Oceania - Australia

Oceania has been fascinating.  Torchlight focuses primarily on Australia and New Zealand.  We are combining it with BYL 7 for my older guy (who is technically in fourth grade).

We made ANZAC biscuits, which were a huge hit.  We didn't have golden syrup yet, so I substituted brown rice syrup, and they were delicious.  Quick to make, not incredibly messy, and the kids did most of the work.  The cookies sparked a discussion about soldiers in WWI and WWII and about the home front, which was interesting after reading about the experiences of Kaiulani and Nanea in Hawaii.

We also ate kiwis and had fun with a whole coconut.  We made damper, which is Australian cowboy/bush bread.  This one would be especially fun to make while camping, as it was traditionally cooked in the coals of the fire, but we baked it in our oven and served it with golden syrup.  If you've ever made beer bread (the version that is self-rising flour mixed with beer and butter and baked), this is pretty similar.  Not my favorite, but the kids loved it and gobbled up the whole loaf.  It does tend to stick to the pan and is not incredibly easy to cut.  Our loaf was eaten too quickly for me to guess at how it would keep, but beer bread is definitely best eaten on the day it's made, and I think this is likely similar.  The recipe we made doesn't have any fat, and fat part of what helps baked goods stay moist.  We tried Marmite on toast (I liked it and so did the baby, but the older kids weren't fans.)

Crazy long playlists are here - Australia and New Zealand and the rest of Oceania.  These are intended for a younger kid to pop in and out and an older kid to watch the whole thing spaced out over a week or two.

Books we used in our study include:

