Hi everyone,

Here in Australia we have been celebrating NAIDOC week so Nat and I thought it would be a great idea to share with you what NAIDOC is all about and why it's so important to all Australians.

Every July NAIDOC celebrations are held all around Australia to honour the culture, history and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. NAIDOC is celebrated by everyone and the week is a great opportunity for all communities to come together and take part in a wide range of activities and show support for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

At Nat's school they celebrated by holding a NAIDOC week Assembly where there was a displayof traditional dancing, ceremonies and story telling and during the week the whole school took part in sand and ink art, contempo

rary dot and animal painting, boomerang aerodynamics, Murri Murri which is a traditional ball game using traditional skills, face painting and damper cooking which is where a bread type meal is cooked in a hole in the ground by fire, Nat said it was a lot of fun taking part in making the bread but it didn't taste to good! Every night Nat came home and told us all about the activities that took place, he loves NAIDOC week and said that this year it was really good!

Other traditional activities and ways to celebrate include, holding a traditional flag ceremony, reading dreamtime stories which we did at home, Nat has a book called "Tales of my Grandmother's Dreamtime" by Naiura, his favourite story is Yarrah-Wil Yango The Storm Boy, visiting local indigenous sites of significance and interest, supporting local events and

listening to indigenous music.

You can visit the NAIDOC website www.naidoc.org.au to find out more and Nat and I have found a great website that you can visit which is really fun and interactivewww.abc.net.au/messageclub

We want to share more with you about the Aboriginal Culture and the Dream Time Stories so we will put up a post soon, till then have fun and if you live in Australia hope you all had a great NAIDOC week!

Don't forget, if you have a story to tell and would like a post put up, email us and we will share it with everyone for you!

See you soon Kate and Natxx

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Earth Hour 2011

At 8.30 PM on Saturday 26th March, people will switch off lights around the Planet for Earth Hour; millions will also commit to continuing actions for a sustainable Planet that will go beyond the hour.

Hi everyone we're back! Nat and I thought we would talk about Earth Hour which is happening this Saturday. Every year our family signs up for Earth Hour and all throughout the year we make sure that we turn off lights that aren't needed and use low energy light bulbs. Nat has become a bit of an activist on climate change and what we can all do help our Planets sustainability and has posted some ideas above on how to help lower your carbon footprint, have a look at his blog post he wrote about climate change from a few months ago.

Earth Hour is in its fourth year now and began in 2007 when Sydney Australia took a stand against climate change, 2.2 million people turned their lights off for just one hour. Since then Earth Hour has become a truly global event with at least 128 countries participating this year!

Earth Hour has shown us how millions of people can come together to send a a powerful message that it's possible for all of us to take action against climate change, becoming a major event each year in a global effort for a more sustainable Planet.

This year the Earth Hour Organisation is asking us all to go beyond the hour by taking simple yet effective action that will make the world a better place. Its a bit like taking a pledge for yourself to do something on a continuing basis that will help lower your carbon footprint; It can be as easy as changing to lower energy light bulbs, to always turning off your computer at night or maybe something a bit more creative such as growing your own vegetables!

At www.earthhour.org you can go to their beyond Earth Hour page, click on the blue square with a cross in it at the bottom of the screen and let everyone know what you will be doing to go beyond Earth Hour, you can also share a story and add a photo or video, I might add one of Nat planting his tomatoes!

Let us know what you will be doing for Earth Hour and what you will be doing to go beyond the hour, have fun on Saturday night we are off to buy candles and will be looking down towards the coast to see the lights being turned off.

See you all soon,

Kate and Nat

email me at kate@weareamazing.com.au

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Hello everyone,

We have been talking about Christmas traditions in our house so Nat and I thought we would make this a Christmas post and tell you about some of the traditions we googled from countries around the world!! Wherever you go Christmas seems to mean the same to us all, a time to get together with family and friends, to eat lots of yummy food and to celebrate the birth of Jesus!

Happy Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Feliz Navidad, Frohliche Weihnachten, Shub Naya Baras, Bouone Feste Natalizie, srozhdestvom Kristovym, Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah, Gun Tso Sun Tan'Gung Haw Sun!!!!



Ghana West Africa

On the eve of Christmas, children march up and down the streets singing Christmas Carols and shouting "Christ is coming, Christ is coming! He is near!" Churches are decorated with Christmas evergreens or palm trees which are massed with candles and hymns are sung and Nativity plays presented.

