Passport to Fun - Australia

Travel the world from the comfort of your living room with this Passport to Fun series!  Whether you use these ideas as a date night, family fun night, or homeschool study, you'll be sure to have some fun and bring a bit of Australia's culture right into your own home!

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You'll remember that I came up with a pretty awesome idea for G's Christmas gift last year.

If you're new here and don't know what I'm talking about, then feel free to wander on over to this post to read all about it.

I'll wait.

Even though we spent all of 2016 traveling to new countries each month, we had so much fun I decided to extend this series indefinitely - so many cool places to learn about and we've even got a list of places we want to return to in the future!


This month, we headed to Australia, one of the two continents G has yet to visit.

November - Australia

Set the Stage

I added this stamp to G's passport, then left it out where he'd find it the next morning before he went to work so he'd see where we were going:

What to Decorate With

The flag thing is our go-to wall art for each trip.  It's something fairly simple for Gv and I to do together, uses supplies we already have, and still lends an air of the locale.

What to Dress Like

Although I briefly considered a Dame Edna costume, we all just went with outfits that would fit an adventure in the outback.

We have these cool seed pods from the front-yard tree at G's childhood home that we thought made perfect boomerangs.

For some reason, by the time we took our family photo, Gv had changed out her boomerang for her favorite feather.

What to Listen to

I created a playlist for this month based off of whatever related songs I already had on my ipod... 

I actually had several versions of this unofficial national anthem.

This band immediately sprang to my mind, especially this song.

I had several of this sheila's tunes, along with several by these guys, as well.

I had just one song by this bloke.

Finally, I (thankfully) didn't have any of this group's music, but I'll bet lots of you do...

What to Eat

I just sprinkled garlic (of course!) and salt & pepper on the lamb, then threw it in this to cook.

Lamb is my favorite meat, so I was super-excited to have an excuse to chow down on a hunk of it for this trip. We had mashed turnips and asparagus with it, mainly just because we had those things handy and I thought they'd round out the meal nicely.

Mmmmm...lamb...

I made some damper bread and then whipped up some homemade Vegemite (I know, it's not the same, but I'd already blown the budget on the lamb!), opened a bottle of Penfold's and then finished things off with some ANZAC Biscuits.

Damper Bread

What You Need

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons baking powder (you know I'm gonna ask if you're making your own!)

3/4 cup milk

What You Do

1.  Stir together the flour, salt and baking powder, then add in the milk.

2.  Form the dough into a round on a baking sheet.

3.  Bake 30 minutes at 375 degrees, then cut the loaf in half and bake it another 10 minutes.

Vegemite

Not as dark as the original, but still tasty.

What You Need

1/2 cup tahini

4 Tablespoons tamarind

3 Tablespoons nutritional yeast

What You Do

1.  Besides having to reconstitute our block of tamarind to use in this recipe, all I did was shove everything into my Ninja and zub it up.

ANZAC Biscuits

What You Need

1 cup oats

3/4 cup coconut flakes

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup butter

1 Tablespoon golden syrup

2 Tablespoons boiling water

What You Do

1.  Mix together the dry ingredients.

2.  Melt the butter, honey and golden syrup together, then add it along with the water to the dough.

3.  Drop by spoonfuls onto mat and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

* Gv and G spread Nutella on theirs, but I just ate mine plain.

What to Do

If you're taking this trip around the holidays, then be sure to grab this kit (you can use any stuffed animal or figure to travel, although our shepherd is awfully cute) and work in Australia's Christmas celebrations with your other activities!

We managed to complete a couple of projects before Thanksgiving hit.

First, we made some Aboriginal art. We've done this before with paint on coloring book pages, but this time, I printed out a template and we just used markers.  (link to template)

We also made a didgeridoo out of toilet paper tubes. Just tape several together until it's about 28 inches long, then wrap one end with plastic wrap (use a rubber band to hold it in place) and whe-arrrr-whe-arrr away. 

You could have tons of fun decorating this thing, too, but somebody was too anxious to play her music and just wanted to keep hers plain...

What to Read

For the adults, I think The Man from Snowy River is a great and unique choice.

Kids will love anything by Mem Fox, especially Koala Lou and Possum Magic.

You could also have fun with the book we used during our cultural day, along with the fun activity I shared. Click this link to read all about that day and which book it was we used.

What to Watch

So many movie choices for this trip that we've already seen! Crocodile Dundee, Australia, The Man From Snowy River, Mad Max (or other movies starring this guy), Muriel's Wedding, and Strictly Ballroom. We ended up watching The Sapphires and really enjoyed it.

The Rescuers Down Under is an obvious choice for the kids.

And that wrapped up our "trip." It was another huge success and we can't wait to jet off to someplace new next month!

Travel all over the world, without leaving your living room!  Come back each month to see where we head next.  Can you think of any other ideas to add for a trip to Australia?  I'd love to hear!  Either leave a comment below or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.

Also, if you don't want to miss a single minute of great tips like this and all the fun around here, be sure to sign up for free updates and then look forward to having each post delivered right to your inbox.

Want more?  Check out some of our other trips:

Italy - India - France - Africa - Ireland - Switzerland - Canada - Greece - England - Germany - Thailand - Russia - China - Spain - Jamaica - Egypt - Mexico - Japan - Brazil - Cuba - Scotland - Scandinavia

Love this idea, but want the easy, made-for-you-and-all-you-do-is-print-it version?  Click here to get your own pack and see what inspired me to create this series!

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