Tasmania

O Boy's class is studying Australia right now. This works out well because O Boy is currently obsessed with his World Atlas and he already happened to be reading up on Australia on his own.

Why has he been reading up on Australia, you ask?  Well, his favorite country is actually Indonesia. Though, to say that Indonesia is his favorite country doesn't accurately depict his current enthusiasm for Indonesia. He's reading everything he can about Indonesia. He googled "how to speak Indonesian" in hopes that he really would learn. He's been checking out books out from the library. He spends hours studying Indonesia on Google Earth.  He wants to know everything about Indonesia and he actually does know quite a bit. He can tell you about Indonesian economy, vegetation, agriculture, et cetera. At some point someone mentioned to him that Indonesia is dangerous so, since he plans to live in Indonesia when he's an adult, he has also carefully researched several escape routes. And seeing as how Australia is fairly close to Indonesia, naturally he's checked into Australia as a potential destination, should there be any natural disasters while he's living in Indonesia.

The other day he came home from school upset because ALLEGEDLY his teacher had told them that Tasmania is a territory, not a state. We looked it up online and sure enough, Tasmania is one of Australia's six states (and there are two territories: Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory).

Part of me suspected that he might have misunderstood what the teacher said since they *are* studying Australia in class, after all. But I said, "Well, O Boy, if you get marked wrong for putting that on the test, Mommy will fight for you. But otherwise, don't worry about it." And that was that. Or so I thought until this morning when I looked over the homework O Boy is returning to school today.

(And let me just say right up front, yes, yes, I see that there are quite a few mistakes. This week I've been a bit out of commission so the kids were left to fend for themselves on a lot of fronts. Oops!)

In australia, I would see kangaroos. I can also see koalas, too. I could see wambats or seals. I could go to antartican territory. I can study an australian map. I would learn tasmania is a state. I would learn northern territory is a territory.