A Day in France--Around the World in 12 Dishes

This month we are "traveling" to France with some dishes, crafts and stories. Won't you join us?

Coloring Pages Available at DLTK

Wednesdays are our day to catch up with life and relax since it is the day between Hazel's two school days. This Wednesday we didn't have plans, so we decided to explore France a bit. I had gotten some books out of the library about French cooking. We decided to look at the Fiesta one.

This is a fun series which focuses on celebrations in countries. Each book introduces the country with a map and things about the different parts. There is always something about the religion as well and then it gets into holidays and festivals. The first recipe we found was for Croque Monsieur (or what I call a grilled ham and cheese sandwich). Hazel asked for a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch and I asked if she wanted ham as well on it. She of course did since she has my love of ham. 

Then we saw a recipe for a French Apple Tart. Now apple pie is Steven's favorite dessert, so we decided we had to try it. Before going to the store to get the ingredients I looked for some French themed crafts and found some great ones over at DLTK's Kids including a recipe for a food her family had while in France, so we decided to try it for dinner as well. We went out to run errands and stopped at AAA for a tour book on France and some maps. They gave us a tour book for Europe since they did not have one on just France and some maps. We haven't had time to look at them yet, so look for our follow-up post on our "trip" to France. We also stopped at the library for some French stories. Again, look for details in our follow-up post. Today it is about the food!

We made the French Apple Tart first. My little baker loved helping with cutting the butter and controlling the mixer. She also tried to peel the apples, but had a bit of difficulty. The recipe for the tart came from the Fiesta! France book. It was very simple and delicious! 

Next we made the tartiflette.The recipe came from DLTK Kids. I used of course fat free sour cream and reduced fat cream cheese and fat free mozzarella. The only cheese of the three choices listed our store had was Gruyere. I wish I had shredded it. It did not melt well, but the meal was still delicious!!

We also discovered at DLTK Kids that the rooster is the national animal of France and the iris is the national flower. We also got all the coloring pages from that link.

The France coloring placemat right here and the passport right here. Also check out these great French adventures and add your own here.

Teaching about Money--Savings, Charity and Spending

Piggy Bank (Source)

Well for Easter, my mother-in-law hid plastic Eater eggs for Hazel. Some had Lindt white chocolate truffles in them and some had money. Steve and I thought nothing of the money since we assumed they would be coins, however she put bills in them. One even had a $5 bill. (I should also note that she has already given Hazel a $5 bill as well as all of her change.) We decided it was time to talk about money with Hazel. I should also add we have two savings accounts for Hazel. One is money we received as gifts (mostly when she was a baby) and the other is one we opened recently and I have put some spare money in it as well as we take her piggy banks and deposit it there. Hazel went with me to open the account and received a piggy bank similar to the one pictured above (but it is blue and has the bank name on it). They have a change counting machine that is free if you have an account, so we always take the piggy bank there.

It just so happened that I browsed the used book store last week and found a copy of Three Cups by Mark St. Germain. I had picked it up to think about and then ended up buying it without thinking about it. I guess it was God's way of saying I would need it and I did.  This book tells about how Mark St. Germain's parents introduced money to him. They gave him three cups for his fifth birthday. One was for spending, one for charity and one for savings. They helped him figure out how much of each allowance should go into each one. He wrote this book to explain the method and to use with his own son. 

On Sunday I read the story to Hazel and asked her if she wanted to have three cups like the boy in the story. She did. So we set them up. I grabbed three mugs from our spare mugs and we labeled them with sticky paper and tape. I let her pick the colors for the labels. Then we divided the bills among the cups. The next day we took the savings cup and her two piggy banks (we left her quarter supply since she uses those for rides at local malls and stores) to the bank to deposit in her savings account. The book went into how the bank paid you to keep your money there. 

The bank is next to Target, and we needed to do an exchange there, so we headed in. While looking through the toys and such she kept seeing things she wanted. We talked about how we can put them on her wish list (I keep one on Amazon as well as in Pinterest, so I can easily send it to family members) or she can save her spending money for an item.

