Message from a Home Schooled Boy in Australia

As part of Boy's socialisation skills we are helping him to reach out and make new friends. Given Boy's Aspergic tendencies toward computer obsession we have created a safe section for him to hang out in, in our child protection website. I just about live on the site but Boy is bored with chatting to me!

If your home school child is up for making some new friends in a safe and moderated forum environment, then please consider joining the site and helping to foster social understanding between international home schoolers.

The section for kids is private. It does not become visible until a person registers in the site. I have the police doing their regular internet patrols and I immediately ban pornography spammers and delete accounts of any other spammers. It is as safe as I could make it. To date, we have had no spam in the kid section.

Message from Boy below (how great is this that I am getting him to write!):

Hi all,

I'm boy and I would like you to join the k.h.k. (kids helping kids forum) in my mum's website.

The k.h.k. is about kids talking about stuff, like what they like and stuff they do. No swearing is allowed and creeps get kicked out. To enter the kids section, you have to be a member and Mum can ban your computer if you are a trouble maker. You should hear Mum go off when someone puts bad stuff on the site!

This is like the modern way of having pen-pals. It is safe, fun and cool and counts as home school learning about technology.

It is only for kids aged 10-18 and your parents have to know about it because they have to help join you up.

Thanks, Boy

Australia's First Nation People are called Aboriginies

Article by Boy, age 11

The Australian Aboriginie has been here for more than 60,000 years. When white people came to Australia they killed many Aboriginal people and they herded the rest into groups and made them work for white man.

I live in an area where there are lots of Aboriginal people (Far North Queensland). They are nice. Their skin can be balck, brown, tan or even like a bit sun tanned but not too much.

Aboriginal people live in houses like you and I live in but they love the land more than we do. Their country is very important to them. Where a person is born and where their family comes from is something that means important stuff to Aboriginies. If they are born in the rainforest they may have a rainforest bird or animal as their totem. If they are born in the dessert then they have a dessert totem.

A lot of tourists have the wrong information about Australian Aboriginal people. They only see the bad stuff on the news but there is also lots of bad stuff on the news about us white fellas. Mum said that someone told her that all Aboriginal people abuse their kids. Mum nearly had a heart attack and set them straight. Most Aboriginal people love their kids and try hard to protect them.

Aboriginal painting is pretty neat. They paint with lots of dots and colours made from mixing sand and ground up stone. Their colours represent the earth and other natural stuff like water, sky and grass.

The Aboriginal people tell their stories by either talking or dancing. They are an oral culture (Talk not write about things). The Aboriginal dance story telling is called Corroboree. We call it "shake a leg" as its nick name.

Here is a video that I found on YouTube. Mum is letting me look at YouTube for technology. Because we are studying Aboriginal culture she said I had to find some videos to share with you about Aboriginal culture or people.

Driving all the way to Cooktown

Boy and step-father recently went on a road trip. Although during a school week, Indigenous Australia was woven into their adventures (we're studying the cultural melting pot and geography of Australia this term) and Boy attended business meetings with step-father.

Step-father works frequently on Cape York Peninsula (a place of high Indigenous population) and is currently doing some work for an organisation that hosts and markets Australian Aboriginal cultural centres. The trip included a visit to ancient rock art paintings.

Boy's own review of his cultural learning trip follows:

Monday 4 June 2007
P and I left here at 3:00 to get to Lakeland Downs. P and I stayed in a caravan in winter true. P ordered a very big dinner and we could not finish it… lol. It was very cold and I felt sick.

Tuesday 5 June 2007:
We went to Laura and met a lot of new people. We met Cliffy, Allan and John. We met John in the Quinkan Center. It was very fun in the Quinkan Center and I had a good time there. Then we went on the walk on Spit Rock and looked at the paintings. Then after that we went up to Cooktown and made a fire with some fish ‘n’ chips. It was very good and I had a ball!

Wednesday 6 June 2007:
P and I went down to the Kiosk for breckkie. I had baked beans on toast and P had toast and coffee. P said the toast tasted like crap. I hung out with P for a while and spent the rest of the day with Rossco and Tom.

Thursday 7 June 2007:
We headed back and made up a song

Driving the road all the way to Cooktown
Boy he farted, he pulled his pants down
P the accountant didn’t know what to do
And shortly there after we hit a kangaroo
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10, 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10, 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Movie Review: Robin Hood Men in Tights

Robin Hood Men in Tights
Review by Boy, age 11

Robin Hood Men in Tights is a comedy movie. It is sort of about the real adventures of Robin Hood but there is lots of laughter, funny happenings, singing, make believe and take offs of serious things.

