Australian Historical Fiction for Primary Age Children - Verity of Sydney Town by Ruth C. Williams

Verity of Sydney Town, an historical novel, was first published in 1950 by a Sydney based author and was awarded Children's Book of the Year in 1957. It is set in New South Wales during the period of Governor Macquarie's time in office (early 1800's) against a backdrop of pioneering farmers, bushrangers and convicts, and it is an interesting and lively account of the times. 

A strange little place...this Sydney Town, built as it was round a cove which the natives called Warrang; neither entirely a seaport nor a country town, nor a convict settlement, nor a military outpost, and yet, in appearance, all these things in part. Covered by a dome of blue sky, flanked by a glorious harbour and the mystery of lonely headlands, it had a beauty of its own; and yet the town itself --despite the orderliness and seemliness insisted upon by His Excellency, despite neat fences and whitewash, flag-stones and clean-swept paths -- retained an appearance of raggedness, like a pretty lass in a frayed petticoat.

Verity is a twelve year old girl whose father, a ship's captain, has been lost at sea. The young girl is put under the care of unsympathetic guardians in Sydney Town who, believing the captain to be dead, eventually send her out west to live with a farmer and his family; charitable people who knew her father and wanted to show kindness to his daughter.

Verity settles into her new life and shares in the hard work of the farm. She is befriended by Humphrey, the farmer's son and Slippery Britter, a young, cheerful, and warm-hearted ex-convict who works at the farm.

After Verity has been living at the farm for some time, news comes that the Hawkesbury River is in flood. The farmer and his wife, fearing for the welfare of their married daughter and her baby, leave Verity and Humphrey in Britter's care and travel to the Hawkesbury region to bring them to safety.

While they are gone, the farm receives some unwelcome visitors. A group of bushrangers, one of them an ex-convict who used to work at the farm, break in and threaten the lives of the two children. Britter's bravery and quick thinking rescues them and the three of them run away into the night but the bushrangers are in hot pursuit and Britter is wounded. Humphrey's intervention saves him from being murdered and the three of them stagger away in the dark and rain to a place of safety.

Disappointment awaits them when they arrive at the closest habitation only to find it deserted and the route to Windsor cut off by flood. Britter suggests that they go back home as the farmer would return before long and the bushrangers would be quick in making their escape. They return to the farm to find other strangers there and the homestead badly damaged by fire.

There is an episode in the book where the two children decide to 'reform' their friend Britter and ask him to promise never to resort to stealing again - the crime for which he was transported to Australia in the first place. He was a little resentful at the time at the presumption he was still a thief, but the tables were later turned when they arrived at the deserted town. Ravenous with hunger, Humphrey suggests forcing a window and helping themselves to some food but Britter would have none of it.

'But I am so hungry!' Humphrey tried again, on a plaintive note.

'So was I when I stole the plum-pudding,' replied Britter, quite unmoved. 'But they sent me to Botany Bay for it. No you don't! You don't catch me stealing nothin'. You wanted to reform me, didn't you? Well, you has, see! And a reformed felon has to be as careful of his reputation as any dainty miss in her first season. Why, buck up, man! A little hunger won't hurt you. And I ought to know!

Tighten your belt, lad, and shut your mouth! And when you are a man remember this day and start a movement for every judge to try a little fasting himself before condemning any man to death for stealing a bite of food.'

The book would probably be most enjoyed by children around 10 to 12 years of age and both boys and girls would appreciate the tale, so don't be put off by the title. It is a story centred around a young girl but the author allows other characters to also take centre stage and in so doing has broadened the story's appeal.

Governor Macquarie is portrayed as a humane man who endeavoured to deal justly with the convicts. Some background information on his time in office is given here.

The book would fit well chronologically in Term 1 of Ambleside Online Year 5 (early 1800's).

Nature Study - Rocks & Wildflowers

We only managed one bush walk this month but we came across the first blooms of some our native wildflowers as we come to the end of winter here.

 Crowea Exalta (Boronia family)

 Acacia Lineata (Wattle)

Australian Wildflowers to Cultivate by Alec M. Blombery is a good book we use to help us identify the wildflowers we don't know.

We live in an a predominantly sandstone area. This honeycombed sandstone formed the roof to a rock projection we came across in our walk.

Rock Challenge - a guide to observing and identifying rocks at The Handbook of Nature Study Blog.

We have an abundance of sandstone rocks around our home and a few of them have been carved over the years and have been used for car tracks. This is a rock my daughter has been working on with her chisel and hammer and when the neighbourhood children hear her hammering they come over and join her. Her 14 year old brother offers his advice now & again which is bit of a worry because when he was about 8 years old he decided to build a base in the bush and tried to roll a sandstone rock to where he wanted it to be. It was rather large and once he got it moving it took on a mind of its own and rolled down the slope into the door of his big brother's car. Though I don't expect this rock to go anywhere.

A chunk of the outer sandstone which has been chipped off the rock.

By bashing the rock you get gritty sand

A seat my husband carved out of sandstone rock using an angle grinder. At the moment it's almost submerged under a pile of mulch.

Sandstone rock covered with moss

This video explains how sandstone and other rocks are formed

Getting Started with Dickens - Nicholas Nickleby

My memory is that A Tale of Two Cities was the first book I read by Charles Dickens. Of all his novels, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations are possibly his most read books - so it seems to me.

I've read eleven of Dickens's novels and Nicholas Nickleby has been the easiest plot of all to follow.

According to G.K. Chesterton, the book Nicholas Nickleby marked a crucial turning point for Charles Dickens. This was his fourth book, the previous three being the Sketches by Boz, The Pickwick Papers, and Oliver Twist. Although these three books were successful, they were of a different design but the writing of Nicholas Nickleby 'coincided with his resolution to be a great novelist and his final belief that he could be one.'

