Crafty Moms Share

Book Review: Everyone Prays by Alexis York Lumbard

Source of Prayer for USA Photograph: By Harley Pebley (Flickr: Prayer for USA)
[CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Disclosure: Wisdom Tales gave me a copy of this product free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today is the Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Having many Jewish friends, my Facebook feed has been filled with Happy New Year comments the past couple of days. Happy New Year and best wishes for the new year to all who are celebrating! (The holiday started Wednesday night at sundown.) Hazel goes to a Christian school, and we are very active at our church. This summer she learned The Lord's Prayer and is pretty good at saying it without too much help. We talk about praying all the time as well as other religions. One of her good friends is half Jewish, so she always asks questions about Judaism.

With all of this on my mind I thought today was a great day to share this wonderful book, Everyone Prays: Celebrating Faith Around the World by Alexis York Lumbard and illustrated by Alizreza Sadeghian. This book is beautiful. It has colorful illustrations representing people all over the world. The text itself is simple and leads to discussion and questions. It is the perfect introduction for children to other religions and the fact that many of the world religions pray to the same God.

In the appendix is a few sentences about each religion mentioned in the book. It includes how long the religion has been practiced, where they worship, who they follow and who started it, etc.

Source: Wisdom Tales

The book itself shows the many differences in the world and religions yet also shows how we are the same. In this day of violence claimed to be due to religion, it is important for us to realize how similar we all are and our religions are. This book does this in a basic way that is easy for young children to understand. The book is aimed at 4- to 8-year-olds and was released in March. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to help their child understand some connections between the religions and understand some differences.

Around the World In 12 Dishes: Vietnam Part 2: Grilled Lemon Grass Beef

We made one more Vietnamese dish last week. This one needed to marinate for at least four hours, so we did it on a different day. I found the recipe in Cooking the Vietnamese Way by Chi Nguyen and Judy Monroe.

Hazel helped me make the marinade and soak the skewers. First we had fun with the lemon grass sticks though. We played air drums with them.

We pretended they were rhythm sticks.

And we gave ourselves bunny ears.

Then it was on to cutting, measuring and mixing. The recipe called for two lemon grass sticks. I don't know if mine were too big or what, but it was definitely too much. The marinade was overtaken by the lemon grass. I put the lemon grass and garlic into the food processor to get them small enough.

Grilled Lemon Grass Beef or Bo Nuong Xa adapted from Cooking the Vietnamese Way

1 1/2 lb. sirloin tip, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon pepper
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 teaspoons sesame seeds
2 stems lemon grass, finely chopped (I would only use one next time)
Bamboo Skewers
Optional: 2 teaspoons chopped scallions or fresh mint for garnish

1) Mix the sirloin, sugar, soy sauce, pepper, garlic, sesame seeds, and lemon grass together. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

2) Soak the bamboo skewers in water while the meat marinates.

3) Preheat oven to broil or start grill.

4) Thread beef slices onto skewers accordion-style. Broil or grill for 6 to 8 minutes, turning often so they are cooked evenly.

5) Serve hot and garnish with mint and/or scallions.

Steve and I liked it. Steve really seemed to like it. Hazel thought it was all right, but I think she would have liked it with less lemon grass.

Around the World in 12 Dishes is hosted by these lovely blogs:

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

I hope you will take the time to check them all out and check out everyone's great explorations of Vietnam. If you have a Vietnamese dish or craft or lesson, please share it here as well!! The Vietnamese placemat and passport pages are coming soon for help with extra learning about the country.

For more posts about Vietnam check out:

Lunar New Year and The Golden Slipper: A Vietnamese Cinderella, and Beef Pho and Banana Coconut Che

Hispanic Heritage Month Celebrating with Music--Celia Cruz and Musical Crafts & Giveaway!!

