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Sharing Saturday 14-22


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 It was another amazing party last week!! If you have not checked out all the great ideas shared, you should!! As always, they are so inspiring. Thank you to everyone who shared with us and to all who visited and commented on others ideas. We did not have a most clicked post. We did however have many posts shared about learning letters, so I am featuring some of those as well as a few of my favorites of the others.
Letter Lessons

 1) From The Pleasantest Thing: Learning Letters Game
2) From Munchkin and Bean: Felt Alphabet Bean Bags
3) From Munchkins and Moms: Letterpress Toast
4) From Excite and Explore: Learning Letters: The Letter B
5) From Exploring Literacy with Heart: DIY Alphabet Memory Game
6) From Bible Fun for Kids: Preschool Alphabet: N Is for Naaman
A Few of My Favorites


1) From Growing Book by Book: Car Trip Games: Are We There Yet Maps
2) From Sparkling Buds: Crepe Paper Flowers
3) From Mini Monets and Mommies: Father's Day Wood Print Art Activity
4) From Gift of Curiosity: Shapes Activity: How Many Ways Can You Make a Shape?
5) From Munchkins and Moms: Toddler Bed to Train Table (in Less Than 5 Minutes)


Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. 

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From Your Hostess:
This week we shared a Round-Up of all our Patriotic Crafts for Memorial Day, a Philippine Cinderella, Croatian Honey Pie for Around the World in 12 Dishes, Asian-Pacific Crafts for the Multicultural Kids Blog Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Hop, and Asian Kites.



Now for This Week's Party  
A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow Crafty Moms Share via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post. 

3) Post the Sharing Saturday button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.
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4) I would love it if you would follow me on Facebook,  Google+, and Pinterest 

5) If you do not have a blog, but want to share an idea you can leave it in the comments or e-mail it to me with a picture (if possible).

 
 Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest.

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Asian Kites


Hazel has been asking to fly a kite for awhile. Somehow whenever we are at my parents, it does not happen. They live near a beach and usually have more wind (and less trees and power lines) than us. Plus my father has some kites or at least he thinks he does. Well I bought her a cheap Disney Princesses kite and we are taking it to my parents' house this weekend. She is so excited. I told her by having her making paper kites in Asian styles with me first. I was really excited to find Asian Kites by Wayne Hosking at our local library.
All of the styles of kites we made came from this book. The book explains how to make real kites with Silkspan, however I was not looking to make kites to fly, but kites to show Hazel different styles from the Asian countries. We made them with paper and streamers. In fact we used leftover black streamers from Oriental Trading that we reviewed in our Minnie Mouse Pinata post. We also substituted drinking straws for the balsa wood to strengthen the kites. 

Source: Wikimedia Commons
The book has a bit of the history of the kite in the Introduction. Although many places say the first kite was flown in China, Asian Kites says it is actually unknown. It is believed that kites date back to two and a half to three thousand years ago. Kites also once carried messages based on their shapes, pictures or other cultural symbols. Eventually every day people began to fly them without a religious significance. There are many theories to how a kite came to be including leaves, trying to emulate birds, the wind blowing a farmer's hat and a tent or sail becoming airborne in the wind. Stories of Chinese kite flying spread through Europe thanks to Marco Polo. In the 15th and 16th centuries examples of kites were brought back from China and the East Indies. In the 18th and 19th centuries Europeans and Americans were using kites for scientific studies of natural elements including developing the flying machine. Asians were still flying kites to celebrate nature and human spirit. Many Asian cultures share their past with kite festivals as well as kite tours.
China gets to boast the first written record of a kite flying dating back to 196 B.C.E. The description tells how the Chinese general Han Hsin flew a kite to help calculate the distance his army would have to tunnel to escape. There are many legends of how the Chinese attempted to use kites in battle. The Chinese also used them for cultural and religious significances. With the invention of paper by Tsai Lun, kites became  a universal folk art and possible for all people to enjoy flying. From a Kite Day Festival to scaring away evil spirits at grave sites, the Chinese have a rich history of kite flying. Today China has six main kite regions. Each region uses a unique kite style. October is the traditional month for kite flying, but due to favorable winds kite flying season usually runs from the Chinese New Year through Qingming, the day for mourning the dead on April 5. 

 We chose to make the Butterfly kite. The book describes it as a fair to good flier in light to gentle breezes. The Chinese often make and fly Butterfly kites because they represent beauty and a free spirit. There is also an old saying: "Only the greatest artists go to heaven to paint butterfly wings.

