Mama Panya's Pancakes

One of the kid's favorite books this last month was Mama Panya's Pancakes.  This delightful book followed a boy and his mother as they left for market to buy ingredients for pancakes.  The peek into Kenyan village life was so engaging.  At the end of the book, it gave more information on what life is like in rural Kenyan villages.  We ended up going out and having races as the children love to do!

And of course, we had to try the recipe in the back of the book and make some of our own "Mama Panya" pancakes. 

I pride myself on being a fairly good cook.  Apparently when it comes to making crepe-style pancakes that does not hold true...

Here was my first attempt. (Talk about humbling...  It's not good when your four year old is looking quizzically at the blob and trying to imagine a pancake.)

The third and fourth attempt only marginally improved...

By this point the boys were getting anxious and excited when I finally figured out how to make them.  They eagerly prepared the mix-ins -frozen peas (a favorite of theirs and one of the few veggies I happened to have on hand that day), diced up meatballs, tuna and sliced bananas.  (Our favorite combination was the banana's + pancakes.)

Ever have that day where nothing really turns out as planned?  As if my failed attempts at pancake making weren't enough, when it was served, anticipation soon turned to this:

As you can see, we still need some work on doing all things without grumbling/whining and complaining... :)

Mama Panya's Pancakes weren't our only favorite.  Here are a few more from our explorations of the African Savannah!

We All Went On Safari ~ All three of the boys enjoyed this journey!  We discovered a bit about different animals in the Savannah.  This book was perfect because it had something for everyone.  Xander (6.5yo) loved trying to learn how to count to 10 in Swahili.  Keegan (4.5yo) enjoyed learning about the animals and trying to figure out which child pictured was counting.  Treyton (2.5) enjoyed working on some of his counting skills and trying to hide his favorite animal with his grubby little fingers!  In addition to the rhyming/counting section of the book, there was background information given on the Masai people and the animals.

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain ~ The boys adore this book.  We found it a garage sale and they were thrilled to discover that they didn't need to part with this book when everything else went back to the library.  This is another book that explores the animals of the Savannah.  The boys all loved practicing standing like the Masai herdsman.  It was fun to reinforce the same topic from different angles!

This Is the Tree ~ This is a book that delightfully illustrates the importance and majesty of the baobab tree.  As I mentioned previously, Keegan (4.5) was quite taken with this wonderful tree and its role in this region of the world.

My Rows and Piles of Coins ~ This was a tear-jerker (for mom).  The boys were immediately drawn into the story of a boy who saved the coins he received from helping his mother in hopes of buying a bicycle.  It was a great way to segue into a discussion on poverty and how differently most of the world lives.  With renewed gratefulness they went out and rode their bikes afterwards.

Beatrice's Goat ~ This was another wonderful book that beautifully communicated the high value of much less.  It is about the transformation of one family's fortune after receiving the gift of a goat.  For those that like to donate money towards buying livestock for those in third-world countries, this will help your kids understand what an impact that can have on a family and a village.

Honey... Honey... Lion! ~ This tale is just a whole lot of fun.  My children love everything they've read by Jan Brett and this book was no exception.  They've already asked if we could check this book out again!

Jubela ~ Another tear-jerker (for mom) with a happy ending about the rare occurrence of a baby rhino who was adopted by an older female.

Learning Rewards...

Learning enriches our lives. By that I mean that it makes everyday interactions more enjoyable!  

I experienced that this last fall when my Bible study group was going over Daniel.  That one highschool year of delving deep into ancient world history paid off in huge dividends as we explored the book of Daniel in depth.  I was just amazed as I unpacked all of the biblical prophecies about the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek and Roman empires.  Because I already had a rich understanding of these cultures, it made the comprehension and appreciation for what God spoke to Daniel so much easier to understand.  'A-ha' moments galore!