Robin has gone to fight in the crusades (Africa) and gets caught by the African guards. He is sent to jail. When he escapes, his friend asks him to go back to England and look for his only son. When Robin gets back to England, everything has changed. His family is dead. His dog is dead. His bird is dead. His goldfish is dead and his cat is dead from choking on the gold fish.

His house has been burnt down but Robin’s old servant Blinkin (a blind servant) is still alive and helps Robin on his quests to find the friend’s son. He finds his friends son Achoo (bless you) and Achoo helps Robin to take back his land from the evil king.

Robin finds two men: one really big guy who is really a coward and one really small guy who is actually a brave person. The big coward can’t swim and falls into a river (1 inch deep) and screams out, “I can’t swim.” Robin gets him out of the river (a trickle of water) and the big coward asks him to shoot an arrow at his friend. Now, his friend is very, very good with daggers. Robin Hood shoots the arrow at him and the dagger man chops it up with his daggers before it has a chance to pierce him. With the skills that they have: big and strong, good with daggers and Robin’s bravery, the three work together.

Robin got back his land and marries his love, Maid Marion (he even had to get her back from the evil King).

Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor. But in this comedy movie, the rich steal from the poor to give to only themselves.

I rate this six out of ten because it is a funny comedy. It is better than the real story of Robin Hood because it is take off from a classic story. It is rated Parental Guidance so it is fine for everyone who likes classic comedy. Even though it is PG my Mum didn’t watch it with me (note from Boy’s Mum…that would be because I’ve seen it 7, 000 000 times already).

I like this movie so much I’ve rented it lots of times from the video store.

Movie Review: Hoodwinked

Hoodwinked
Review by Boy

(age 11)

Hoodwinked is a movie about Little Red Riding Hood. It is animated into clay configurations. (note from Boy’s mother – I kid you not – these are the exact words that Boy said!!) Every character in the movie is up to evil no good, except for Red.

Red (Little Red Riding Hood) – makes and delivers cookies to her Grandma.

Grandma – lies to everyone and pretends to be a loving Grandma when she really wants to live life to the full, the way she did when she was much younger. She skates everywhere and causes avalanches with bombs.

The Wolf - Spies on people to find out information about the stolen cookie recipes.

The Woodcutter – Cuts down trees and makes greenhouse omissions (carbon dioxide) and also crushes cars with the fallen trees.

The Squirrel – Takes photos of everyone and drinks too much caffeine. He runs everywhere and gets into trouble.

The Bunny – Hires people and gets them to steal all the cookie recipes. He makes the recipes himself, sells the cookies and raises money to make his own theme park.

The above characters get together and find the Bunny with the Cookie recipes. The Bunny gets sent to jail and Red, Grandma, Wolf, Woodcutter and Squirrel become friends.

My favorite part of the movie was the whole movie.

The movie is a family comedy, is rated “G” and can be seen again and again.

I rate this movie five out of ten.

Movie Review: Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day
(starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell)
1993 Columbia Pictures

Review by Boy (Age 11)

Groundhog Day (the movie) is about the history of Groundhog Day and a man who gets stuck on Groundhog Day. In the real and historical Groundhog Day, if the Groundhog comes out of hiding without seeing a shadow, there will be an early spring. If it sees the shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter.

In this movie, the reporter who goes to report on Groundhog day in Pennsylvania, gets stuck on the same day (February 2nd). Every morning when he wakes up it’s February the 2nd again. After a long time of reliving February 2nd, he tries to kill himself but he wakes up the next day (same day) alive and hearing, seeing and doing the same things as he did the day before (February 2nd). It’s like it is a winter that goes on for ever, not just for an extra six weeks. Every day is the long winter of February 2nd, Groundhog Day.

The reporter learns that he has to see his shadow side (his nice side because he’s usually rude and horrible) to break the spell on him. The girl in the movie helps him to develop his shadow side (the nice side). He is in love with her and tries to make her fall in love with him. Only when he stops pretending and really does good things to all people does the girl fall in love with him and they wake up to a new day: not the same radio program or happenings in the street as people rush off to the Groundhog Day celebration.

This DVD was funny. I rate it five out of ten. It is a movie suitable for everyone in the family, but only with parental guidance because of the kissing scenes.