In February 2024, we moved aboard our 60ft catamaran Nesi in the Seychelles with the help of Zoe (read her post here)

We worked non-stop, full-throttle for 2 months, suffering with the summer equatorial heat, running two very eventful “shakedown trips” with co-op members, and doing a million repairs & projects on the boat.

Check out all the posts from all our previous teachers.

Joelie arrived in April 2024, just as we frenetically prepared to leave the protected waters of Seychelles. No time to waste… when she arrived, I gave her a drill and screwdriver and we started installing solar panels.

She was superbly pleased with this task, as she has impressive experience building her own beautiful tiny home in the Cocos Keeling island. Watch her great youtube vid (12 minutes) which shows her tiny home build and her art; making basket from salvaged fishing line collected at beach trash pickups.

It is clear that Joelie’s gift is Art and Kids’ Education. Together exploring the world through beaches, snorkeling, or just plain ol’ stuff growing on the back of the boat, Joelie had an uncanny way of spotting what “lit up” the girls and then creating fun projects from it.

After a week of boat preparation we set sail for Madagascar, which is a challenging 5 day trip in open ocean. You’d think the kids would be bored and agitated, unable to get off the boat for days… but Joelie managed to create art & play & learning every day. We caught fish and learned what they ate, creating posters. Used microscopes. Painted. Her creativity is contagious and the girls thrived with each project.

Upon arrival in Madagascar, we had an incredible time at the island town of Nosy Be, where we were based for 1.5 months. We were able to explore myriad islands with different visiting families, seeing species of lemurs, chameleons, fish, sea turtles, corals, and many beaches. We also got to live in a culture that is not very modern — oxen pull carts, sailing vessels without engines are the primary mode of transporting construction materials. This was incredibly illuminating for all of us.

Nosy Be is a well-known cruising destination for sailors thanks to its perfect weather and countless islands to explore. Yet we had aspirations to explore the rest of the island, so we went off-the-beaten-path 800 nautical miles down the western coast of Madagascar. This trip was against the prevailing winds and was both technically challenging and very remote, without any resources for boaters like ourselves.

Our experiences on this voyage south were some of our most memorable with Joelie, including our overland trip to Ankarafantsika Park, a wild adventure to see flamingos in Baly Bay, the raw beauty of Barren Islands, the desolate bay near Morondava with clusters of fishermen.

Throughout all these unpredictable experiences, Joelie was a calm, fun, solid friend and teacher for the girls, and many visiting kids from our cooperative. She constantly impressed us with her artistic creativity and initiative. She even created two new projects for US! Her lino-printing skills launched our sun shirts, and she co-created the Expedition Letters idea, which is now coming to fruition with her continued assistance.

What an amazing time spent with Joelie and deep respect for all she offers!

Below follows Joelie’s personal experience and shares activities that she did with the kids.

[Wondering what the Green Coco Expedition is all about? What makes it a world schooling program? Read the background here.]

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My name is Joelie,

I’m an artist and homeschool teacher originally from Australia/ Cocos Islands. I’ve been aboard the Green Coco boat Nesi for 4 months. I joined the crew in the Seychelles and was aboard for the crossing to Madagascar.

This experience has been truly Incredible. I will leave the boat changed and inspired with possibilities. The life experiences these girls are collecting are setting them up to be open minded, connected, capable adventurers and I feel really lucky to have joined them in this chapter of their life as teacher/ friend.

Here’s just a couple of my favorite activities the girls and I have done so far. In general, I pay attention to what the girls are really interested at the time. Then I “scaffold” on to this topic, and weave ways of learning that can be fun and playful , to make it engaging and interesting.

ACTIVITIES

#1 Turtle book

We’ve seen so many turtles on our travels. Especially in Sakatia in the North of Madagascar where we snorkeled with huge turtles, nearly as big as the table we have dinner on. 

We made a flip book learning all about turtles. Each page exploring something new. Their diets, life cycles, different body parts, why keeping plastic out of our oceans is important, where they live, how old they get, different types of sea turtles.

#2 DIY Sea stars!

One of my favorite things to do with Kaiana and Naiyah is to be in the water with them. They are adventurous and capable 4 years olds and I love snorkeling with them and seeing all the things they notice, diving down to collect shells and starfish for them. From this we came up with an idea to make our own sea stars.  We made our own using dough that dries out in  the sun just like real starfish. First we practiced our writing skills, then we measured out all our indigents, made our stars, pressed shells in to them, cooked them and painted them.  A fun opportunity to practice writing, maths by measuring ingredients, fine motor skills and art.

Recipe:

• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup salt 
• 3/4 cup warm water 
• Mix together, roll out and make your shapes, bake in the oven 250 F for an hour
• Let cool 
• Paint!

#3 Travel journal. 

This is one of my favorite projects I’ve made with the girls. A journal of some of their favorite adventures on the expedition so far, a chance for the girls to practice their writing and tell their own stories. They tell me the stories in their own words, I draw the dotted lines for the letters and the girls trace the words.The girls really love this book, they’re constantly asking for people to read it, we printed out photos to go along with the stories and have glued in special things in some of the pages like flamingo feathers. 

#4 Alphabet book

Another book we made was our alphabet book. Each page is a new letter. Filled with pictures of things starting with that letter. Learning our sounds and letter recognition and practicing to write our letters. 

#5 Spinning Calendar 

The girls wanted to know all their months to be able to count down until their birthday so we made this spinning calendar with the months of the year and wrote down special dates like birthdays and holidays on their month. 

#6 Magic Rice

We made an experiment you can eat!

We used purple cabbage, boiled with rice to make it purple, then using the acid in a lime squeezed over to change it’s color. 

We made our guesses of what color it might turn, and watched it change to pink! Learn Cooking and Science .

#6 Fish prints.

During our passage from Seychelles to Madagascar a flying fish jumped on to the deck, when we found it, it wasn’t alive. We painted it with ink and made fish prints!

When we pressed the ink down onto the paper we could see all the tiny details. The scales, bones, each line in the fins, eye and gills.

#7  Life jacket project for the teddies.

This project started when the girls were talking about why their teddies couldn’t go outside. Because they didn’t have life jackets! So we designed some, drew the pattern, found the material and sewed them. 

Learning how clothes are made and how to fix or sew something is a really cool life skill and the girls are so stoked with the life jackets for their much loved Teddy and Ruwie. We practiced Fine motor skills, Sewing, and Design 

#8 Water Cycle poster

We started exploring the water cycle when the water maker aboard Nesi broke and the conversation about sea water and fresh water naturally started. We watched steam rise and form droplets on the lid of a pot while cooking pasta 

We made this poster as a visual to see the constantly changing form of water. We practiced science and art.

#9 Rope Baskets 

The girls and I have been collecting rope that we find washed up on the shoreline.  We even found fishing line, perfect for thread. We used our rope collection to weave a rainbow basket made from 100% human pollution, some of our friends visiting helped us too. We practiced both art and Environmental care with this project.

#10 Flamingo-Squid ink letters 

As the sun set we took out our flamingo feather quills we found on the shoreline of Baly Bay and squid ink collected from the huge squid we had for dinner to write our squid ink letters like true sailor adventurers. 

Captain’s Note: Sabrina cooked the squid and experienced a squid ink explosion.

Thanks for your interest!

Want to learn more about Green Coco voyages? See our website www.greencoco.org

Or send us a message at expedition@greencoco.org