the little travelers * travel blog

52 meals from 52 countries, week 4

In celebration of Chinese New Year we made wonton soup this week.  But we used the Dragon Moon Potsticker recipe from February's Book of Days, (which we are loving!) instead of the wonton recipe from the soup.  But we boiled them in a pot of water instead of frying them.  The meat we used inside was ground  turkey.

I'm a Nourishing Traditions kind of gal so I start my soups with bones!  

And two days later we're ready to start our soup!  It's time consuming, but worth it.

Here is the recommended shape.

And here is the shape that they thought 'looked better.'  I am one of those parents that is a firm believer that words do not teach, experience does.  And the ol' cliche about whenever we teach a child something we deprive them of discovering it for themselves.  My mother thinks I'm just lazy and don't know how to do my job properly.  It's all perspective.  But unless something is going to explore or pose a real threat in some way I let experiments play out.  I see my job as parent not to teach them everything but simply to provide the life experiences that will do the teaching.

While eating the soup it became quite clear that the Chinese knew what they were doing with the shape of their wontons as the tight little packages were quite doughy and not nearly as tasty as the other ones.  I love nothing better than sitting back and listen to the conversation at dinner go something like, "The envelopes are kind of gooey, but the ones like the directions are perfect.  We should do them all the right way next time."  I said nothing at all on the subject except, "I agree."  

The soup was a success and they are already planning on when to make it again and what changes to make to it.

making lemonade out of lemons

A recent bike outing ended up with a knee like this:

and leggings like this:

The next day when we were sorting laundry the big sister was lamenting over the loss of her (new at xmas) leggings.  So we sat and pondered a bit to think of what we could possibly salvage from them since repair would not be comfortable in her mind.  She's one of those!  Socks with seams, pants that itch, tags that scratch- all very serious problems.   So, she decided on making a headband with the waistband.

A simple blanket stitch around the outside and then we found some glass beads around the house from a jewelry making kit.

And viola, her new headband.

I love the idea of teaching kids the idea of turning lemons into lemonade.  But I also share a cautionary tale on the subject.  I have found it cannot be rushed.  I once knew a mother who took hold of this idea so vigorously that whenever her child broke something or ruined something that she loved and began to cry the mother immediately focused (in a very happy and perky way) on turning it to lemonade.  This exasperated the child to no end!

First, we must meet our children in their despair, no matter how trite it is and allow them their sadness over the object lost.  Many mothers I know fear this will instill an importance of objects and therefor enforce worship of the material world.  But I have found the opposite to be true.  Once the sadness over the object is expressed as long as the parent displays unattachment to the particular object (energetically- not with words only!) and hears out her child, 'Ya,  I see you really liked these pants and it is a bummer that they were still so new- They didn't even have stains in them yet!  Too bad it couldn't have been a stained pair that you ruined."  I find they let it go.   Then it is time to look for lemonade.  This way they feel heard and understood and all of that.  The next day we decided what to do with them- not while her knee was still bleeding and she was sad about her pants.  

This is the form of detachment to the material world I would like my children to embrace.  Not one that just throws things away because they are 'detached' but one that still tries to make use of things and find that silver lining in creating something new and beautiful of what was originally a bummer.  The lesson in doing speaks much louder than words like, "Well, let's make something great out this and turn it into something good!"  I find most children resistant to this sort of parenting.  But just quietly saying to a child when the time is ready, "I wonder what we could make with the parts that are still good?"  and then let them come up with an idea and a design for that matter.  I would've never come up with the design on this headband, but she digs it- and she's the one to wear it.  If I would've made it for her it would've had pink and orange embroidered flowers and paisleys on it- and it would've have been hers.  Restraint is often our best gift to our children.

My birthday giveaway!

Birthdays are about giving gifts, right? So, here they are. These will run for a week, so blog it or subscribe and get another entry. May enter to all 3- winners will be chosen randomly. Contests are open to those currently living in the world- I will ship internationally.  Good luck!

The dress up set includes 12 pieces, including fabric, ties and bands specially designed to give hundreds of dress up options. They are made from 100% silk shantung, cotton and the Chinese print is a poly-blend.

The Traveler Dress-up Set

good luck!

I'm 40 and feeling generous

Birthdays are about giving gifts, right?  So, here they are.  These will run for a week, so blog it or subscribe and get another entry.  May enter to all 3- winners will be chosen randomly.

The dress up set includes 12 pieces, including fabric, ties and bands specially designed to give hundreds of dress up options.  They are made from 100% silk shantung.

The Emperor Dress Up Set

I'm 40 and feeling generous

Birthdays are about giving gifts, right?  So, here they are.  These will run for a week, so blog it or subscribe and get another entry.  May enter to all 3- winners will be chosen randomly.

The dress up set includes 12 pieces, including fabric, ties and bands specially designed to give hundreds of dress up options.  They are made from 100% silk shantung.

The Princess Dress up Set

One example of what can be done.

to school, or not to school...

that is the question.  And usually the answer is - um, not to school.  I really am an unschooler at heart and even co-founded a Sudbury Valley style school years ago- but then decided to homeschool, or uh, unschool- or both and neither.  When we travel I really try to just be present with wherever we are at the time and don't push an overt agenda having to do with school. 

