Virtual Flat Stanley in the Netherlands

So last week I introduced our Virtual Flat Stanley Series. Flat Stanley is based on the book, Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. There are now a series of these easy reader books about a boy named Stanley who is made flat when a bulletin board falls on him during the night. He is flat and small enough to be mailed in an envelope to travel.

Now this series began because my aunt emailed me a couple of weeks ago to help her step-granddaughter with her school Flat Stanley project. The Flat Stanley template they mailed to England never got returned, so she had nothing for the project. Since I live in the same state, I thought it might be fun for her to have some from around the world--even if they were just pictures due to time constraints. I e-mailed a few blogger friends and got a few responses. Now we are opening it up to anyone who wants to participate. You can get more information here.

Today Flat Stanley is in the Netherlands!

The first person who responded to my request was from E Strea Chikitu in the Netherlands. For those who have not had the pleasure of visiting this wonderful blog, you will often see her beautiful creations there--often crocheted and she even gives the patterns sometimes. Oh, how I wish I could crochet better. I may attempt it again after seeing her beautiful creations.

Now some information about this particular Flat Stanley:

On April 30th our queen handed over her crown to her oldest son. And so we have a new King this week.Our oldest daughter gave Stanley woodden shoes and Dutch National colors so he will be ready to celebrate The Crowningsday.Stanley is in our front yard with Rozemarijn. We put out the flag since it's our new Kings birthday today.

This picture is for the prince becoming king.

You can see more pictures of honoring the new king at E Chikitu Strea .

Hazel and I wanted to explore The Netherlands a bit more. After all the whole point of this series to learn more about other places. Luckily we had a few books from the library and found some crafts and coloring pages at DLTK's Crafts for Kids. The first book we have out is Easy Breakfasts From Around the World by Sheila Griffin Llanas. Now we had this book for Around the World in 12 Dishes, so you will see it again soon as we do our post about Finland.

This book is wonderful because it gives a little introduction to each country and then an easy recipe for a breakfast there. So our breakfast from the Netherlands was Anijsmelk and Hagelslag. Anijsmelk is warm milk flavored with anise seeds and honey or sugar. Hazel loved it!! I was actually surprised at how good it was since I am not usually a fan of anise seeds. Then Hagelslag is toast with chocolate sprinkles on it. Now we didn't have any chocolate sprinkles, but we had leftover Christmas sprinkles so we used those.

We also had some Gouda cheese. We made Hazel's toast and cheese into butterflies. We happened to use whole wheat cinnamon raisin bread for the toast. Oh, and we cut up some apple since breakfast in our house is not complete without some fruit.

Crushing the Anise Seeds

Hazel enjoyed playing chef. We made this when she stayed home with a cold the other day, so it gave her something fun to do in the morning.

Stirring the Anijsmelk

Spreading butter on the toast

Her favorite part was of course putting on the sprinkles. I have to admit we had red and green sprinkles all over our kitchen after this breakfast.

We also wanted to learn a bit about the culture. We did some coloring pages where we saw the wooden clogs similar to the ones on Flat Stanley as well as windmills and tulips. Plus of course a map and a flag.

We also made a windmill from a toilet paper roll. We got his craft from DLTK.

Steven was surprised when Hazel told him about the windmills in the Netherlands. 

We also took out of the library Birthdays Around the World by Mary D. Lankford. Now since one of Hazel's dolls or stuffed animal has a birthday every day, we can say she loves birthdays. So I thought she might enjoy hearing some of the customs in other countries. This book gives a little introduction about each country as well. For example it tells us at The Netherlands means the low lands. It also goes into how the windmills were used to pump water from the land. Now they use diesel and electric pumps.

In the Netherlands, the family often decorates a birthday chair. They may use garland called slingers. The birthday child often gets to choose the food for the evening meal and stays up later than usual. Traditionally they have very rich and elaborate pastries called gebakjes. A birthday cake is served without candles. For a very large or special birthday they may have an ice cream cake. A game often played at a party is Koekhappen. Children are blindfolded and try to eat a soft cookie hanging on a string. Another traditional birthday game is Zacdoekje Leggen or Drop the Handkerchief. Children sit in a circle and one child is It. The It child walks around the circle and if they catch someone not paying attention they drop the handkerchief behind that child and then that child has to chase the It child around the circle. If they tag the It child they get to sit back down, but if the It child makes it back to the empty spot in the circle, the new child is It. Editorial Note: I have been informed that the family with this wonderful Flat Stanley does put candles in the birthday cakes.

