Tuesday, 18 December 2007

Our History

Our nation's history is something that should be precious to all of us. Our history was created by our ancestors who came from Polynesia and Europe and while one part of our history is more ancient than the other, and the younger part thinks itself more important than the first, we really should remember all of it. New Zealand was 'discovered' by Captain Cook a couple of centuries ago but really it was discovered by the Polynesian people centuries beforehand and so Cook takes the glory for what he was not the first to do.

Anyway, this is getting away from the purpose of this post. We need to protect our history, both Maori and European. Too many historic buildings are being removed or demolished, too many subdivisions are being plonked on top of historic middens, dumps and other places such as the old Clark Pottery site. Together we need to work together to preserve our heritage and our culture.

For an example the people of Arrowtown have done a good job of this in the way they have protected the history of their town from the development of nearby Queenstown and many of the buildings are protected by the Historic Places Trust. You are able to walk through the Chinese settlement and hire gold pans and shovels to pan for gold in the stream that runs along the edge of town. I believe we should protect the rest of Auckland's heritage in the way that Arrowtown has done.

Wednesday, 12 December 2007

"School"

School in our family is done in the home. It doesn't just involve sitting down at the kitchen table from 9 to 3 and doing English, Maths, Social Studies, Science and Music. In fact, at the table we only really do English (aka writing) and Maths in books (s+ometimes this doesn't happen though). Usually this happens before lunch.

We all learn some type of instrument except A2, M (who already knows the Piano) and D (who can play the Cello). S7 and E10 learn the Piano and I learn the Guitar. We learn most of our other subjects doing either: things with other families such as the A's on Thursdays and the T's on alternate Wednesdays or things such as going to the park, reading together, reading by ourselves, reading the paper, helping on the farm and going to Homeschool Group.

I have been very lucky in being able to go over to the farm this year and help the farmer with milking and feeding the animals. It has enabled me to be able to find out how a farm like that is run and I have enjoyed immensely. Being homeschooled gives us the flexibility to do things like this which would be harder to work around school schedules.