Tuesday, July 17, 2012

In His Hands: Canada

I’ve been promising a trip around the globe for a while now, and I’ve just never had time to plan appropriately.  So we’re gonna jet off anyway – zigzag it wherever our nose takes us – and hopefully we’ll be able to buy toothbrushes and anything else we forgot along the way due to our lack of planning…

First stop on our virtual journey this year:  Canada!

Canada

National Anthem.  To get in the right frame of mind, we watched this version of O Canada from the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games on YouTube.  Amongst other things, it triggered discussion of Olympics, RCMP, some boisterous singing, and the Canadian flag.

Lapbook.  Since it was our very first stop, we spent a bit more time on it than we plan to on other countries, starting off with a lovely free Canada lapbook from Homeschool Share resources.

Lapbook

Flag.  The back of the lapbook became the flag.  Using a red background, tape to make straight lines between the red and white, and a maple leaf cutout that was removed after painting, I showed Esmé where to paint white.

Flag1

She, of course, decided to create her own smiley-faced variation of the flag.  Nothing is sacred… :)

Flag

Food.  We decided to make a maple-themed plate – with pierogies cut into a maple leaf shape and a ketchup maple leaf drawn on a veggie-chicken patty.  Forgive my terrible artistic skills!

Maple Leaf Meal

The grand finale:  Nanaimo bars – a 3-layer sugary chocolaty concoction. 

Esmé set the trend by eating graham crackers instead of smooshing them,

Nanaimo Bar2

and then sampling things every step of the way.

Nanaimo Bar1

We travel through Nanaimo every time we visit my parents, so there’s a slight bit of heritage there – but I must admit these bars bring on terrible guilt feelings.  Not something we’ll make every day.  

Nanaimo Bar

Craft.  A frequent sight in the Pacific Northwest – even more so in British Columbia – is the totem pole.  We decided to make one with a paper towel roll, using some of the totem printables here.  After discussing how animals on the totem poles have specific meanings, she chose the fox and the monkey for her pole.  I somehow find both VERY appropriate for her!

Totem Pole

And that concludes our journey into Canada!  Who knows where we’ll land up next?!

In His Hands Button

“Carrying the cross was too hard for Jesus.  But He can carry the world in His hands.  That means the cross is much bigger than the world!” ~Esmé, age 4

3 comments:

Ticia said...

I love her flag.

Unknown said...

I had to check out the ingredients of that dessert out of curiosity. I can understand the guilt, lol but it must taste amazing :-). What a fun journey! I should think about doing something like this with Wesley. He is obsessed with maps and geography right now.

RockerMom said...

Very cool! We'll be starting our journey soon.