• The Adventurer's Handbook: An Extreme, Extraordinary, and Exciting Journey Around the World by Anita Ganeri.  My fourth grader absolutely loves this book, which has two interesting pages on Australia and many fascinating pages on various exciting opportunities around the world.  Examples include managing altitude sickness to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro or how to join the Highland Games.
• Big Rain Coming - Katrina Germein.  This is a beautiful book, written by an Australian author and illustrated by an author of aboriginal descent, about waiting for a rainstorm in summer.  Bonus: no white people pictured!
• The Brilliant Deep - Kate Messner.  This book is actually about coral reefs in Florida, but the information on what is happening with coral reefs and how people are trying to rehabilitate them is relevant to Australia as well.  This book is beautiful - wonderful watercolor illustrations, a fascinating story, and the lovely idea of one person finding a way to make a real difference in the world.
• Circle - Jeannie Baker.  I love Jeannie Baker's work.  She has such a unique perspective on the world, and her artwork is breathtaking.  Circle is about the migration of the godwit, which has the longest migration path in the world.  We loved this one.  If you have a sensitive small person, be ready to change the wording when the godwit babies interact with the fox, as we had a small flood of tears here.  Nothing is graphic, but only one baby survives.  The rest of the book is cool enough to overcome the small trauma.
• Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French.  This book has a delightfully untrustworthy narrator.  The wombat's new human neighbors are so patient.  Much of the understanding comes from the contrast between the very light text and the pictures, and my first grader and two year old and fourth grader were all in hysterics over the wombat's dinner bell and the ending. 
• Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas by Lynne Cox.  I am a little torn on this one.  It's a nice story, beautifully illustrated, and tells a true story from New Zealand.  The humans in it try hard to do the right thing for Elizabeth, who is an elephant seal who decides that her happiest place is sunning by a road in Christchurch, rather than out at sea.  I am torn because the reader ends up rooting for Elizabeth to return to the humans, rather than spend her life with her own kind, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.  But the kids liked it, and it was nice to have a book about New Zealand instead of just Australia. 
• Josephine Wants to Dance - Jackie French.  This is a lighthearted sweet story about a kangaroo who wants to dance ballet.  This was a special favorite of my first grader, and would be nice paired with the wordless picture book Flora and the Peacock by Molly Idle.  
• Koala Hospital - Suzi Eszterhas.  Adorable photographs, interesting info on the koalas without being overly graphic as to their injuries, and great details on the foster parents who take care of orphaned joeys made this one of my first grader's favorite options.
• Marsupials by Nic Bishop.  I had no idea there were so many kinds of marsupials.  The pictures and details in this non-fiction book are fascinating. 
• Mermaid Queen by Shana Corey.  This is a biography of Annette Kellerman, who created water ballet.  She learned to swim to help strengthen her legs as a child - she couldn't walk due to an illness - and overcame many obstacles.  She also helped introduce modern swimwear to American women.  We all liked this one - it was just the right length, had engaging illustrations, and provided enough info on the time period so that it made sense as to why Annette was having a difficult time, but not so much that my first grader got bored or bogged down in details.  There is a much more detailed story in the back for those who are interested (or for my fourth grader).  I would read a little from the longer story, as it tells how Annette's life ended up.
• My Place by Nadia Wheatley.  A fabulous snapshot of the children (around age nine-eleven) who live in the same patch of land going back in time by ten years from present day to pre-Western involvement.  You can identify the same giant tree through it all.  We read this one in reverse, a few pages per night.  Some of the children can be seen as parents in future pages; some are seen once and not again.  All the stories are fascinating, and the maps are drawn by each child.  Each one says something like, "I am Sarah. I am ten years old, and this is my place."  
• The Old Woman Who Loved to Read by John Winch.  We read this one about a hundred times.  There are fantastic illustrations of various Australian animals.  Best of all, it's just a good story.  An old woman decides she wants a quieter life where she can read, so she moves from the city to the outback. Her new farm life keeps her very busy, but she still wants to read...
• Outback Food Chains - Rebecca Pettiford.  My squeamish first grader disliked this book, but my fourth grader loved it.  The text is simple enough for younger grades, but the photos do show the animals being consumed (the dingo carrying off the lizard, for example), which my little guy found to be too much.  If your kiddo is less sensitive or enjoys the slightly gory (no blood shown), this is a great option. 
• Possum Magic by Mem Fox.  Endearing and sweet, this is the story of a little possum and her grandma and how they solve the problem of grandma's having made the little one invisible.
• Sand Swimmers by Narelle Oliver.  This intricate and detailed book is a fascinating look at wildlife in the Outback.  It also includes details, page by page, of the attempts of white explorers to find something they would consider valuable in the bush country.  They fail at that and also fail to identify and observe the astonishing creatures and insects hiding in plain sight.  There are interesting details on how the Aboriginal people traditionally survived in the same country.  It isn't a white versus Aboriginal book; no atrocities occur; no one is painted as less than.  It's very well done and extremely interesting.  Fairly text heavy, so for younger readers, plan to read it over several days.
• Stories from the Billabong by James Vance Marshall and Francis Firebrace.  This is my first grader's favorite, hands down.  The stories are engaging and exciting and the artwork is beautiful.  It claims to tell the oldest stories on earth - the origin stories from the Dreaming.  Pretty exciting stuff!
• Top to Bottom Down Under by Ted and Betsy Lewin.  Engaging and light-hearted journey through Australia's animals, including kangaroos who steal their dinner, napping on the beach with sea lions, camping next to fairy penguins, and more.  The illustrations are wonderful.  Text heavy, so plan to break it into several days for younger kids.
• Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker.  This book is fabulous.  It's a sweet father-son story of a day out exploring in the rainforest.  It also allows the reader to imagine how the rainforest looked with aboriginal children playing in it and how it might look in the future if it isn't preserved.  It's short and not preachy.  Definitely don't miss it.
• Wombat Stew by Marcia Vaughan.  A hungry dingo catches a wombat to make wombat stew for lunch.  The other animals pretend to be very helpful and are in fact tricking the dingo to help the wombat escape.  My 1st grader really liked this one. 