The final cup is the charity cup. Trying to explain charity to a four-year-old is not really easy. She knows we have gathered clothes and toys for children in need at her birthday parties, but I don't think she really gets it. And right now I am about to kick-off our stewardship campaign at church including lessons for the Sunday School classes, so I have had a lot of charity and giving on my mind. I found a book at Amazon, The Giving Book by Ellen Sabin. This book explains about charity and really works as a journal for children to explore giving and helping throughout the world. It includes stories and things to explain situations as well as places for the children to draw, write and record.

I am going to introduce this book to her as her charity cup begins to fill a bit more.

We have decided to start an allowance for Hazel. I think we will be giving it in change so she can divide it among her three cups. How have you handled money with your young children? What age did you start? What has worked for you?

Virtual Book Club for Kids-- What the Ladybug Heard

Congratulations to Trisha over at Inspiration Laboratories for winning The Gruffalo books by this month's author, Julia Donaldson! Over the last two weeks we have shared activities to go with Julia Donaldson's books: Room on the Broom and The Snail and the Whale. This week we are going to share What the Ladybug Heard. Now this book is written in rhyme like so many of Julia Donaldson's books. And of course we love it, but I will admit we are drawn to ladybugs right now since that is Hazel's symbol at school.

This story goes through the animals on a farm.

The ladybug did not say a word, but she saw and heard. She heard two crooks plan to steal the prize cow. She talks to tell the other animals about it and her plan to stop them.

The ladybug's plan involved tricking the crooks into where they were on the farm by having other animals make different sounds. The duck mooed so they ended up in the pond. We gathered the animals so she could act out the story. I also made a sort of match game. You can match the animals or the animals sounds or you can use them to sequence the story.

Source: Everything Ladybug!

 Since the hero of this story is the ladybug, we looked a bit up about ladybugs. To start we found the life cycle of the ladybug at Everything Ladybug! We also discovered why farmers like ladybugs. They eat the aphids which eat and damage crops. The ladybugs coloring is meant to be unattractive to its predators. They can secrete a foul tasting fluid from their legs. (Source)

We also did some ladybug crafts. We made some using construction paper, glue, a brad, googly eyes and a piece of pipe cleaner. Hazel likes these since the wings move. We were inspired by For the Children.

We did a similar one with paper plates as well. We painted one red and one black and used a brad again. We were inspired by Learning Ideas - Grades K - 8.

Then we made egg carton ladybugs which were inspired by Crafts by Amanda and by Scribbled.com.

I have pinned some other ideas for ladybug crafts including a cute snack. If you are interested in seeing more of them, check out my Bugs Board.It includes a song for this book, dominoes from the publisher, and more!

Now it is your turn to share an activity for a Julia Donaldson book! Just link up to this blog hop. Also since April has begun, I will let you know the next author is David Shannon! Join us on the 15th for his books!

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures: Raisel's Riddle

This week we are traveling back to Poland for another Jewish Cinderella story. Earlier this month we reviewed The Way Meat Loves Salt. So for the history and information on Poland, please go to that post. 

Polish Flag (Source)

Today's book focuses on the Jewish holiday, Purim. Now Purim is a celebration of when Queen Esther saved the Jews from death in Persia. For those who are Christian the Book of Esther is in the Christian Bible as well in the Old Testament. I have had the pleasure of teaching this unit in Sunday School twice now. 

The story of Esther is she lives with her uncle (in some versions he is her cousin), Mordecai in Persia. They are Jewish. Mordecai is a guard/gate keeper at the palace of King Ahasuerus (King Xerxes in some versions). At some point the king becomes angry with his queen and throws her out of the land after the suggestion of his aid, Haman (the villain of our story). Now the king needs a new queen so he send out his army to bring back all the beautiful eligible maidens in Persia so he can choose one as his new queen. Esther is taken. Mordecai warns her not to let anyone know she is Jewish and in fact in some versions it is said this is when her name became Esther. Anyway, Esther is chosen as the new queen. While she is queen, Haman convinces the king to sign a decree to kill all the Jews in Persia. Mordecai gets word to Queen Esther that she must do something to stop this and even though it is against the law and punishable by death, she goes to the king without being invited after fasting for three days. She invites him and Haman to a feast. At the feast she invites them again the next night. Finally she tells the king that someone wants to kill her and all her people. When he asks who, she tells him it is Haman since she is Jewish. Haman is ordered to death by the king and all the Jewish people are saved. 