On Christmas Day Children and older people representing the angels in the fields outside Bethlehem go from house to house singing. Church services are held and later on there is a feast of rice and yam paste called fufu with stew or okra soup, porridge and meats. Families eat together or with close neighbours and presents are given.

Egypt

The Coptic Church is an Orthodox Church and Christmas is celebrated on the 7^th of January. On the Eve of Christmas everyone goes to church wearing a completely new outfit. The Christmas service ends at midnight with the ringing of church bells then people go home to eat a special Christmas meal known as Fata which consists of bread, rice, garlic and boiled meat.

On Christmas morning people in Egypt visit friends and neighbours, they take with them Kaik, a type of shortbread which eaten with a drink known as Shortbat.

Argentina

People go to the church with family, then come back to a family gathering. At midnight after eating a toast is made and the adults dance while the younger people go out to see the fireworks, after this they open their presents before going to sleep. The dinner food is pork, turkey and a great variety of meals. The table is then covered with sweet things such as cider, beer, and juice for consuming while waiting for the time of the toast.

Italy

The Christmas season in Italy goes for three weeks, starting 8 days before Christmas known as the Novena. During this period Children go from house to house dressed as shepherds, playing pipes, singing and reciting Christmas poems. They are given money to buy presents. A strict fast is observed 24 hours before Christmas Eve, and is followed by a celebration meal, in which a light Milanese cake called panettone features as well as chocolate. In Italy the children wait until Epiphany on January 6 for their presents. According to tradition, the presents are delivered by a kind ugly witch called Befana on a broomstick. It was said that she was told by the three kings that the baby Jesus was born, she was busy and delayed visiting the baby.

She missed the Star lost her way and has been flying around ever since, leaving presents at every house with children in case he is there. She slides down chimneys, and fills stockings and shoes with good things for good children and it is said leave coal for children who are not good!

Iraq

In the Christian homes an unusual ceremony is held in the courtyard of the home on Christmas Eve. One of the children in the family reads the story of the Nativity from an Arabic Bible. The other members of the family hold lighted candles, and as soon as the story has been read a bonfire is lit in one corner of the courtyard. The fire is made of dried thorns and the future of the house for the coming year depends upon the way the fire burns. If the thorns burn to ashes, the family will have good fortune. While the fire is burning, a psalm is sung. When the fire is reduced to ashes everyone jumps over the ashes three times and makes a wish.

On Christmas day a similar bonfire is built in the church. While the fire burns the men of the congregation chant a hymn. The long Christmas service always ends with the blessing of the people. The Bishop reaches forth and touches a member of the congregation with his hand putting his blessing upon them, that person then touches the person next him and so on until all have received "the Touch of Peace."

England

Christmas in England began in AD 596, when St Augustine landed on her shores with monks who wanted to bring Christianity to the Anglo Saxons.
Father Christmas delivers presents during the night before Christmas. The Children leave an empty stocking or pillowcase hanging at the end of the bed. In the morning they hope it will be full of gifts.
On Christmas Eve the only thing that people ate was Frumenty, which is a kind of porridge made from corn. Over the years the recipe changed to eggs, fruit, spice, lumps of meat and dried plums the whole mixture was wrapped in a cloth and boiled, which is how traditional plum pudding began.
In England Christmas dinner was usually eaten at Midday on December 25, during daylight. In England the traditional Christmas dinner is roast turkey with vegetables and sauces. For dessert it is rich, fruity Christmas pudding with brandy sauces.

The day after Christmas is called Boxing Day because boys used to go round collecting money in clay boxes. When the boxes were full, they broke them open.

Australia

A traditional meal includes a turkey dinner, with ham, and pork. A flaming Christmas plum pudding is added for dessert. In the Australian gold rushes, Christmas puddings often contained a gold nugget. Today a small favor is baked inside. Whoever finds this knows s/he will enjoy good luck. Another treat is Mince Pies.

Many Australians have their Christmas dinner at midday on a local beach, Bondi Beach in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs attracts thousands of people on Christmas Day. Other families enjoy their day by having a picnic, usually the feast will be made up of Prawns, oysters, cold meats and salads with Pavlova for dessert. If families are at home the day will be spent with family and friends in the swimming pool, playing Cricket and other outdoor activities.