As Hispanic Heritage Month continues on, we are sharing what we have been doing to learn more about Hispanic Music. A few years ago we made maracas, guiro, and a cajita based on Daria Marmaluk-Hajioannou's tutorials. We also made zampoñas and a rainstick previously (thanks to Daria). This year we got a free copy of Daria's latest e-book: 10 Musical Crafts to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage. You can get a free copy this month on her Monthly Song Page (and scroll down to enter a great giveaway). After this month you can purchase a copy on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Have you entered the amazing giveaway for Hispanic Heritage Month yet? There are multiple prizes packs and lots of chances!!

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week and to everyone who visited others posts. We did not have a most clicked so our features this week are based on Autumn, Child Activities and Crafts and a few of my Favorites.

Autumn Features

1) From MultiCraftingMummy: Autumn Owl Collages

2) From I Heart Crafty Things: Apple Tree Craft for Preschoolers

3) From Dabblingmomma: Acorn Cap Jewels

4) From Powerful Mothering: Easy Fall Tree Activity

5) From Every Star Is Different: Fall Kick-off Birthday Party (Pumpkin Bowling Shown)

Child Activities and Crafts

1) From Best Toys for Toddlers: Teddy Bear Race Game for Toddlers

2) From Super Duper Kids Blog: How to Make an American Girl Sleeping Bag

3) From Wesens-Art: Stamping with Kids/ How to Make Mini Ink Pads

4) From Planet Smarty Pants: Encouraging Our Kids to Tinker

A Few of My Favorites

1) From April's Homemaking: Simple Sunday School Creation Story

2) From Happy Whimsical Hearts: How to Make a Rainbow Peg Doll

3) From Wugs and Dooey: The Parable of the Sower Small World Play

4) From Moore Babies: Girly Pirate Party (Treasure Hunt Shown)

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.

Featured Button Code:

From Your Hostess: This week we shared our cherry exploration and end of our Japan exploration, our post about Juan Quezada to kick off the Hispanic Heritage Month and it includes the Multicultural Kid Blogs Hispanic Heritage Month Giveaway, our Vietnamese cooking for Around the World in 12 Dishes and a review of a soon-to-be-released book with CD, Korean Folk Tales. We have had a very multicultural week!!

Now for This Week's Party

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Korean Folk Songs --Book with CD Review

Have you entered the amazing giveaway for Hispanic Heritage Month yet? There are multiple prizes packs and lots of chances!!

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today we are continuing our Korean exploration. We explored Korea a bit with Around the World in 12 Dishes last year and with Kongi and Potgi: A Korean Cinderella. I am finding that although Hazel has an excellent memory in many ways, she does not always remember what we have done or learned. I know repetition is needed for this, so we are revisiting Korea. To kick it off again we are reviewing a wonderful book that comes with a CD. It is Korean Folk Songs by Rober Sang-Ung Choi and Samee Back. It is being released on October 14, 2014. Tuttle Publishing was kind enough to send me a review copy.

Now one of the things I love about this book is the little introduction to each song. The introductions teach a bit about Korea and what life is and was like there through the songs. We learn about the Korean's love of nature and their natural heritage. We also hear a bit about the wars, occupation and life during those. For example there is a sad song, "Thinking of Older Brother," or "Obba Saenggak," that has sad words but a very happy tune since the Japanese prohibited negative or depressings songs during their occupation. The words are about wondering what happened to a girl's older brother went to buy her shoes but never returned.

"Kikyo 06c1340sc". Licensed under
CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

There is another song called "Doraji". Doraji is the Korean word for Chinese Bellflower (pictured above). It grows in the mountainous areas of Asia and its roots have medicinal properties. In Korea the root is also eaten in salads and soups.

I highly recommend this book to explore the music of Korea and to learn more about the land and people of Korea. It is a perfect introduction to this culture. To see some of the pages and hear some parts of the songs check out the video above.

For more posts about Korea check out:

Global Culture
Korean Doll She is pictured to the right.
Kongi and Potgi: A Korean Cinderella
Chap ch'ae
Lunar New Year
Asian Crafts
Asian Pacific Islander Book Round-Up
Asian Kites (another great Tuttle Publishing book)
My Multicultural Resources Pinterest Board