One of my top academic goals is to instill in our children a love of learning.  If they have the inner drive to want to learn, to thirst for knowledge, it is going to be so much easier to equip them with the skills to feed this drive.  And once that is accomplished, they will be set for a life-long exciting journey of discovery and application!

The wonderful thing is that we get to taste some of those sweet rewards of our learning adventures even now at these young ages...

I've had books relating to Africa lying around the house for the last two months. With all of our travel, theater performances and then sickness we sort of meandered through them. But the week after Christmas brought the payoff!

After a morning of reading through some of our favorite books on the African Savannah (countries of Kenya and Tanzania) I rewarded them with a movie night! I could not believe how much more they enjoyed The Lion King after we had read books on the region.

Keegan squealed with delight when he saw Rafiki (which we discovered means 'friend' in Swahili) climbing around in the Baobab tree. He was delighted because he KNEW what kind of tree that was and why it was so important to animals in the Savannah.   The excitement was almost tangible as each of the boys spotted things in the movie and made connections because of their newly acquired knowledge of the African Savannah!  It really enhanced their experience.

Being a mom is a lot of work.  And being their primary teacher to boot makes the job even more intense.  But the rewards are so sweet.  Getting to sit back and watch my kids make those connections and enjoy life more because of what they've learned was the adrenaline rush I needed to plan out and keep going strong on this wonderful adventure of learning together!

Pinning Down Africa!

As is beautifully demonstrated in the book, Africa Is Not A Country, Africa is pretty much impossible to pin down in a neat little one-dimensional box.

But that didn't keep us from pinning it down in the most literal of ways!  We found these fun little cork tiles at the craft store and had fun making a perforated outline of Africa.  This Montessori-inspired activity was a great way to work on coordination, concentration, fine-motor skills and strengthening the muscles used with handwriting.  My boys were focused.  I think we'll definitely be delving into this a bit more...  (More info and ideas on how to incorporate pin-punching can be found here.)   

While we were at it, I was able to talk with them about the various geographical features of Africa - the Horn of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, fingering where the Nile flows, etc.  We also talked about the areas that we were touching on during this exploration of Africa - the Sahara, Egypt and the Savannah.  It is amazing how much they can absorb while their hands are kept busy!

The boys were so inspired by their punched out Africa pictures, that we used one to cut out a patch for one of the many holes that are accruing on little boy jeans.  We'll see how that works out...

I will tell you about our adventures in the African Savannah tomorrow, but for now here are some of our favorite books dealing with the Sahara and Egypt.

This Is The Oasis ~ This was a beautiful picture that depicted life in the Sahara and emphasized the importance of the oasis.  It brought back wonderful memories of my explorations of Africa as a girl when we dressed up as nomadic Tuareg and slept in a different spot every night for a week!

 

Ali, Child of the Desert ~ This book tells the story of a boys journey from his oasis to Morocco to trade.  I love narratives like this that teach so much just through the course of the story.  Again, we consulted our globe and found the region that the Sahara covers as well as Morocco!  Having ridden camels over Christmas with their Oma, they really got into the story and placed themselves in it!

We're Sailing Down the Nile ~ Everyone enjoyed this.  In fact, I went up to watch my sisters children one morning and while my boys were too enthralled with new toys to want me to read to them, my niece (almost 3) and nephew (18m) sat with rapt attention while I read this book.

 

The Prince of Egypt ~ We learned about Moses by reading various books we had around the house and then topped it off with this movie.  While it is not 100% biblically accurate, it was a visual feast for the eyes of life in Pharaoh's court.

We certainly didn't do an in-depth study, but this skimming was a perfect introduction to this beautiful continent.

Related Africa posts: Mama Panya's Pancakes

Mapping the Mayflower

Since we have been exploring world geography for the last several months, we decided to pull out our Global Twister map and chart the path the Mayflower took.  There is something magical about getting to 'experience' that trip for themselves.  As they grabbed their walnut Mayflower ships, we talked about how the pilgrims left England for Holland (to escape religious persecution), but then left Holland (because they were losing their kids to the secular culture) and departed for the new world, etc...

