We’ve been studying Gallipoli all together over the last week or two. I was never interested in Australian History at school (oh, those boring text books!!) but now, not only do I find it very interesting, I think that, as an Australian, it’s my duty to know the history of this great country.
The Australian War Memorial website has some great information and in particular, this page about the food that soldiers would have eaten at Gallipoli provided us with inspiration to hold our own Gallipoli lunch.
As you can see, the younger ones weren’t too pleased with my soldier’s meal of rice, Spam, hard tack and jam. For drinks we had the choice of water, milk, cocoa and tea – all with powdered, not fresh milk. My littlest one declared that she definitely does not like soldier’s food!
But they were pretty good sports about the whole thing (except aforementioned little one) and ate their soldier’s meals. We imagined how grateful the troops would have been for a meal like this after a hard day of battle and misery.
In addition to researching with some library books we also watched a Gallipoli documentary on Youtube which was informative. Please note, there are images of corpses on the battlefield in this video – although they are in black and white and not too graphic they could be upsetting to some viewers.
I call our study a complete success and appropriate for each of us, regardless of age. My next topic idea is the Early Settlers with a bit of a focus on the gold rush. If it all goes well I plan to surprise the children with a visit to Sovereign Hill as none of them have been there before.
If you’re looking for ideas for study topics or ideas to share with your children I highly recommend you head over to Sue’s blog- Stories of an Unschooling Family where you will find a plethora of blog posts and many podcasts related to unschooling. Sue’s blog is a real inspiration to me.
I know that she likes Anzac biscuits a lot, Ari has made them quite a bit. We had a talk about when Anzac biscuits might have come about – I thought perhaps mothers of soldiers would send them when they could get ships through. Hmm, might have to do some more research!
Kelly,
Thank you so much for the mention and the link. You are very kind!
I had a look at the War Memorial food page. Do you think the hard tack recipe was the original recipe for Anzac biscuits? The coconut and golden syrup seem to have been added to later recipes. Perhaps your little one would prefer to eat some of your Anzac biscuits though they wouldn't be authentic! They'd be much nicer!
We visited The War Memorial last spring. It was a very interesting but sombre place. We came away feeling almost distressed. Yes, a very moving place to visit. You are right: their website is an excellent source of information.
Kelly, obviously the little one didn't like the food at all. Full stop! LOL! I really don't like Spam but as you say it would have tasted like a rump steak to the soldiers.