Nicholas Nickleby is Dickens’s first romantic novel because it is his first novel with a proper and dignified romantic hero; which means, of course, a somewhat chivalrous young donkey. The hero of Pickwick is an old man. The hero of Oliver Twist is a child...

But Nicholas Nickleby is a proper, formal, and ceremonial hero. He has no psychology; he has not even any particular character; but he is made deliberately a hero—young, poor, brave, unimpeachable, and ultimately triumphant.

The story of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby begins with the account of how Mr. Nicholas Nickleby Snr. loses his fortune, and his will to live, and so dies leaving behind his wife and their two children: Nicholas, nearly nineteen years of age and Kate, a couple of years younger. With no means of support, Mrs Nickleby and her children must travel to London to seek assistance from Mr. Ralph Nickleby, the dead man's older brother, who as it turns out, is a cunning and avaricious man of business who takes an instant dislike to his nephew.

On the pretext of providing young Nicholas with a good opportunity for advancement, Ralph finds him a position with a Yorkshire schoolmaster, a Mr. Wackford Squeers, and promises to provide for Mrs Nickleby and Kate.

Nicholas soon finds Mr. Squeers' boarding school and his treatment of the 'students' intolerable and in a rush of indignation thrashes the school master and leaves the establishment taking with him, Smike, one of the ill-used boarders who had become attached to him because of the kindness Nicholas had shown to him.

Meanwhile, back in London, Ralph had brought Kate into contact with some of his dubious acquaintances in order to gain an advantage with them and her life was made miserable.

Mrs Nickleby, being a silly, undiscerning type of woman, is of no help to her suffering daughter and indulges in dreams of Kate marrying one of her brother-in-law's rich acquaintances.

Nicholas returns to London, confronts Ralph, and removes his mother and sister to safer quarters. After a series of fortuitous events, he finds a good situation with the brothers Cheeryble but his Uncle is more than ever determined to crush him and employs various schemes in order to accomplish this.

In the course of his employment with the generous hearted brothers, Nicholas is asked to perform a delicate task involving a beautiful young girl who is in desperate need and in the course of his duty he discovers that her selfish father has promised her in marriage to an old usurer in return for an allowance which would enable him to live comfortably. Nicholas discovers that his Uncle is behind this scheme.

The story is well-paced and Nicholas plunges from one adventure to another in true romantic fashion. The book is long, 65 chapters, but even so, I'd recommend it as a good entry into the work of Dickens if you haven't read him before. The characters are not treated as fully as those in some of his other novels and there is a buoyancy in the writing that isn't found in his darker novels such as Little Dorrit or Our Mutual Friend. It is an enjoyable read and if you wanted to introduce Dickens to your child it would be a good choice for someone around the age of 15 or 16.

There are numerous online copies as the book is in the public domain. I like this version from the University of Adelaide best.

Librivox has a wonderful recording performed by Mil Nicholson, a professional actress. Her website is here and if you enjoy her reading you can leave her a comment.

Handicrafts - sewing projects for beginners

The child is only truly educated who can use his hands as truly as his head, for to neglect one part of our being injures the whole...

Any work which employs the creative instinct to good purpose and produces a reputable and artistic result (not mere exercises which waste the children's time and material for nothing) finds favour with us.

Parent's Review

Moozle had her first lesson on the sewing machine a year ago and is quite confident using it. I get it out for her and she can thread it up and start sewing but I still need to keep my eye on her and help her with some things. My machine is a great little basic Elna my Dad bought us for a wedding gift twenty-six years ago. We didn't have a TV and Dad asked if we'd like one for a wedding gift and I quickly said NO, but I'd love a sewing machine. It hasn't skipped a beat in all that time.
I've taught all seven children to use it & being a machine, I had no trouble convincing the boys to try it out.
I've always set it up on the kitchen table because it's a central place & I can keep my eye on the user. One day I left it for half a minute & when I came back I found my 2 year old son kneeling on the chair with a scrap of fabric underneath the needle of the machine. He was looking very serious, waiting for something to happen. It gave me a fright (not that he could reach the pedal but one of the other littles could have gone under the table and pressed it) so I've always been careful since then to make sure that whoever is sewing always turns off the power any time they leave the table. Moozle is the youngest child but she also always turns it off.

This week I got her to make a storage bag for our plastic bags and here is what she did:

What you need:

A rectangular piece of fabric - we used a piece about 22" x 20" (56cm x 51cm)

2 pieces of elastic - I had some that was too wide so I cut in longwise to make it just under 1/2" wide and cut two pieces about 6" (15cm) long
Large safety pin

What you do:

Sew a border along each of the shorter sides for the elastic to go through. Ours was about 1" in width - you have to be able to get the safety pin through easily.

Fold material in half lengthwise & sew the edges together leaving the two ends open for the elastic to go through.

Attach elastic to the pin and thread a piece through both top & bottom seams and secure ends of elastic by sewing them together with zigzag stitch.

 

This is the fiddly bit. Tuck the raw edges away from sight and sew the seams closed. Not exactly neat but it's not going to come undone:

Fill with plastic bags - finito.

These little wall hangings were done by my two older girls when they were around ages 9 and 11. One of the boys also did something similar when he was 14 years old. This will probably be Moozle's next project. It combines hand sewing (the picture is worked in backstitch) and the patched border and binding machine sewed. With this basic idea you can do all sorts of variations and the girls experimented with dying the background fabric (we used plain calico/homespun) with tea, Parisian essence & other concoctions.
I'll post instructions when she's done it.