I think our favorite activity guide was this downloadable book from the Kids of Courage website. I bought it at a homeschool fair for a great price, but you can also download and print it for free!
We printed out the map of India in the beginning and discussed the country, one state at a time. The book includes information about each state as well as activities. One activity was making flowers out of tissue. The girls had a blast with this and we made flowers all morning while praying for the people of Arunachul Pradesh.
We completed Rangoli designs that can be printed at this site. We used colored rice to make the designs because they use rice powder in India.
Of course, each country ends with a get together with our fellow globe trotters!
In India, Diwali is a main Hindu festival that is celebrated with lights. We didn't talk a lot about the history behind the festival at home, but we did look at some of the amazing light displays that take place in India. It is truly beautiful. So our first activity was decorating small clay tea light holders. We added sequins, glitter, and beads.
Next we broke into two groups. The girls were able to dress up in an Indian Sari, or at least as close as we could get. Boy, they are hard to tie!
The next station was the baking of Indian Naan bread. The dough was prepared ahead of time, so the girls were able to roll it out and brush on the butter! Then we sprinkled it with poppy seeds.
While the bread was baking, our entire group gathered to listen to presenations. K (age 7) told the group a little bit about what she learned about monsoon season in India.
T (age 5) shared some information about the Taj Mahal.
Next, we were able to enjoy our bread. YUM!
The girls were so inspired by the fun day with our friends that they begged to eat on the floor that night. It wasn't my original plan, but we went ahead and moved dinner to the floor. Here we are eating flank, asparagus, and roasted red potatoes on the floor. Not really a traditional Indian meal, but we had fun!
We enjoyed a lot of great literature during the week, which you can see below. Our favorite (if we had to pick one) was "One Grain of Rice".
With each country, I have been able to find one tale that is similar to a tale we are familiar with. It has been fun to compare the two stories. This time we compared, "Puss in Boots" with "Jamil's Clever Cat".
2 comments:
Wow! Looks like so much fun!!
I love how you are letting the girls really get into the country as you study it. I have to make sure we do this more as we get started back with school in January. My little guy LOVES geography and we have Galloping the Globe, too!
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