It is the middle out Autumn in Australia, and that means time for the annual school fete, or fair. Every weekend is crammed full of parent committees and volunteers transforming their school grounds into little fund raising epicenters. Teachers line up to have soaked sponges thrown at them, hamburgers and sausages are sold straight from the BBQ, there are raffles and cakes stalls and all the standard stalls. This is all in the name of raising a few extra dollars to help build a new building or improve the school in some way for the benefit of our kids.
It can get a little ho-hum.
Which is why when a Grade Two student in my son's class piped up with an idea our parent group decided to run with it. Nemo is a collector. At the moment his obsession is over 100 antique bottles. He has more antique bottles than any other Grade two student possibly on the face of the planet. He wanted to have an exhibition of his bottles for the school fair.
Well, this quickly became expanded upon and parents and children started scouring their sheds and attics for old curios and strange items of antiquity. As, for our school fete we blacked out a classroom with curtains and asked for donations from people to enter the "Corner of Curiosity"
For a sneak preview, at no extra charge, read over the fold.
Well, it was amazing what people came up with. There was a delightful Plasma Ball near the entrance which was a favorite of the younger children, and a beautifully faded yellow newspaper from 1938 headlining concerns about Hitler's leadership in Germany. One parent produced a display of the "history of mobile" phones and others had insect collections.
One student produced what has to be the most curious of collections - a collection of animal scats. A local community member supplied a whale vertebrae (and a kangaroo vertebrae for comparison).
And, of course Nemo's bottles were pride of place. Some had even been excavated by his own hand only a few meters from the classroom door. Relics of the gold mining past that belongs to our country town.
The Corner of Curiosity also had a "man eating chicken!" and a student-made 5 minute short zombie flick! I tell you, raising kids in our geek image. No problems in this community.
But, the real value was being able to present a fund raising activity for the school that was also educational. It fascinated parents and children alike.
It produced lots of laughs and moments of awe and wonder. We are now brainstorming over on Facebook about what to do next year. At this stage, the best idea looks like re-creating the place where the wild things are and having our own wild rumpus parade through the school grounds. Perhaps not as educational, but damn good fun!