The warm weather allows Australians to enjoy a tradition which commenced in 1937. Carols by Candlelight which is held every year on Christmas Eve. Tens of thousands of people gather in the city of Melbourne to sing their favourite Christmas songs and many other towns and cities around Australia hold their Carols by Candlelight concerts in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

India

Christians in India decorate banana or mango trees. They also light small oil-burning lamps as Christmas decorations and fill their churches with red flowers.They give presents to family members and baksheesh or to charity and to the poor. In India the poinsettia is in flower and so the churches are decorated with this brilliant bloom for the Christmas Midnight Mass. In South India, Christians put small clay lamps on the rooftops and walls of their houses at Christmas, just as the Hindus do during their festival called Diwali.

Ukraine

Sviata Vechera OR "Holy Supper" is the central tradition of the beautiful Christmas Eve celebrations in Ukrainian homes. The dinner table sometimes has a few wisps of hay on the embroidered table cloth as a reminder of the Manger in Bethlehem. When the children see the first Star in the eastern evening sky, which symbolizes the trek of the Three Wise Men, the Sviata Vechera may begin. At the end of the Sviata Vechera the family often sings Kolyadky which is a Ukrainian Christmas Carols. In many communities the old Ukrainian tradition of caroling is carried on by groups of young people and members of organizations and churches calling at homes and collecting donations.

The Ukrainian Christmas is celebrated on January 7^th and is usually a peaceful and quiet event. In the Ukraine Father Frost visits all the Children in a sleigh pulled by only three reindeer, he brings along a little girl named Snowflake Girl, she wears a silver blue costume trimmed with white fur and a crown shaped like a snowflake.

Bethlehem

In Bethlehem the town where Jesus is said to have been born is the site of the Church of the Nativity, which is ablaze with flags and decorations every Christmas. On Christmas Eve locals and visitors alike crowd the Church's doorways and stand on the roof to watch for the dramatic annual procession. Galloping horsemen and police mounted on Arabian horses lead the parade. They are followed by solitary horseman carrying a Cross sitting on a coal-black horse, then comes the churchmen and government officials. The procession solemnly enters the doors and places an ancient effigy of the Holy Child in the Church. Deep winding stairs lead to a grotto where visitors find a silver star marking the site of the birth of Jesus.

Hope you liked hearing about some different Christmas traditions from around the world. Have a great Christmas wherever you are in the world, let me know about any traditions your family has and how you celebrate Christmas where your from and I will post it up for you!

lots of love Katie:)))xxxx (all emails screened by the weareamazing team)

Nat has been studying Climate Change at school and his whole class watched the movie documentary "An Inconvienient Truth." Since seeing the movie Nat has been really interested in everything to do with this issue and has talked about it a lot at home and has been ecouraging us to make changes to reduce our carbon emissions; he is very keen on starting up a vegetable garden to grow tomatoes and carrots, so we are trying to decide on the right place to put it at the moment! He also wants a worm farm!!! He had to write a review about the film so I thought it would make a good post as he has been so passionate about what he has been learning at school!

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

This movie informed me about the changes happening to our world from climate change, it has inspired me to take on the challenge that is ahead of the whole human race to reduce the affects of carbon immessions and the affect everyone has on our Planet.

The movie is presented by Al Gore and directed by David Guggenheim. Al Gore plays a leading roll in the battle we are fighting for the Earths survival, he shows us all how to make a change city by city and how we can make a difference to our world.

This movie makes you think about what will happen to our world if we do not do something now about climate change. Al Gore explained that the population of our planet has risen by 7 billion in the past 500 years, this has had a big affect on the resources we have to use to feed cloth and house so many people.

I think that if Al Gore’s campaign for the United States Presidency had been a success we probably wouldn’t be facing the problems we are facing today.I think that there are many ways that we can help the planet, here are some of the ways we can keep our planet to become sustainable:

1) Solar panels which generate electricity by using the sun’s rays using sunlight to heat water up in a tank.

2) Use energy saving light bulbs.
3) Washing clothes at 30 degrees.
4) Don't leave your electronics on standby overnight, they use just as much power as they do

when they are fully on!

5) And if you can, travel by public transport, ride a bike or walk to school.

Most countries in the world have now signed the Kyoto protocall, and this film and Al Gore’s methods to stop climate change have inspired me to tell everyone in the world about the changes that need to be made.