So that is what we learned while Flat Stanley is in the Netherlands. We hope you will join us next week to see where Flat Stanley is visiting.

Flat Stanley's Travels

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures: Sukey and the Mermaid

This week we will be looking at an American version of Cinderella. Sukey and the Mermaid by Robert San Souci is a different version of Cinderella taking place in South Carolina. In the author's note he comments that it is a brief fragment of Elsie Clew Parson's Folk-Lore of the Sea Islands, South Carolina published in 1923. He also states that it is one of the authenticated African-American folktales involving mermaids. He also searched for more complete narratives. In Caribbean folklore "Pretty Jo" or "Mama Jo" is derived from "Mama Dio" or water mother, a term for mermaid. Since he did not find the root tale in the Caribbean, he looked at African tales and believes this is a West African tale. Now again, this is a very different version of Cinderella and is not your typical story involving a prince, etc.

Source

South Carolina is a southern state. It was the eighth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution in 1788. It was the first state to secede from the Union for the start of the Civil War and rejoined the Union in 1868. It is the 40th most extensive and the 24th most populous of the 50 states. The state capital is Columbia.

Source

King Charles II of England gave eight aristocrats a charter to settle Carolina, which means Charles Land in Latin. It was so named for King Charles' father. Carolina did not develop as planned and split into two colonies due to political reasons.

Some interesting more recent history of South Carolina is it was one of several states to reject the 19th Amendment (the right for women to vote). It later ratified it in 1969. South Carolina is one of three states that refuses to use competitive international math and language standards. South Carolina has the highest rate of strokes in the United States. South Carolina is the only state to own and operate its own fleet of school buses. (Source)

Now onto our book. This story is about a young girl named Sukey. She lives in a run down cabin with her mother and stepfather, Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones does not work and forces her to work. He yells at her to work more and not to take breaks. Sukey spends her days hoeing the vegetable garden. One day when Mr. Jones is not looking, Sukey sneaks off and runs to the coast where there is a white sand beach. It is her secret spot. She sings a song she heard somewhere which calls for Mama Jo. Mama Jo, a mermaid appears. Sukey has heard tales of mermaids being mean and trying to pull you into the water with them, so she is very weary of Mama Jo. Mama Jo is patient with her and they spend the day together. At the end of the day Mama Jo gives Sukey a gold coin to take home so her parents will not be angry with her. When her stepfather sees the gold coin he sends her back to the water every day to look for more. 

Sukey loves spending time with Mama Jo and every day Mama Jo gives her one gold coin. She invites Sukey to come live with her, but Sukey refuses. One day Sukey's mother follows Sukey and witnesses Mama Jo giving her the coin. That night Sukey's mother tells Mr. Jones. Early the next morning they go out and try to catch Mama Jo. After that Mama Jo will not appear for Sukey. Mr. Jones forces her to hoe the garden again until Sukey becomes very sick. While sick in bed, she dreams of Mama Jo and Mama Jo says she will appear to Sukey once more if she wants to come live with her. Sukey drags herself to the water and sings the new song Mama Jo told her in her dream. Then Mama Jo uses her magic hair to take Sukey to her underground cave. They live there happily together for a long time until Sukey begins to miss the sun and birds singing. She begs Mama Jo to take her back to the land. They finally agree to take her back and Mama Jo gives her a bag filled with gold coins and jewels for her dowry. She also tells her to only marry a man named Dembo. If she marries any other man the treasure will disappear. 

Sukey returns home. Her mother has been grieving her loss and Mr. Jones has grown even meaner until he sees the dowry bag. Young men come courting when they hear about the treasure. Sukey refuses them all until Dembo comes. They fall in love and her mother and neighbors plan a grand wedding for them. While Sukey and her mother are out the night before the wedding, Mr. Jones kills Dembo and steals the dowry, hiding it under his mattress. Sukey is devastated when she sees Dembo dead. She runs to the water's edge and calls for Mama Jo. Mama Jo tells her this is the last time she will come to her, but gives her something to bring Dembo back to life. When Dembo comes back to life he tells everyone that Mr. Jones is the one who hurt him. Mr. Jones grabs the treasure and hops into his canoe. The crowd watches as a storm cloud appears over him and the ocean swallows him--canoe and all. Dembo and Sukey are sad to have lost the treasure but are glad to still have each other. They get married and afterwards go to Sukey's favorite spot and she digs her feet deep into the white sand and feels something. They dig up the dowry treasure bag. She sees green and gold in the distance sparkling in the sun and Sukey blows a kiss to Mama Jo.

