Ok another WAAAAAAY delayed post, no images just resources. (I fib, one image of a sari skirt I splurged on for this year’s wardrobe. The colours of India are AMAZING!) I am determined to get my bum in gear and get these posts up in a more timely manner. But for today, humble pie. I should have had this up half a year ago!!! Check back tomorrow as I continue to prove to my kids that even MOM finishes EVERYTHING (within reason…) she starts! 

So we had these grand plans to do a family project on India in a timely manner, oops. But we did spend a summer and then some learning about a very distinct and colourful country and I will try and share the links, books, etc that we used. And then I took a lifetime and a half to post this post

First off. Google is your friend. We spent a lot of time searching for pictures for topics to colour. Mandalas, saris, the Taj Mahal. There are all sorts of colouring pages out there.

Since my resource list is a bit weak this time around, here is the list of topics the kids chose from. I gave them the option to pick and chose and varied the expectations of report content and length according to each child. So Trinity would do a list of facts vs. Zander having paragraphs or Echo colouring a picture.

• Globe location
• Government – levels, type, capital, voting rights
• Country – independence, languages, time zones, founding, state/provinces
• Landscape – mountains, water bodies, landmarks, position on map
• Climate – seasons, one week of comparative weather, snow, natural disasters
• Animals – unique to country – we chose one to do a report on
• Plants – unique to country
• Agriculture – most prevalent and where
• Food – famous for
• Symbols/emblems – flag, official symbols
• Religions – main religions
• Currency – what is used, exchange rate to USD, when it came into use
• Main groups of people – who are they, caste system, poverty vs. rich numbers
• School – minimum grade required, types
• Inventions
• Imports/exports/economy – what are the main ones
• Sports – most popular
• Holidays – major holidays
• Music and crafts – most common, popular, make some
• Tourism/Famous people
• Choose a topic

Books were an important resource. Here is my short list. Libraries really are life saving

• India by Manina Chatterjee
• Focus on India by Bojang Brownlie
• Taj Mahal by Linda Tagliaferro
• India ABC’s by Marcie Aboff
• Welcome to India by Patric Ryan
• India by Don Nardo
• India by Joanne Mattern
• The Mauryan Empire and India by Ellis Roxburgh
• India by Julie Murray
• India by A. Kamala Dalal
• Living in India by Chloe Perkins

For a fun activity we tried out making Henna decorations on paper hands as explained by Activity Village HERE. Education.com is always a help HERE.  Beyond the Henna activity Activity Village has a whole selection of resources HERE.

September 19-20

Our first real friend sleep over was a success! It took the kids a while to fall asleep, of course, but in the end they all did. Trinity got to drag her princess couch into the boys’ room so that she was not left alone. I love how Quinn just fits in with all the kids…

Sleeping buddies

Steven came over late Tuesday night and slept over. It was fun sitting up and watching game shows with the guys… Family Feud and such. So when the kids woke up (and I was the first adult standing) and ate breakfast I let them know that Steven was here. The guys slept in, as did Zander of all people so it was just the 5 kids and myself up and playing. 

Breakfast with Quinn

So of course… trains! 

Trains!

And then there is time to play outside in the now cool morning air. I am amazed at how quickly it gets cool here, though by the afternoon it was gorgeous out!

Getting into trouble behind the cover of the tree?

And in the front in plain sight

After Steven and Quinn headed home (tired boy in tow) I checked the mail. There was a package in the post box for Echo from her Grandma. A special dolly handmade that is just like the one my mom had made for her by her mom. Something called a Golly-wog, but without the race connotation. It was a handmade dolly out of used items – a woman’s stocking and stuffed with socks. Also included was a letter explaining the dolly, a picture of my mom as a toddler with hers and a dress for her to grow into. Trinity is now talking about how grandma needs to make HER on. 

Hello dolly

A book I reviewed way back when called The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society mentions the doll on page 24 a comment on an urban dictionary noted. If you feel the urge look up the dolly but keep in mind the version my mom had and now Echo is not with the same connotation. In fact there is no bright red mouth on either… they are a simple handmade dolly. In fact, my mom still has hers and treasures it as a part of her mom and dad – Grandma used Grandpa and her socks to create it!! I think we need to come up with a new name. Something that is indicative of the love and self that is put into these two dolls… maybe a lovey doll or something? Ideas?

With dolly

Anyway we headed out to Jo-Ann’s again to look at yarn… I am determined to learn the Granny square and so we went to find something that I could start that with and then create a blanket or something out of later. Variegated of course so that I can get more skeins later to add to if I want it to be bigger than one ball can make. Oh and FINALLY the snaps to finish my original learning project – the headband. So here’s hoping once I get those snaps put in it will look as good as it does in my mind.

We have some great colouring pages to share… first off it is time to move into Fall… so of course back to Activity Village for their terrific fall themed images. The detail and the sweet scenes are a hit with our kids. You can find a choice of them HERE. Zander specifically asked me to print off something that would take him time to colour (now that is a totally NEW thing with him and a great show that his concentration and ability to sit still is growing!). I remembered the beautiful Mandala images I have seen and figured I would find an intermediate series he could pick from. You can find those HERE. We have started a folder of the coloured items… the day before it was dot to dots that you can find HERE. I want to keep things under control. If you let the kids colour and do these illustrations and not collect them in a single place you easily get overrun. And if I have learned anything from our lengthy adventure it is that it is not necessary to spread yourself thin. Instead, why not collect them all in a single book to page through whenever we want and if need be remove pieces to gift out. I really need to find a stack of binders somewhere!! They work much better for items you need to add and remove on a regular basis. 

His Mandala

Thursday was SUPPOSED to be the day that Nana and Baba returned from their 3 weeks in the Dominican. However, due to mechanical issues (a 2 hour wait on oil??) they ended up delayed to the point where they were not making to back to Minnesota until the next day. That gave us the whole day to clean up, finish projects and generally get ready… oh and ice the cake – for a belated birthday Baba cake. 

Farmer Boy

Emanuel and his penguin

We finally were able to coordinate getting Trinity’s hair washed and freshly brushed, some spare time and my wedding dress out in the front room to do up some photos. This was an idea I had seen on the internet… you dress your daughter up in your dress as a child and then save the picture for HER wedding. She was so excited to wear it and it was so fun to pull it back out and remember the day. I plan on doing a solo entry of the dress pictures later. But here is the teaser I posted on Facebook.

Our darling girl

It was so much fun, finishing reading the Farmer Boy book (FINALLY), continuing with Trinity’s letters… just generally getting things done. Though we realize that Zander really needs more time to learn his spelling words. I am  trying to get him unstuck from them having to be in a specific order.

Working hard on our learning