comforting to believe that our younger generation have it within them to change our world for the better.

Well done my clever girl. I am so very proud of you!

Amazing Mistakes

I used to get really annoyed whenever I made a mistake but recently I realised that sometimes something good comes out of it. I learnt this out of a book called '31 Ways to Change the World' on pages 58 and 59.

Did you know that frisbies, Coca-Cola, popsicles, penicillin, potato chips, cheese, the discovery of America, and slinkies all resulted from a person making a mistake? I was very surprised when I read about these accidental discoveries.

Here are links to 2 of these stories:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_chip#History,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_pop

Click on this image to found out more about this really cool book:

Image of the book.

So there you are, how amazing is that?! And guess what, I made a few mistakes in this post but I think I fixed them all. Maybe I would have been better off not fixing them!

Enjoying Roald Dahl

One of my favourite activities is reading, and Roald Dahl is one of my favourite authors. I've read heaps of his books and it's really hard to choose my favourite one because they are all really good. My favourite character is The BFG (Big Friendly Giant) because he is kind and caring, and he talks funny. I have four Roald Dahl dvds and I love watching them again and again.

The BFG

This term in English, I read The Twits by Roald Dahl and learnt the language features (nouns/noun groups, verbs/verb groups, direct speech, text connectives, pronouns, adverbs/adverb groups, and prepositional phrases) that authors use in their writing.

For my assessment task I had to write a new chapter for The Twits using the language features that I learnt. At first, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do it but in the end it got finished and I was really proud of my writing. I also had to write an Art Brief to go with my chapter.

This is what I wrote:

The Hole

By Grace Hill

Mr Twit was extremely angry at Mrs Twit for the sticky beard trick. He wanted to get his revenge.

The next time Mrs Twit was out shopping, he dug a hole in the backyard. He made it deep enough so that it would come up to Mrs Twit’s neck, and just a little bit wider than Mrs Twit. Then he filled it with sloppy, muddy water and one hundred revolting leeches from the creek. Lastly, he covered the hole really, really neatly with fake grass.

The next day, the Twits were gardening in the backyard.

‘That patch of grass looks greener than the rest,’ Mrs Twit told Mr Twit suspiciously, pointing to the patch of fake grass.

‘It’s just some green paint I accidentally spilled there two days ago. It will have dried by now,’ Mr Twit said politely to her.

Mrs Twit walked over to the patch of grass and stepped on it to check. Instantly, she fell into the hole.

‘Arghhhhhhhh, you mean, fat, smelly, old scoundrel, get me out of here this instant!’ Mrs Twit shrieked.

‘Not unless you apologise and say please,’ Mr Twit replied smiling.

‘No I won’t!’

‘I guess you’ll have to stay there then.’

‘Fine then. Sorry and please,’ she said miserably.

‘Ok then.’

A minute later, Mr Twit threw Mrs Twit a rope and pulled her out. She then realised she had lumpish leeches all over her entire body. Mrs Twit let out an ear-piercing scream.

‘Can this day get any worse?’ she cried.

Mr Twit, knowing that salt kills leeches, tipped an enormous bag of it all over Mrs Twit, laughing so much that a little bit of wee came out in his pants.

The End

Art Brief: A line drawing of Mrs Twit being pulled out of the hole with a rope by Mr Twit. Mrs Twit is muddy with leeches all over her. Mr Twit is laughing and Mrs Twit is crying. It is a sunny day with one really big cloud in the sky.

A Happy Homeschooler

I spend a lot of time thinking about things. Halfway through last year, I started homeschooling. Going to school made me very unhappy. I felt sad, lonely and worried all the time and kids were mean to me. Yesterday morning I was thinking about what I liked and disliked about homeschooling, and I wanted to share my thoughts:

Good things about homeschooling:

• I don't have to do schoolwork all day. I can get all my work finished then go out with my Mum to places like our favourite French cafe, and have an iced chocolate and macaroon. Yummy!
• I get my own schoolroom. It has a globe, indoor plant, bin, a bed to have a rest on, timetable, notice board, white board, computer, art trolley, and best of all... affirmation cards.
• I don't have to put up with other noisy kids. This is good because I can concentrate properly.
• I don't miss my mummy like I used to when I went to school. We get to spend lots of time together now and she teaches me extra things like sewing.
• I can wear anything I like every single day. I don't have to wear a uniform and shoes like I would if I went to school.
• I don't get bullied or teased. There aren't any mean kids around.
• I get to sleep in. I don't have to get up early and go to school.

There is only one thing I don't like about homeschooling. There is no-one to play with although there is a boy called Riley who lives on the street behind my house who likes to come over and ride on his scooter while I ride mine. Also, I'm hoping to meet up with some other homeschooling kids soon. 

So there are the good things and only one bad thing about homeschooling. I am a happy homeschooler.