booandbunny

We just finished exploring another country. Daddy picked Greece, mostly for the food! The feast was fun and I found a lot of great recipes that we’ll probably use again, just not all at the same time! My favorite cookbook this time was Sofi’s Aegean Kitchen: A light approach to traditional Greek home cooking. No pictures, but I was familiar enough with Greek food (MMMM, Parthenon in Chicago!) that I could figure out what we would like. Again I tried to stick with ingredients the kids would recognize and seasonings that would be new. The red-wine vinegar was not such a hit, but the kabobs, fish fillets and pita pockets vanished fast!

For the craft we made Greek urns. It was a fun project and cheap! Each of the kids painted a picture of a typical day: Ms. 8 went way Greek and painted herself at gymnastics. Mr. 5 painted himself playing with the dog and Mr. 7 painted the whole pot black, then scratched out a similar design. They enjoyed it on an afternoon that was too hot and humid for them to play outside.

The books they liked best: Ancient Greece!: 40 hands-on activities to experience this wondrous age (Hart and Mantell); Look what came from Greece (Davis); A True Book: Greece (Petersen and Petersen) the Usborne Book Greek Myths for Young Children (Amery) and Disney’s Hercules.

Now we're exploring our home country … it is almost July after all. I’ve already found some fun books about the different states, presidents, Mount Vernon, Monticello and the White House. My daughter of course has enjoyed doing the little journal more than the boys, but that’s OK. They’ve all done some of it, which provided me with 15 minutes of peace while it rained!

// posted by HoBess @ 6/29/2006 12:29:00 PM