But there are seasons to my attitude and often when January rolls around and I'm so full of initiative with new year's resolutions and whatnot that I get caught up in beautiful curricula and desire more form to our learning than 100% organic.  I used to fight these urges and try to talk myself out of it telling myself I really don't believe in out of context learning and get quite irritated with myself, but in recent years I just let it flow.  I know it will be rather short lived and we all really get into it.  

So, currently we are wrapped up in a math phase.  The big sister is focusing primarily on multiplication/division and the little one on addition/subtraction.  First things first.  We had some sewing to do for our math jewels.  Since in Waldorf ed the four math processes are taught using the four temperaments and through story (addition is phlegmatic, subtraction is melancholic, choleric is division and sanguine is multiplication) and each character is given a sack of jewels that are then used as manipulatives.

And the left over sack.

I must have made one of these charts at some point in my life but remember nothing interesting about it. I like doing it with folded lines rather than drawn lines so you can fold it to get your answers more easily.  And I never knew until taking a class on teaching math as an adult that all the squares go right down the middle diagonally.

The big sister calls this her calculator.  love that.  I've also seen these done with fabric and bees wax crayons.  The fabric is ironed until its hot and then the crayon melts onto the fabric.  Stick crayons work better than block.

(for language arts I love old texts from the 1800's like the one in the background, purchased on ebay.  they are so simple and yet far more complex than most texts these days.  And the girls use them for 'playing school' as Laura and Mary-)

She writes out the tables for each number in the way that the pattern presents itself.  Some take a lot of numbers across and others only a few.  I love doing it this way because it is not arbitrary.  Looking for the patterns in mathematics is how all problems are solved.  Really solved, not just answered.

Then she works out problems all from that table.  It's also fascinating to see which answers also fall into the table and which do not.  She circles the ones that are in the table.

Instead of flash cards she loves these down below from a toy maker.  

We also jump rope the tables and do clapping games to each table.  Just basic patty cake in rhythm going from the whole to the sum:  "two is two times one, four is two times two, six is three times two"  both hands clap straight out at the sum and then cross during problem.  The easier tables like 2, 5 and 10 and 11- it becomes a race to see how fast the hands can move.

The next picture below is a tool used in Waldorf classrooms and is usually made out of wood with nails at the numbers and string that goes around from number to number.  But here is a lazy man's version using paper and pencil.  It is so fascinating to see what pattern each number makes.  If it's confusing look at the 3 tables in red pencil.  It starts at zero and goes 3, 6, 9, then to 2 for 12, 5 for 15, 8 for 18 and then to 1 for 21.  Keep going until pattern begins to repeat itself.

And a little beginning fractions here with the making of a game board.

happy chinese new year!

Some fun Chinese food symbolism:

A whole chicken, including head and feet (It symbolizes a proper beginning and end to the year.)

Clams or scallops (Their shape is similar to ancient Chinese coins.)

Any dish featuring lettuce (The word for lettuce, saang choy, sounds like the word for "growing good fortunes.")

Lobster (It represents life and energy.)

Rice (It symbolizes well-being and good fortune.)

Spring rolls (Their shape is reminiscent of ancient Chinese money, which would represent wealth for the coming year.)

Dumplings (Also shaped like ancient Chinese coins. Some families choose to cook dumplings late at night, through the midnight hour to symbolize bringing prosperity and luck into the new year. )

Fish with its head and tail intact ('Fish' in Chinese is yu, which sounds like the word for wish. Also fish swim in pairs, so it represents marital bliss. The fish is served as the last course, and not all of it is eaten so there are leftovers to eat on New Year's Day. By doing this, families bring prosperity of the previous year into the new year.) 

This gives us some good ideas for dinner this week!

contest

and another contest   to win a dvd of your choice.  This one from one of the authors of the Chicken Soup series.  Contest ends Feb 6th.

hopscotch fever

It's kind of like cat scratch fever, but different.  In any case- it's a fever around here right now.  The chicks love looking up different hopscotch games from around the world and trying them out. Did you know that hopscotch games have been found in ancient Roman ruins?  It's thought that Romans brought it to England...maybe?

 This one is from the Girls Book of Daring Things (or something like that) from the library of course.  It is from France and called the escargot- or snail.

picaria

is the latest rage in our house.  It comes from the book Math Games from Around the World.  

It starts with an 8 inch square box.  Then draw a + at 4 inches.  Then divide each 4 inch box with an x.  Mark each intersection with a dot.

Each player needs 6 markers in different shapes or colors.  We used glass beads that we had around.  The game is basically an advanced tic tac toe.  Each player tries to get three dots in a row by placing one marker down at a time.  The center dot cannot be played until all markers are played.  After all markers are down the pieces can be slid from dot to dot.  No jumping allowed.

The little sister wanted to keep her board simple, but the big sister wanted to add some decorations to her board.  Since this is a Native American game she added her version of American Indian patterns.

It's not an exaggeration to say that hours have been spent playing this game.  It's all about building strategy.  There are so many ways to set 'traps' with this game and I have to say even for myself became quite addicting.  

The things I love about this game is that all the spaces are not evenly spaced so it really threw me initially to look for all the ways 3 dots line up.  The dots along the edge and down the center were the easiest to miss because I would focus in on the details, forgetting the bigger picture.  I love games that build awareness like this as I'm always about the bigger metaphor of things.  I really do think games like this as well as folk tales and other metaphorical vehicles do translate into life at large.  Awareness and thinking ahead are life long skills that cannot get enough sharpening in my book.