It is amazing how raptly they listen so they can re-enact the journey! 

Of course, this turned into an impromptu review of all we've learned as they wanted to sail all over the world.  They were turned loose for some exploratory free play!  It is amazing to watch children's minds busy at work while they play.  What a wonderful, painless way to review and solidify what they've learned!

And of course, we couldn't put the map away...

...without playing some Global Twister!

Related Posts:

Going Global

(including how we play our Global Twister game)

Global Twister - tutorial

All Geography Posts

Walnut Mayflower tutorial

Check out all of our Thanksgiving related posts as well as many others at:

Keeping it Simple

As many of you know, we've been traveling all over the world learning about countries, cultures and geography.  It's been fun.  I feel that it is important to make learning hands-on.   We crawl all over our maps, dress-up, incorporate imaginative play, try to walk in their shoes and create with our hands.  Getting to experience what they are learning about with their whole bodies is so important.  Not only is it fun, it really helps solidify what they are learning about.  But there are seasons where that just doesn't happen...

I had the grandest plans when we were going into our study of India last month.  But life is never predictable and our explorations of India were a lot less hands-on than I had planned.   My idea to make montessori smelling bottles using Indian spices(and Asian spices in general) never worked out and I quit after the 3rd attempt...  We discovered that our family only likes curry in moderation and my attempt at making Naan just wasn't as tasty as what we could buy frozen at Lee Lee's. (Although I'm tempted to try it again after finding this recipe.)

But oh, the books.  We loved the books on this region of the world and enjoyed our internet tour of India via Sonlight's My Passport to India.

So much learning happens just by reading great books on the couch.  But more than that, relationships are deepened.  I have the fondest memories of curling up with my mom on the couch and diving into book after book.  And I feel warm all over as I cherish every moment I get to curl up with my boys doing the very same thing!  Reading and then discussing what we've read is something that can be done at any season...  We read countless books when I was on bedrest with my third.  And lately, it's been our go-to during our latest trial.  It is amazing how something so simple can reap so many benefits! 

In liu of any fun activities to inspire you, I decided to simply share some of our couch-time favorites with you all.

The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story ~ I love to read chapter books to the boys.  Surprisingly, despite the 'old English' language, the bigger boys loved this book.  The "thee's and thou's" didn't seem to phase them and they were quickly caught up into the life of little Mowgli!   We loved the illustrations in this one too! 

The Story of Little Babaji ~ Everyone loved this adorable book, even my two year old.  (He pretty well has the story memorized.)  They really could identify with the protaganist in this story.  It is the story of a young Indian boy who wears his new clothes that his mother and father put together and how he cleverly uses them to escape hungry tigers... 

Heart of a Tiger ~ My 4 year old is my animal lover.  This was his favorite book of the bunch.  This delightful tale brings some of the animals of India to life and explored life in rural India.

Monsoon ~ Since we just finished our monsoon season here, the boys found they could really relate to the anticipation of the summer rains as the girl in this book did.  It gave a glimpse of middle-class city life in India.

The Road to Mumbai ~ This fanciful story follows a girl on her make-believe journey with her stuffed animal monkey to the city of Mumbai.  The boys loved hearing about their escapades and the people and animals they met on the way.

Mama's Saris ~ This one was my favorite.  The boys humored me by letting me read it to them.  For those of you with daughters, I highly recommend this book of a girl who longs to be just like her mama.  It explores the meaning of sari's and when and why they chose different one's.

One Grain Of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale ~ This was another favorite of mine.  Unfortuntately it got stuck under a pile of books and we didn't really get to explore it very much.  It incorporates rich vocabulary and cultural aspects with a simple exploration of the consequences of not understanding the concept of doubling. A resourceful village girl outsmarts a greedy raja, turning a reward of one grain of rice into a feast for a hungry nation.