The next few weeks, the kids and I are going to explore the world…in our imaginations. Our “travels” will be the next few blogs. I’ll probably do one or two more depending on how much the kids and I are enjoying it.
One of the things that I’ve always dreamed of doing with my kids was to pick a country and have everyone in the family research that country and bring one interesting factoid about it to dinner. My factoid would always be the food. That way we could eat some version of authentic food (or as close as I could come to cooking it) and talk about a new country and their culture. Maybe I’d have everyone pick a category each time, like music or famous people or current events or whatever so everyone didn’t bring the same piece of info. Before my husband and I had kids, we used to love learning new languages together (Italian, Japanese, etc.) and then travelling to that country to try out our newfound language and experience the culture of that location. By the way, our goal, language-wise, was never proficiency. We just wanted to be able to find our way around and order food once we got there. I miss having my house stickered with the foreign words for everything and sitting down with our “Learn X in 60 minutes a day” books laughing and learning with my hubby with an impending adventure on the horizon. So I’ve created a modified, toddler friendly attempt to regain that fun.
Imagining Italy
We start by heading to our library upstairs and looking at the giant map of the Earth on the wall. I point out each continent and talk a little bit about things of interest on that continent. I show them where Italy is and tell them that Mommy and Daddy honeymooned in Venice, Florence, and Rome.
We also found the Italian flag on my World Flags poster, which Abby ripped off the wall. Briana likes it more than our flag because “the Italy flag looks pretty much easier to draw than our one.”, which she proved to be true by bringing home two pieces of artwork (one drawn, one glued scraps of paper) that were the Italian flag from school the next day. Sadly, Abby shredding them while I was trying to take pics, but Bree did a really great job from memory.
I got out my scrapbook of our honeymoon and started showing them pictures of Italy. We talked about the Coliseum, the Pantheon, Vatican City, the rivers of Venice, and the great shopping in Florence, “where Mommy’s earrings and necklace are from” (I had planned to let the kids wear those pieces and a few others from Italy, but at the last minute decided that I liked them all too much to risk having the kids wreck them so I just picked out 2 and wore them myself), and lots of other places with pictures of us posing in front of them. Briana says that we should all go to Italy together, and I say that we will go in our imaginations right now. Briana also says that she’ll need to get more skirts before we can go for real because she has noticed that I very rarely wore pants or jeans before kids and am in a skirt or dress in almost every picture.
If you’ve ever been to the grocery store with two toddlers, you understand why I wished that I had just waited to bring up Italy until tomorrow. I had planned to go grocery shopping tonight after Matt got home and then start our “Italian vacation”, but the kids were all excited after I prepped them with the map, so I decided to capitalize on the excitement and start now. So off to the grocery store we go to get some cheese and pepperoni to make homemade pizza. I already had the sauce and dough – actually it was getting the dough from our veggie delivery company that precipitated our starting in Italy. I tell the kids that we’re are going to make our very own pizza because pizza comes from Italy. Secretly I hope that our pizza comes out because my culinary skills are questionable and I’ve rarely worked with any dough that wasn’t labeled “break and bake”.
The whole way to the store and back we listen to the Tarantella. Briana loves the Tarantella. She was surprised to learn that it was from Italy, “Just like pizza! Italy is very fun isn’t it?” While in the grocery store’s shopping cart car, my girls wave and say “Hi! We’re driving to Italy to get some pizza!” to EVERYONE we pass. Most people think it’s cute and smile or talk to the kids, who happily tell them all about our pizza making plans and/or about Italy. Some people do not think it’s cute, and they glare at me for having to listen to the sweet voices of my very well behaved (for today at least) kids. :P Such is the grocery store.
When we get back, I let Bree pick between La Traviata and the Barber of Seville. The kids and I love opera so she was familiar with both. She picked La Traviata…yeah!...one of my favorites. We blast it while we cook our pizza and sing “libiamo, libiamo!” Yes, I do know what that translates too and the context it is being sung in, but the kids don’t. In most cases I only tell them the broad strokes of an opera’s plot (like, “La Traviata is a love story about a girl named Violetta and her prince, Alfredo, who can’t be together and then finally do get to be together”) because, well, when the big part of the plot revolves around an unmentionable “career” and it’s disdain from his family, likely resultant disease, and subsequent death, what else am I supposed to tell a 2 and 3 year old? The music is nonetheless beautiful and sets the mood for our day in Italy.
Bree works hard rolling out the dough. For fun I throw it up into the air a couple of times. If you’ve never tried it, it’s much harder than it looks on tv.
Then we poke holes in the dough and bake it. Bree paints the dough with sauce and I add some secret ingredients (garlic, tiny bit of olive oil, and later Italian herb seasoning). Briana and Abby both add the cheese and pepperoni.
It turned out quite delicious and much easier to make than I thought!
