In His Hands: United States

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Next stop:  United States!

OK – so this isn’t technically a trip for us.  We live here.  But it technically is the most challenging country to condense in a short trip, because there are a zillion activities we could be doing.

Music.  For this one, we read a couple of books that inspired some YouTube searches.

• This Land is Your Land by Woody Guthrie
• America the Beautiful by Katharine Lee Bates

Flag.  Three years ago, we made a fun July 4th lapbook and my favorite US flag craft:

I didn’t want to replicate the same design, so I gave Esmé a simple US dot art flag printable to work on…

Which she quickly made into her own design:

Food.  What’s more American than hot dogs?!  With a side of baked beans and potato salad?

Since Esmé said she’d boycott the apple pie, we went with pumpkin instead.  After all, Thanksgiving is a totally American holiday…

Craft.  There were a zillion ideas that crossed my mind, but I decided none was as American as this, the bald eagle…

To start with, we gathered supplies: two brown lunch bags, a piece of white construction paper, a pencil, a yellow and a brown marker, scissors and tape (or glue).

I cut eagle wings from one of the brown bags and tail feathers from the white paper.  Esmé was responsible for the eagle head – using white paper, coloring the yellow beak, and texturizing by cutting a small fringe around it.  I think she did a fabulous job!

Once it was all glued together (we taped the tail feathers so they could go in either direction), Esmé created “texture” with a brown marker all over the front of the eagle and its wings.

And here it is, ready for flight!

And that concludes our U.S. expedition!  I think we’re heading across the ocean next – but which one?!

“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

In His Hands: Canada

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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!

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.

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.

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

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!

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

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

and then sampling things every step of the way.

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.  

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!

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

“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