“Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?”
“I do bite my thumb, sir.”

This was the quote of the day, yesterday, when we began our Shakespeare unit with the Group of Four. We started the afternoon with an insult delivery contest. Two children at a time were given a page of Shakespearean insults and they had 30 seconds to choose one and then deliver it with as much style or venom as they could muster. Most of them were barely able to control their laughter, so I don’t believe anyone’s feelings were hurt. If you feel the urge to insult anyone in true Shakespearean style look here.

We did manage to move on from insulting each other to the consideration of figurative language, writers’ styles and ‘what’s in a name?’ The youngest children also made puppets and the older children wrote news headlines for some of the play’s main events. We gathered ideas from a couple of very helpful sites, The Folger Shakespeare Library and The Acting Company

Once again we benefited from the first hand experience of one of our families’ uncles. (Yes it was the same family who provided the aunt and uncle who had been to Ecuador) This time they called their uncle who is an actor and has acted in and directed various Shakespeare plays. He left a message on their answering machine which we listened to; excerpts of a couple of Romeo’s speeches.

To prepare for this unit at least three of the families read retellings of Romeo and Juliet. A10 and L12 read the Charles and Mary Lamb version. I read the Edith Nesbit version to B6. Now they are only interested in the lines as Shakespeare wrote them. It has been exciting to see their enthusiasm for the play grow and their interest in Shakespeare’s life and times. As our family is studying the Renaissance and Reformation this year we will be delving into more of the bard’s life and work.

With some regret we ended the eco-tourism simulation game on Thursday. It was certainly not going badly, quite the opposite. The children were taking hold of it and calling each other during the week to share ideas and make preparations. We could probably have done with one more week.

When we met this week the eco-tourism specialists explained to the village members that the positions advertised had not all been filled, so there would be quite a bit of building and developing going on, but there would also be a little bit of profit left to be shared. Just about the whole village was involved in some way in the day to day running of the tourism project this round. Only two people were farming full time and one part time. One of these farmers had chosen to continue to farm in hope of high prices for her crops, which would then get her out of debt. She was not disappointed.

One of the main topics of discussion at the village meeting was cottage industry. Many people wished to supplement their income by making things and selling them. Lemonade, pottery, rainforest trail mix and woven placemats were all suggested and the potter expressed interest in running the project. Had we continued, everyone may have left farming and worked with the eco-tourism project in some way.

We discussed our initial goals of meeting the village members financial and social needs and halting the clearing of primary rainforest. Everyone could see that, although in four rounds the rainforest had not become too depleted, if people had continued to farm in the same way they would have needed to clear more land. Sharing the wealth was also a topic we touched on, if the project had continued to grow and prosper, what would everyone have done with their new found wealth?

It would have been interesting to see the children develop more ideas for the project but I am very pleased with what we did achieve. Covering economics, ecology, geography, communications, math, and group problem solving with eleven enthusiastic children has been very encouraging for a first unit. The main reason we have stopped is that most of the group went to Romeo and Juliet on Friday, so next week we begin a Shakespeare unit.

The game seems to be getting more complicated the more money the participants make. When most people were finding it hard to make ends meet they had to decide whether they could afford to educate their children. A few are still dealing with that but most are wondering whether to hire an extra labourer to grow more crops, or how much to invest in eco-tourism. The more money there is the more choices there seem to be. When it was suggested to a few farmers that they might not need to plant two hectares as they already had enough money to cover their needs, they were surprised and said they hadn’t thought of that.

The eco-tourism project has proved to be equally or more profitable than farming for those employed by it. The village members met with the eco-tourism specialists to decide how the profits should be divided. The eco-tourism team had come up with three proposals, inspired partly by the photos they saw last week of the real eco-tourism resort. There was not unanimous support for the development of the eco-tourism project this time and the reasons were varied. Someone suggested that too many tourist would result in too much “civilisation” coming to the village. Others, the struggling farmers, wanted to see some of the profit divided among the village members not all re-invested in making the project bigger and better. They saw the proposal to pour all the profit plus some further investment as too risky and voted accordingly. The vote was carried, however, and now the eco-tourism specialists are soliciting applications for boat drivers, tourist cabin builders and a boardwalk builder.

One of the struggling farmers commented to me that if most of the village were no longer farming, but employed by the eco-tourism project, the price of coffee, maize and cacao might rise. She is not applying for any of the jobs.