Creating China
A few days later we head to China. I have never actually been to China, sadly, but I have lots of great cocktail rings (and pics) from there thanks to my friend, Tiana, who was there on business recently. Hmm…I’m seeing a trend…a jewelry world tour – Matt?! J
I tell the kids that in China they call their kings, emperors, “So, Little Emperors, we’re going to China today.” We go to the map and I point out China. As soon as I say, “This is China, guys!”, Abby says, “Kai-Lan is in China!” Kai-Lan is a character in a cartoon that they like (Ni Hao Kai-Lan) So I ask the kids what else is in China. Abby answers, “Hoho. Tolee.” (the names of characters in the show). When pushed they remember more things from the show, “Pandas are in China.”, says Bree. “Dragaba racing” (dragon boat races, in Abigail’s diction). “So sad. Rintoo cryin’.” Abby adds, to which Briana sings “we gotta gotta try…to find the reason why”. Ok, I think we’re at the end of the brainstorm. I add that there are more people in China than anywhere else and that they have a Great Wall that is considered one of the wonders of the world and can be seen from space. I have some other facts that I save for later. We find China’s flag on the poster and head downstairs.
Since everyone is still singing Kai-Lan songs, and lamenting multiple things that have happened to the characters from multiple different episodes (“Kai-Lan fell down”, “YeYe’s cake broke”, “Rintoo’s crying”, etc.), I concede that we can start our Chinese adventure by watching an episode of the apparently tragic Kai-Lan.
After we get Kai-Lan out of our systems, I tell the kids that most of their toys were made in China. I show them how to find the “Made in China” on things, mostly so that they will recognize the word “china” if not remember how to spell it. Then we go to the princess room (mostly because there are less toys there and I don’t want to unearth everything in one of the playrooms) and hunt for toys made in China. The kids are really excited about China now that they have discovered that the wonderful people of China are responsible for both the princess shoes and the princess vanity.
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| Bree looking for the words "made in China", Abby doing her own thing. |
After the hunt, we sit down and look at pictures of the Great Wall of China on the Nook.
Then we build our own Great Wall of Legos.
For dinner we go to P.F. Chang’s. Now I know that this is the Chinese equivalent of taking your grandmother from Italy to the Olive Garden, but the next best option given my culinary limitations was going to be a store bought, frozen stir fry, so I think P.F. Chang’s wins. The kids love the giant horses in the front. They do not love having to be quiet in the restaurant. We don’t love their behavior so we eat our Chinese food at home. On the plus side, the kids really like Chinese food. Before we leave though I do get to tell my favorite story about the origin of tea,
“Legend has it that tea originated in 2737 B.C. Emperor Shen Nung of China, a scientist, and a germaphobe, began requiring that all of his drinking water be boiled for hygienic reasons. One day leaves from a nearby Camellia sinensis bush (now called the tea bush) fell into his cauldron of boiling water and the resultant water turned brown. The mixture smelled enticing and, as a scientist, Shen Nung was curious about the taste of the transformed water so he drank it and loved it. And tea was discovered.
It is also thought that Shen Nung was a mythological character. Shennong was the name of a farming tribe in China that researched medicinal properties of local herbs, among other things. The Shennong chieftain (or a group of Shennong) wrote a book called the ‘Shennong Bencao Jing’ or ‘Shennong Emperor’s Classic of Materia Medica’, which was misinterpreted to be written by a man named Shen Nong and not the Shennong tribe chieftain or a group of Shennong. The medicinal properties of tea leaves were supposedly detailed in this book.” An excerpt from a book I wrote on tea a while ago. Don’t ask…I have weird hobbies.
The Federated States of Micronesia
For our final stop on this week’s tour, I get out the flags poster and ask Briana to pick out her favorite flag. She picks the Federated States of Micronesia. Abby says, "I like a dis one. Dis one. Dis one...." and points to lots of different flags, so we go with Briana's pick.
Awesome. I know nothing about the Federated States of Micronesia. I guess letting her pick randomly wasn’t the best plan. So I stall and tell the kids that tomorrow we’ll talk about Micronesia. Then after they go to bed, I get on Google.
I feel bad because apparently 4 four island-states that comprise Micronesia speak English (along with 6 additional national languages) and use the US dollar. I feel like I probably should have know that. Whoops. 4 states and 7 national languages?! They are located SW of Hawaii. Financial assistance from the US is the primary source of revenue. Diving is the main tourist attraction. By the way, all of my facts on Micronesia come from a combo of their tourist page and Wikipedia.
So we talk about islands as we drive to school. An island is a body of land surrounded by water. “Do they swim to school?” No, the school is on the land part. “Do they get to wear bathing suits to school?” No, they wear clothes like we do. Both kids had lots of questions about island life – all revolving around when you get to swim and when you get to wear bathing suits, though there were also a few about talking fish friends. I think the kids are ready for summer to get here.
I also tell them that we send money sometimes to help Micronesia because they are our friends. Briana says, “We need to go right to the post office after school and send them one of my credit cards (ie. Claire’s gift cards). The poor girls in Micronesia don’t have any earrings because I didn’t send them any credit cards.” My sweet, tenderhearted girl! I think she's getting the feeling that we are the world/ we are the ones to make a brighter day so let's start giving. :)
Who knows where we’re headed next….
<3 Pedigreed Housewife
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