Individuality and the Emu

For this lesson, we started with one of my children's favorite songs, Old Man Emu by John Williamson, a popular folk artist:
At the end, Williamson sings,

Well there is a moral to this ditty - Oom ba da little da da da
Thrush can sing but he ain't pretty - Oom ba da little da da
Duck can swim, but he can't sing, nor can the eagle on the wing
Emu can't fly, but I'm telling you, he can run the pants off a kangaroo.

My daughter reasoned that the moral of the song is that each animal has its own unique gifts. She recognized that this is related to God's principle of individuality in that we are each a unique creation in Him. We have different talents, strengths and weaknesses. Likewise, God gave each of the animals different means of protecting themselves, communicating and finding sustenance. The emu may not be able to fly, but he is an incredibly fast bird, topping speeds of 30 miles an hour.

In scripture, we find this principle applied directly to His church:

Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.--1 Corinthians 12:4-6

To learn more about the unique characteristics of the emu, my daughter read a brief informational text about emus. To record the information she learned, she made a wanted poster about the emu in Williamson's song. I got the template for the wanted poster at Education World. Scroll down to "Icebreakers" and one of the choices is "Wanted Poster." This will open in a Word document and you can modify the text to fit the questions you want your child to answer. I also gave each of my children a coloring sheet to color.


We will be studying more about the animals of Australia using simple nonfiction texts and this wanted poster, but I probably won't post on each one unless we find something truly unique. It is a fairly basic format that can be used with anything and is a nice precursor to the more formal research paper that she is not ready for, yet.

Australia, emu, homeschooling, home school