Kites have a long history in Malaysia as well. In fact some scholars believe Malaysia may have been the birthplace of kites. In Malaysia kites are called wau. A legend from the state of Kedah say the knowledge of how to build a kite is an effort to appease the heavens. If you visit northern Malaysia any time from April to June you will most likely see colorful kites flying. During this time they have monsoon winds which are strong enough to fly large kites and also it is after the rice harvest and is a time when farmers and fishermen celebrate life.

We chose to make the Mini Wau. The Mini Wau is a child's kite that is often flown from a stick. Since they believe the wau is a gift from the gods, they fly them in hopes of good fortune. This one I made out of tissue paper which the book said could be used instead of lightweight Silkspan.

Kite flying is very popular in Thailand as well. Oral tradition puts kite flying back in the 13th century when Thailand became a country. The earliest recording of kite flying was a ritual priests performed. They were also part of fighting war as well as just a love of the entire country. Kites often were entangled with the roofs of the royal palace. Eventually there was an edict forbidding flying kites over the palace. Based on a challenge of King Rammi II, a traditional kite game is established and is now a national sport held each March in front of the royal palace. 

 We chose to make the Thai Fish kite. It is said to be a fair to good flier in gentle to moderate breezes. The fish is a major source of food in Thailand. It is second only to rice and since both are associated with water they are said to belong together. The fish often represents abundance.
Korea may have gotten kites from China during the period of the Three Kingdoms. Kites are called Yeon in Korea. Kites have not changed much in Korea over the centuries. Kite flying is part of many ceremonies and once again there are many stories of how kites were used. The kite flying season closely relates to the agricultural cycle. Koreans begin flying kites on the first day of the lunar calendar and the kite season lasts for fifteen days. There is also an annual custom of kite fighting. Kite fighting involves trying to cut the other kites' strings. They do not attach blades of any kind, but use skill of the flier and the specially prepared string to do this. Once cut, the freed kite belong to whomever can capture it. They have special kites for kite fighting called a bangpae-yeon or shield kite. There are also special kites to fly on the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar to fight off evil. Traditionally the flier of these kites releases the line after all of the line is out. These special kites include the aeg-mag-i-yon and song-aeg-yon. 

 We chose to make the Ga-o-ri-yon or ray fish kite. It is fair to good flier in light to gentle breezes. It is a rhombus shape and resembles a sting ray in the sky. It is typical of children's kites all over Asia. 
During the seventh century Japanese civil servants brought the knowledge of kites and paper from China. Kites held a special importance in Japan and only the privileged class and monks could fly them. The monks used them to keep evil spirits away and invoke a rich harvest. The Japanese considered kites a way to carry petitions to the spirit gods. It is also a traditional Japanese belief that a destroyed kite's soul is released  and is free to be reborn in another kite. There are many Japanese folk stories involving kites. There are approximately 340 different traditional kites made in forty-two districts of Japan. Families share their heritage today through kites on special days like New Year's Day and Children's Day. There are also kite battles in May and June.

 We decided to make a kao-no-tako or octopus kite. It is a fair to good flier in gentle to moderate breezes. It comes from Sanjo in Niigato (Japan's west coast). Tako means both octopus and kite. During the Edo Period, kite makers often hung these octopus-shaped kites in front of their stores as a sign of their occupation. 

 Those are our Asian kites and some of the things we discovered about kites in Asia thanks to Asian Kites. Over the weekend I hope to share what we have learned about Children's Day in Japan as well as our craft of a carp wind sock (often mistaken for a kite). 

 We are sharing this at the Multicultural Kids Blog Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Hop. If you missed our post co-hosting this blog hop, we shared some Asian-Pacific Island crafts and stories we have done and read to learn more about the cultures in that part of the world.

For more Asian-Pacific Island crafts and stories, check out:
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Asian-Pacific American Heritage Blog Hop: Asian Crafts


Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Hop - Multicultural Kid Blogs 
In honor of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, Multicultural Kid Blogs is sponsoring a blog hop, and you are invited! We are celebrating the cultures and peoples of this diverse region by sharing our posts and asking other bloggers to do the same! Our hope is to create a wonderful resource for celebrating Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month with children. Be sure to visit the co-hosts of the blog hop (listed below) and share your own posts at the linky at the bottom! You can find even more resources on this region in our Asia and Australia and Oceania boards on Pinterest!
Co-Hosts

For the blog hop we decided to share some of the Asian-Pacific Island crafts we have been doing as well as a few books we have enjoyed! We have been having fun exploring games, puzzles, stories and crafts! For our crafts we used three books as our main resources: Asian-American Crafts Kids Can Do! by Sarah Hartman, Hands-On Asia: Art Activities for All Ages by Yvonne Y. Merrill, and Asian Crafts by Judith Hoffman Corwin.
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Around the World in 12 Dishes: Croatian Honey Pie


Ok, I have to admit I had trouble getting too excited for Around the World in 12 Dishes and I had an even harder time getting Hazel interested. As a result, we are posting a week late. Sorry!! I think the reason is I had a hard time finding books and really anything on Croatia besides things on-line. Our library network literally had six books having to do with Croatia in all the Children's Departments. One of the six was a novel and one was a picture book that never mentioned Croatia and the rest were the non-fiction books about Croatia. We did not read a whole lot about the country this month. However I did write the introduction on the Around the World in 12 Dishes blog.