Older Kid Extensions

• Aboriginal Art of Australia by Carol Finley.  My oldest enjoyed reading this one, and my youngest enjoyed exploring the pictures.  It isn't the most child-friendly book out there, but it is interesting.
• The Aboriginal Peoples of Australia by Anne Bartlett.  Interesting with great pictures.  This isn't inappropriate for younger readers but is wordy, so it might not keep their interest.  I particularly like that there is a focus on modernity as well as history - there's no suggestion that somehow the aboriginal people were left back in history, as often seems to happen in books about indigenous people. 
• Call it Courage by Armstrong Perry.  This is a classic.  It's short, it's engaging, and my fourth grader says it's "ok."  With that ringing endorsement, it's worth trying.  S says he didn't like the "style of writing."  It's set in precolonial Polynesia.  
• Conservation Heroes Steve and Bindi Irwin by Amy Breguet.  This biography is detailed and fun.  My 4th grader really liked it.  Did you know that Bindi was named after Steve's favorite crocodile?  
• Crow Country by Kate Constable.  My fourth grader loved this one and highly recommends it.  Australian tale of time travel, injustice, racism, and redemption with a female heroine. 
• Dreamtime Aboriginal Stories by Oodgeroo.  Absorbing book for older kids.  The first half is stories about the author's childhood and parents.  Some of the details might be upsetting for younger kids (being caned at school, or not being allowed to use her left hand for writing and sewing), but for less sensitive kids, it's fantastic.  The second half is stories from the Dreamtime, which are also fantastic.
• Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence - S read a snippet of this and Seven Little Australians in an anthology and wasn't a big fan.  We will try again when he's older.
• Hitler's Daughter by Jackie French.  This was one of S's favorites of the whole unit.  He's a big WWII fan, so this hit all his buttons.  If Hitler had had a daughter, and if she had survived the war, what might have happened to her?  What might she have done with her life?  Perhaps she might be a refugee in Australia?  Completely fictional, but really good.
• Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl.  S loved this one.  The first two chapters were a struggle and required a big push through, but by chapter three he was enthralled.  We have plans to watch the movie with him, and possibly the original documentary, but haven't yet.  We did talk about what theory the voyage was intending to prove and what technology had been developed since then that might help prove or disprove that theory.  There is some interesting info on how DNA research has played into this on Wikipedia.  We paired our discussion with the book Boy Were We Wrong About the Solar System!, which is about changes in theories over time as technology changes and develops.
• Quest for the Tree Kangaroo by Sy Montgomery.  S loved this one.  The Scientists in the Field series is really well done, and the four books that we have tried from the series so far have been enthralling.  The tree kangaroos are some of the most elusive and hardest to photograph/interact with in the world, and this is the detailed, engaging story of a scientific expedition to observe and attempt to track these creatures.  
• Stowaway by Karen Hesse.  My fourth grader was enthralled with this one.  Based on the true story of Nicholas Young, who stowed away on James Cook's ship in 1768, which is the trip in which he visited Australia.  It's told in diary form.  The story itself is fiction, but led to some great discussion.  My oldest gives it five stars. 
• Sun on the Stubble by Colin Thiele. This one was a big hit.  S loved the style of writing and said the chapters were really exciting.  It's set in 1960s Australia.  Bruno lives on a farm and gets into all kinds of good-natured trouble.  S says it is comparable to The Great Brain.

Other possible extensions:
Tea - black tea
Cookie - ANZAC biscuits, or TimTams from the grocery store
Sandwich - Vegemite on white
Bread - damper
Fruit - mango, kiwi, lychee, rambutan, mangosteen, papaya, banana, pineapple, lime, pumelo, carambola, passionfruit, apple, grape, cherry, nectarine, plum, apricot, persimmon, blueberries
Veggies - cauliflower, peppers, onions, tomatoes, beets (called beetroot)
Kid TV show: Blinky Bill, Bindi's Boot Camp (totally benign kid competition show), Figaro Pho (this is not my favorite - I found it pretty unappealing but not actually unacceptable.  My kids absolutely love it.), Boj (sweet show for preschoolers), the Deep (features a fantastic loving black family who are adventurers in the ocean), Little Lunch, Kazoops, Koala Brothers, Hi-5 House, Animal Babies in the Wild (there are two Australian episodes), Wild Australia.  All of these are available on Netflix.
Minecraft: My oldest made the Kon-Tiki raft.  My middle guy made the Great Barrier Reef.  (Minecraft now features coral! And seaweed!  So much excitement.)
Constellations: I loved this article.  I think the Emu is my favorite.
Lullabies/sidewalk or hand games/kid games: Mama Lisa's website is my go-to for these.  We especially liked the cuddly koalas song and the window breaking game.