When the group of four met on this week we were treated to a slide show from some real eco-tourists. The aunt and uncle of one of our families brought slides and photos from their trip to Ecuador. They spent a week staying in an ecotourism resort on the Napo River and were able to describe many details of their stay for us. We saw slides of the accomodation and furniture at the resort, all made from locally available materials. There were many pictures showing us the size of the trees and other plantlife. We saw some of the local animals and birds, but apparently you needed to get up for the 3am breakfast before heading out to do some serious bird watching. It was very interesting and helpful to see pictures and hear about first hand experiences.

After viewing the slide show we began round two. The ecotourism team had some new ideas to discuss before making proposals to the villagers. Most of the farmers were pleased to have made a little more money from their crops and an educational rebate. There are a few farmers who are still struggling to meet their financial commitments. Everyone seems to be keen on the tourism project but for different reasons. There is a definitely a “monopoly” mentality appearing in some of the participants, they are looking for the best way to make the most money. The village members had a meeting before our session closed and voted to pour most of the first round’s ecotourism profits back into the project for the construction of bird watching platforms on a huge tree, something they saw in the slide show. The remainder of the profits will be divided between all the village members.

When we meet next week we are thinking it might be good to involve everyone in the process of allocating income. Last time a few farmers avoided growing coffee, the crop with the highest return, as they thought everyone would grow it. This meant that there was not a surplus and those who had grew it benefitted. The children are talking together and making joint decisions about eco-tourism but do not seem to have thought about approaching farming in the same way.

Last week I wrote about the first week of our new group of four. We met again yesterday to continue our simulation game based in a farming village in the Ecuadorian rainforest. The children are beginning to role play a little more. The session started with more discussion about the possibility of beginning an Eco-tourism project and the eco-tourism specialists were asked to address a village meeting so questions could be asked and proposals be voted on.

The village members voted to try the eco-tourism project and the with the help of the specialists were able to raise the initial investment money. Some of the children are keen to try eco-tourism because they are concerned about the rainforest, but many are simply hoping it will be more lucrative than farming. As the adults discussed the session afterwards we wondered if some people are so poor that thinking environmentally is not a luxury they can afford.

The eco-tourism specialists asked for two workers to join their team and run the project with them. Six out of the eight farmers applied and were given thirty seconds to say why they would be the best choice. Those chosen then had to change their farming plans as they would be working full time with the eco-tourism project. Final decisions were made and round one ended. The children spent some time making clay sculptures and eating South American snacks while the mums calculated each player’s income for the “first year”. Income included money from crops, return on eco-tourism investment, wages for the eco-tourism workers and an education rebate for those who had their children in school.

The feedback we, as mums, are getting from the children is positive and the development in the discussion shows us that the children are beginning to consider the implications of their decisions on the village as well as their own families. The children are very keen to know how they went financially but they will have to wait until the beginning of round two.

Two weeks ago I wrote about a change in our family’s homeschooling schedule. We have left the co-op we have belonged to for 5 years and are meeting with three other families. Well, yesterday we started our first unit. It is a simulation game set in a village in Ecuador. It took a while to find a game that we could adjust to suit our needs. All the mothers searched online and we found that there are many simulation games designed to be played online, many we could purchase for a few hundred dollars or even a few thousand dollars (those ones come with someone to run them). Once we settled on one, we had to transform it from an online interactive game into an “eleven children in one house” interactive game.

We began the session with the big picture, introducing the children to the Amazon rainforest with its unique flora and fauna. Then we gave them a more detailed view of a tropical rainforest’s composition and its value to us. We did throw out a few mind boggling statistics about how fast rainforests are being cut down. Then they had a quick lesson in crop rotation and at last we introduced the game.

Nine of the children are inhabitants of an Ecuadorian village, one is the owner of the general store, the rest farm coffee, maize and cacao. All of these farmers have families and are barely making enough to support them. The other two children are Eco-tourism experts whose role it is to present an alternative to farming in this community. If the community agrees the Eco-tourism people will begin running a program for them.

We gave each of the children a profile, a map of their farm and $600. They met in their community groups and started discussing what they would plant and whether they could afford food, education, farm equipment, house repairs and transportation costs. Several of them found that $600 would not cover everything as their families were large. They visited the general store where the compassionate store keeper made arrangements with some of them enabling them to pay for things later when they had more money. Many of them decided not to pay for education for all their children as a way to make ends meet. ( I guess we shouldn’t be surprised at this, they are all homeschooled)

We had to end when the Eco-tourism people were making their presentation, so next week we will pick up where we left off and the village members will decide whether to give the tourism project a try.