The resources we are using include:
Little Passports
Children around the world book
Families around the world book series (some are hard to find but our local library has done a great job finding them for me)
Atlas Discovery DVD TV series on countries
Home school creations geography printables - notebooking pages
Top Secret Guides to....
Eat your way around the world
In addition to these great resources I find other books that help us understand the culture and geography of the country we are studying. I will include those resources for each country below.
France: Since we had vacationed in Normandy this year we had some first hand experience with the culture of France and even tasting a bit of French food. Since the activity sent by Little Passports was a bit of a let down. We came up with our own activity, learning how to make home made bread from scratch.
We have enjoyed this so much we have made bread from scratch a few times. Bread tastes best coming straight out of the oven, YUM YUM! might need to get a bread machine one day;)
We also learned about Jacques Cousteau; did you know he built a living unit in the Mediterranean Sea where he and 3 other scientists lived for a month back in the 60's. I found a great YouTube video about it and it was fascinating to watch.
Egypt: We enjoyed the children's activity from Little Passports this month.
We also took this time to explore the religion of Islam as well as the country. We learned quite a bit about this religion that I did not know. We found a great book and I highly recommend if you wish to study Islam called Celebrating Ramadan.
Another great book that discusses modern Egypt that we learn a great deal from is called Egypt ancient traditions and modern hopes
As part of study of Egypt we decided to cook a traditional meal and it was a great success.
Our menu included:
Falafel - Chickpeas
Khyar bi laban -Cucumber salad
Shish Kebabs
Biram Ruz -Rice casserole
Gebna Makleyah -Feta cheese balls
Ghorayyibah - cookies
Lunch was Falael on pita with Khyar bi laban, date fruit, and Ghorayyibah. Everyone liked this meal and I even had a request to make it again from my husband:)Kids enjoyed everything except the dates which they thought were too sweet.
Dinner was kebabs, Birum ruz, Gebna Makleyah with broccoli and pita bread.It was delicious and we will be doing this again!
If you know of any other great resources that are out there on learning cultural geography, just leave a comment below. Thanks
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These dishes look delicious and as always it looks like everyone is learning so much and having fun ! :) Thanks for sharing your continued adventures and lessons! Clicked a vote for you too!
ReplyDeleteWow- they all look wonderfully yummy! I want to come do geography at your house :)
ReplyDeleteThat food looks great! What a terrific geography lesson.
ReplyDeletethe food looks awesome! I studied arabic in the military and we would have culture days where we cooked traditional dishes, the Arabs have some GREAT food! We didn't really do to much of the food this unit, I wish I would have done more...maybe next time! :D Thanks for linking up at the Geography hop and btw love the new look of your blog!!
ReplyDeleteI love following your adventures. You are so good at giving your children hands on experiences. I just love homemade bread straight out of the oven with butter an honey. We have a dear friend that is from Iran and when we visit him he always takes us to dinner at mid eastern restaurants. We love to eat food from different cultures.
ReplyDeleteThanks for a fun post to read today.
I love the food! That is honestly *my* favorite part of any country study- getting as taste of what people who live there eat.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, I have serious travel envy when I read your blog. How amazing that you get to visit so many places! It is wonderful that you take full advantage of the opportunity.
I've said it before and I want to say it again . . . I WANNA JOIN YOUR FAMILY!!! You make learning so much fun!
ReplyDeleteHi I hopped over from Home schooling brag hop.
ReplyDeletelooks like your having fun. I love the idea of introducing the foods form the area your studying. I'll have to try this when my kiddos get older. I'm following now. Come join me
http://watchmeplaynlearn.blogspot.com/
Yummy! Thanks for linking up with Brag Time Thursday!
ReplyDeleteSounds like lots of fun! I really didn't know anything about Ramadan and Middle Eastern culture until we moved to the Seattle area. Due to the high-tech businesses here, we have a lot of immigrants, in particular from India. Interestingly, I've become closer friends with the immigrants from the Middle East than with those from India, even though they are way more Indians... I guess part of that is that there are so many Indians here, a lot of them don't feel the need to connect beyond their community of ex-pats. Anyhoo, I've learned a lot about Ramadan - let me tell you it's no fun having a soccer coach who is celebrating Ramadan. My daughter ran way more laps during Ramadan than any other time, cuz he was so grouchy from not eating all day! Then it was hard for his daughter, as she got older, if they had an evening soccer game and she hadn't eaten all day (when the kids are younger, they are not expected to fast, at least amongst the families we have known). It does make one reflect on one's religion though.
ReplyDeleteYou really have an interesting blog. I will definitely have to come back more often (I'm now a follower) if nothing else to relearn some of the long lost geography lessons I had as a kid!
ReplyDeleteYes bread always tastes better coming right out of your oven - A bread machine is great but doesn't make the house smell the same as "fresh out of the oven". I recently bought "healthy bread in 5 minutes a day" (there's a link and review on my blog) that we are really enjoying here in my house.
I'm impressed at all of the foods your tried (and made!!) It's interesting that out of everything, they didn't like the dates!
ReplyDelete