This means throwing away some of our life time luxuries, it’s going to be hard for everyone but we can do it if we all try.All in all this movie has shown me about the ways that we can make changes, we all need to play a part in the Earth’s race against time. Al Gore will definitely be a positive influence to help our quest to make the earth sustainable and a place for us all to live for all generation that will be here after us.

I will give this movie 4 out five stars ****

I am very proud of my little brother!!

Thats all from us for now, don't forget if you want something put up on here like Nat, email me and I will post it on for you.

Lots of love Katiexxxx

Kate@weareamazing.com.au

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Great Migrations Global Event on National Geographic Channel

Hi,

Great Migrations Global Event on National Geographic Channel http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ "Inspiring people to care about the Planet"

I have just posted a link to the Nat Geo website, if you click on the link it will take you to straight to their site and if you scroll down you can click on the link to the Great Migrations show link where you can check out all the episodes that are coming up, videos, info about the animals featured and games!! The Global TV event they are hosting starts on the 7th November 2010 and is all about the migration patterns of different species across the world. It will be watched by an estimated 330 million people and took hours of filming, on land, by air and in the sea, all in HD.

If you haven't already seen it advertised on the Channel go to website to check timings for where you are in the world, in Australia it starts at 7pm, the first show is called "Born to move and follows Monarch butterflies, wilderbeasts and Sperm Whales as they make the same journeys their ancestors have made for generations.

The adverts for the show look amazing and I think it will be well worth watching, let me know if you manage to catch it and what you think of it and I will definately be putting up some posts on up and coming stuff from the Nat Geo site and Channel, its a favourite in our house, Nat especially loves Nat Geo Wild! He is quite the mind for all sorts of info on all kinds of wierd and wonderful creatures and often comes out with lots of random stuff about animals, normally from his seat in the back of the car! he is especially into watching the Snake programs at the moment so we know alot about them! Speaking of which we saw a massive and extreamely long and I mean extreamely long shedded snake skin on the side of the road on our way to school today, gruesome!!

Oh, and I am doing an experiment at the moment in Science all about Sea Monkeys, intriguing little creatures, so I will fill you in on my findings and tell you what I learn about them!!

Adios, au revoir and all that is foreign in saying bye!!

lots of love Katexx

email me on Kate@weareamazing.com.au

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Hi everyone,

I just got an email from the Jessica Watson website, she is the young Australian teenager who sailed around the world single handed in her yacht Ella's Pink Lady, she was only 16!! I thought it would make an intresting post to share some info on her and give you a link to her site so you can check her out. Its amazing to think that she was only 16 when she made her voyage, we were able to keep a watch on her progress through her website and blog and every day you could see where she was in the world and how far she had travelled that day! She has written a book describing her experience called True spirit which is an inspiration to read and really gives you an insight into how hard and how rewarding each day of her trip was.


Here is a some info on Jessica, I knew she came from Queensland and was very happy to learn that she was born on the Gold Coast!! In May 2010, she became the youngest person to sail non-stop and unassited around the world. She left Sydney harbour on her pink yacht! on 18 October 2009. She headed East over the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and then the Indian Ocean, returning to Sydney on the 15 May 2010, three days before her 17th birthday. When she was asked why she wanted to make the voyage she said " "I wanted to challenge myself and achieve something to be proud of, and I wanted to inspire people with a dream in their heart."


I was interested to read some of her family history, She has an older sister and a younger brother and sister. All four of them took sailing lessons as children, and her family went to live on board a 16 metre cabin cruiser for five years. She was homeschooled with her brother and sister through distance learning and later they lived on a purpose-built double decker bus for a while!! (I would love that!! maybe I should talk to my mum and dad and suggest it for us!!) When Jessica was eleven and they were still living on the boat her mum read Jessie Martin's book Lionheart: A Journey of the Human Spirit to the children as a bedtime story, she said that hearing this story led her to forming the ambition at age twelve to sail around the world too.


Her book really is a great read so I hope you will take the chance and give it a go, I know it will truly inspire you, maybe not to sail round the world singal handed!! but to follow your dreams whatever they maybe!!!

Just a quick update on how Leigh Skinner, Nats friends dad, went in the Power lifting at the Commonwealth Games, he came 4th in his group and 12th overall out of 25 competitors, a brilliant achievement, huge congratulations!!

Dont forget if you have anything to share, email me and please make any comments you want about my post, hope you like it!! her website address is http://www.jessicawatson.com.au/

Lots of love Katiebxxx
kate@weareamazing.com.au
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