I think the main problem for getting materials is Croatia became independent again in the 1990's. There just is not much on Croatia out there because of its newness. I did find several sites with Croatian recipes. We decided on a recipe from Honest Cooking called Croatian Honey Pie. One of the sites explained that what we call cake they call pie in Croatia. Since the measurements are given in ounces and grams, we weighed most ingredients. I will give you my estimates however. I also could not find plum jam, so we used homemade strawberry and blueberry jams (we made it on Memorial Day, so we went for the red, white and blue theme).

 Croatian Honey Pie (adapted from Honest Cooking)

 Ingredients
For the Dough
  • Just under 3 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 3 tablespoons almond milk (we try to have things dairy-free for Hazel)
  • just under a cup of sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder (I didn't read the recipe very well and used powder instead of soda)
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
For the Filling
  • 1 1/4 cups almond milk
  • just under a cup of sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 tablespoons cornstarch
  • the rest of the stick of butter and another stick
  • jam
Instructions
  1. Make the filling first, so it can cool. In a saucepan combine one cup of the milk with sugar and vanilla extract. Heat it until it boils. Combine 1/4 cup of milk with the cornstarch. Add this to the boiling milk and cook until it thickens stirring constantly. Cover the surface with plastic wrap and let cool to room temperature.
  2. Prepare dough. Combine one egg, butter, honey, sugar and milk in a saucepan. Heat until all ingredients dissolve.
  3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt, cinnamon and baking powder. Add melted mixture to flour mixture and the remaining egg. Knead it until it forms a dough. 
  4. Divide dough into two equal parts. Roll each one out on a lightly floured surface as thin as possible.
  5. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet.
  6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 7-10 minutes. Make sure not to over bake. Let cool completely then cut each into equal pieces.
  7. While it is baking, beat softened butter for filling until it is fluffy. Then add to the cooled filling from step 1. Combine well (I beat them both with the mixer to combine). 
  8. To assemble, place a piece of the baked cake/biscuit and cover with half the filling. Put on second layer of cake and spread with jam (we used strawberry). Place third layer of cake. We spread this with blueberry jam and then covered with the rest of the filling. Top with final layer of cake.
  9. Place in refrigerator for a few hours. If you want to dust with powdered sugar and enjoy!
We could not wait to try it, so we did cut into it before the final refrigeration. However this was messy. The refrigerating helps the filling solidify a bit and hold everything together. We did not dust it with powdered sugar. Steve and I both like it a lot, but Hazel doesn't really like it. I was surprised since you taste so much of the jams and cinnamon. However Steve told me he really liked it. So that is our Croatian experience. Have you made a Croatian recipe? Or do you want to learn more about Croatia? Check out all these other great blogs posts or join us in the blog hop! The Croatian placemat is available here and the passport pages are here.


Around the World in 12 Dishes is hosted by 
Adventures In Mommydom, Afterschool for Smarty Pants, All Done Monkey, Crafty Moms Share, Glittering Muffins, Kid World Citizen, Mermaids' Makings, The Mommy Talks and The Usual Mayhem.
Don't forget to check out all the posts that get linked up for more great Croatian dishes and crafts!

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Happy Memorial Day--Patriotic Craft and Food Round-Up

As the United States pauses in its daily life to remember the brave who gave their lives for our country and those who are still fighting, I would like to take time to first thank all of our soldiers and their families who sacrifice so much for our freedom. I will also pause today to say a prayer for all of them and I hope you will join me.

As we are pausing in our daily life, I thought I would give you a round-up of our patriotic crafts and food.
1) Understanding the Pledge of Allegiance
2 & 3) Patriotic Wreaths
4) Changeable Felt Patriotic Wreath
5) Utensil Holders
6) Red, White and Blue Sugar Cookies shaped as Flags, Stars and the USA
7) Red, White and Blue Fruit Salad
8) Red, White and Blue Pancakes
9) Toddler Made Easy Patriotic Placemat
10) Flag Placemat
11) Wind Socks
12) Patriotic Candle Holders
13) Fireworks Crown
14) Rockets
15) States Frame
16) Shell Sailboats

 For more ideas check out:
I hope you have a safe and happy Memorial Day!! And please remember what the day is for and that it is not just about the barbeques!!
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