Wish I May, Wish I Might, Have the Wish I Wish Tonight

Source

Star light, star bright,

The first star I see tonight;

I wish I may, I wish I might,

Have the wish I wish tonight.

Do you know the popular Star light, Star Bright Rhyme? It is American  and believed to be from the late 19th century. (Source) No one seems to know if the rhyme or wishing on the first star came first though. There are many different stories as to the source of wishing on stars or shooting stars, so I will leave that up to you.

Why am I talking about wishing on stars and an American nursery rhyme on Multicultural Monday? Well, I want to share with you a wonderful book that I will be referencing often on Multicultural Mondays. The book is Wish: Wishing Traditions Around the World by Roseanne Thong.

This book offers a short rhyme about a way a country's children (and people) wish and then describes it in more detail. It includes wishing traditions from Australia, Brazil, China, Guatemala, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Thailand, and the United States (which in not wishing on stars). This book is full of so many beautiful pictures (illustrated by Elisa Kleven) and introduces so many new customs as well as shedding some new light on ones I already knew. 

For example, do you know about the Guatemalan Kite Festivals (November 1 and 2)? Wow, these look amazing. Here are some sites to check out the amazing pictures of these enormous kites. Festival Sumpango (sorry it is in Spanish and I cannot seem to get the English part working but if you go to the galleria the pictures are beautiful). Environmental Graffitti (English blog with beautiful pictures) Answers.com (for a little history).

Source

There are also the traditions of putting lucky coins in your left shoe (Russia), wishing as you blow a dandelion pod (Ireland), tossing a coin into Trevi Fountain (Italy) or any fountain in our country and so many more. 

What do you wish upon? What are your culture's wishing traditions?

This is where I share...

Multicultural Monday: Book Clubs & Readathon Connections

As some of you know, we are participating in both the Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids (look for the link party a little later in our next post) and a Readathon.

As I was reading some Mo Willems books to Hazel the past few weeks to prepare for the Summer Virtual Book Club for Kids, I came across the Knuffle Bunny series. It took us awhile to get Knuffle Bunny Free (the third and final book in the series).  In this book, Trixie goes to Holland to visit her grandparents and loses her beloved knuffle bunny when he gets left on the airplane. When her father calls the airline to ask them to check the plane, he finds out the plane is already headed to China. This gives us an opportunity to look at the culture in two different countries for Multicultural Monday. Since I just got the book, I have not done any of these crafts but wanted to give some resources to you.

Holland:

Around the World Crafts for Kids from Squidoo

--divided by country here is the link for Holland.

Dutch Activities for Kids from DLTK

--coloring pages, worksheets, favorite characters and of course tulips and windmills

Crafts Around the World: Holland aka The Netherlands from The Crafty Crow

--post written by a guest blogger from Holland...much on art, culture and life as well as a felt board craft.

A Kid's Life in The Netherlands from ThinkQuest

--written by a kid describing history and life in the Netherlands.

China:

China for Kids! from Rainbow Kids

--many different activities and craft ideas including coloring pages from animals to homes and holidays

China Crafts from Activity Village

--animals, fans, hats, drum, and much more

Asian Crafts for Kids from Artists Helping Children

--a good list of crafts for all Asian with a strong showing on Chinese including a Chinese yo-yo

Around the World Crafts for Kids from Squidoo

--divided by countries here is the link for China

China from DLTK

--many for the Chinese New Year but more general the further you go down

A Kid's Life in China from ThinkQuest

--written from a kid's point of view describing life in China

While checking out MemeTales pre-Readathon I found some free books on their India series. Hazel and I have been enjoying reading some of them from the computer. (Memetales is no longer working.)

The first is about a girl who brings Stickfiggy to visit her grandparents in India and Stickfiggy learns about the country and culture. The second is a story about the wind, but uses the Indian word for wind, vayu to name it. This of course brings us a new country about which to learn.

India:

A Kid's Life in India by ThinkQuest

--written in a kid's point of view of life in India

India Activities including Diwali from DLTK

--coloring pages, worksheets, crafts, animal crafts and more

Indian Crafts for Kids from Activity Village

--peacocks, henna and more

India for Kids from Activity Village

--Learn about India worksheets, maps, famous people and more!

Ok, this is my quick installment of Multicultural Monday. There will be another post later for the Summer Virtual Book Club including the link party. I hope you have been enjoying Mo Willems books as well so you can share with us!