Hamentaschen (Source)

This holiday is celebrated usually in March. Since the Jewish calendar is different than the Gregorian calendar most commonly used today, the date actually changes each year. This year it was celebrated at the end of February. The holiday is celebrated with costumes (often like the people in the story of Esther) and noise makers called gragers used whenever Haman's name is mentioned. The story is retold during the celebration. It is also custom to send food and drinks as gifts as well as give to charity during Purim. Another custom is making triangular cookies filled with jam called hamentaschen. (Source) 

Now onto our book. This week we are looking at Raisel's Riddle by Erica Silverman. In this story Raisel lives with her grandfather in a small village in Poland. He is a scholar and many people in the village seek his advice and pay for it with food, fire wood, etc. She asks her grandfather to teach her to be a scholar. He tells her that learning is more valuable than rubies and gold since it can never be taken away from you. One cold winter her grandfather dies. She leaves the village since she does not want to be a burden on anyone and goes into the city to look for work. After knocking on many doors she comes to the house of a rabbi. The cook answers the door and tries to turn her away, but the rabbi comes to the door and says that the cook/housekeeper could of course use some help. The cook is not happy about it and is worried Raisel is after her job. She treats her badly and gives her some straw to sleep on behind the stove. Raisel grins and bears it.

One day Raisel is carrying firewood and the rabbi's son bumps into her and causes her to drop the wood. He stops to apologize and helps her carry the wood to the kitchen. The cook is very upset that she talked to the rabbi's son and threatens to lock her in the pantry if she cannot stay out of sight.

Haman, Mordecai, Esther and King Ahasuerus

On the day of Purim, the rabbi and his family have company over for a feast before going to the Purim Play. While serving the food Raisel hears the young women telling the rabbi's son riddles. She wants to stay and listen more but the cook pulls her into the kitchen threatening her again. When all the dinner guests leave for the play, Raisel comments how she would like to go. The cook laughs at her and tells her to get her dinner from what is left and then to start on the dishes. Raisel takes her dinner outside where she sees an elderly woman who looks extremely hungry. Raisel gives her dinner to this woman. The woman tells her she will grant Raisel three wishes for her kindness, but to remember magic only lasts until midnight. Raisel wishes for a Purim costume and then a horse drawn wagon to go to the play. 

Raisel turns heads as she walks into the play. She is told she has the best Queen Esther costume in the room. After the play a band starts up and the rabbi's son comes over to talk to Raisel. When he asks where she lives, she realizes he does not recognize her as the rag girl from his kitchen. She avoids answering by telling him a riddle which she makes up based on what her grandfather said about learning. Then she hears the clock to start striking midnight and she rushes away. When she gets back to the house and sees the huge pile of dishes and pots and pans she makes her third wish to have the kitchen clean.

The next day she notices people coming over again and asks the cook about the company. Since she used the term "we" in asking, the cook locks her in the pantry. In the pantry there is only one ray of light coming in and it is from a hole to the dining room. She is able to see and hear everything going on in there. The Rabbi says that his son met a woman who told him a riddle the previous night and that is the woman he wants to marry. All the young woman come forward telling him their riddles again, but none of them are the one. He finally says how it had rubies and gold and forever in it. Raisel realizes it is her riddle and knocks on the door as loudly as she can. The son comes in and asks the cook what is going on and the cook says the rag girl is cleaning the pantry, but Raisel tells him she told him a riddle the previous night. He lets her out and she begins the riddle and he finishes it and then asks her to marry him. Her response is only if he can answer her riddle. He of course knows it is learning. They get married and live and learn happily ever after.

For our crafts this week I made our clothespin doll with her dressed as Queen Esther. I also shared the cardboard tube characters Hazel made in Sunday School when we studied Esther. If we have time I may make some hamentaschen with Hazel, but since we were too busy celebrating Easter today, we did not get around to it.

Happy Easter!!

As I am celebrating the miracle of Easter with my family, I thought I would share a few things with you.

He is Risen!

We added some peg dolls to our Resurrection Garden to act out Easter morning.

We also of course decorated some Easter eggs. This is one of Hazel's favorite things to do.

Finally don't forget to enter my giveaway--you only have one more day!

Happy Easter!!