Foods Around the World

A couple weeks ago we took part in a Foods Around the World lunch with some other homeschooling families.  Not only was it a lot of tasty fun to eat food from different places (at least for me - the kids weren't impressed) but we also made little poster displays to show off what we learned.  I know...fun, right?

But before you get to see those...let me tell you about the adventure of choosing our places and making our foods. 

Gracie loves Fancy Nancy.  Fancy Nancy loves Paris.  It was really a no-brainer!  Although I tried to convince her to make escargot she wanted to go with something chocolaty.  (Smart girl!)  We decided on truffles. 

It was quite the messy process, but really not all that difficult.  (Here's the recipe we used.)  We had a good time creating our very delicious dessert!  And, they were pretty primal too. 

So, here's Gracie with her fabulous display.  Please notice how cute she looks! 

Right around the time we were working on these projects a friend of mine commented on her facebook status about how much work is actually done by the parents when teachers (in public schools) assign projects.  I chuckled to myself because I was going to be very hands on with Gracie.  I wanted to show her how it should be put together.  But while I was distracted someplace else she took it upon herself to glue down the print outs that she'd colored.  It's hard to see, but on her poster they start on the left and go along the bottom of the board.  In my head, I expected to place them differently...more balanced or something. 

At first I was annoyed that she'd not done it properly, but I hadn't told her not to go ahead and she was just taking responsibility for her work.  So I let her keep going.  And when it was all done I looked at it and was proud.  It looks like a 5 year old did it.  Isn't that great!

So, Jace...Jace's first choice was Antarctica.  I'm pretty sure I said something like, "Uh...um...what do you think are normal antarctic foods?  Whale blubber?  Do you have a second choice?"

He asked if we could do something in the Arctic Circle.  He likes the snow, what can I say.  So we looked to see what countries or places are that far North.  I tried to steer him toward something on the Baltic Peninsula.  But once he realized Alaska was there and they eat crab...there was no turning back. 

We made Alaskan Crab (we used imitation crab meat) cooked in a very tasty sauce!  (Here's that link.  It calls for linguine, but we left that out to keep with our primal habits.  Grok totally would have cooked with wine!) 

Jace did a great job with his poster too.  He picked some cool facts to put on it and drew a totem pole and a sled with dogs!  See the proud (and practiced) grin of his?

So, that exploratory unit went well.  The kids learned a lot of new things and both want to visit the places they learned about.  I'm hoping they take me with them when they go!  It was also a great opening to the cultural studies we're going to start this week.  They really enjoy The Amazing Race, as do I.  So, we're taping it and each week will learn about the places the teams travel too.  Very exciting...I'll keep you posted.