Around the World in 12 Dishes--Kenya

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This month we are "traveling" to Kenya with Around the World In 12 Dishes. Now we have explored Kenya a bit before. Last week we found our Flat Stanley was in Kenya dressed as a Massai warrior. Then we had the pleasure of exploring Christmas in Kenya for the Christmas Around the World Series last year. And thanks to Andrea over at Ziezo, we were able to extend it with a book she sent us from Kenya last February. Finally last summer we exchanged postcards with Andrea's children and we shared a bit here.

Source

Now Kenya is known for it animals and the savannah. How many people dream of going on a safari and let's face it, Kenya is where you do this. It is home to the lions, giraffes, elephants, leopards, buffalo, rhinoceros and many more. It is also home to the Massai, which is the group of indigenious people most recognized throughout the world due to their distinct clothes and jewelry. You can learn more about the Massai in our Flat Stanley post.

This month we did our normal exploring with some cooking, stories and music. We did not get a chance to do a craft yet, but we did for our Christmas post. The stories we read are from the three books pictured above. We of course also read the Christmas stories at Christmas time or when we got them. The best part of the Creation book is that there is also a story from Egypt in it and Egypt is our country to explore next month so we have a headstart already.

Music was a little harder to find, but we found some Kenyan songs on these CD's. We got all of our out of the library. Then we used the following books as references to learn more about Kenya and get ideas for what to make. Since we have already made kaimati and mandazi, I thought we would try something that was not a treat. In the book, A Kenyan Christmas by Auntie Kiko, I discovered how popular kale is in Kenya and thought it would be interesting to try a Kenyan kale dish. Now I like kale, but my family does not usually. Steve will eat it when it is cooked with other flavors. Hazel will barely try it (and she tries just about everything).

While looking for a kale recipe, I came across a recipe for irio. I decided to check and see what was available on line for irio and found this recipe from Serious Eats. There are slight difference between the various recipes I found, but I had all the ingredients in this one and knew my family would like it so I went with it. They loved it and asked me to make it again. Or course being made with peas, corn and potatoes--three of Hazel's and Steve's favorite vegetables basically guaranteed they would like it.

Then a few days later I made a recipe for sukuma wiki. Now sukuma wiki means stretch the week. Apparently most Kenyans grow kale or some sort of greens to use in this recipe. Again there was a huge variation in the recipes I found. Some used kale, some used collard greens or just called for any greens; some used fresh tomatoes and some used tomato paste; etc. I decided to go with this one on the Kitchn. For us it involved a trip to the farmer's market. We were able to get the kale and tomatoes there. I did not use cumin (only because I forgot to buy some and I am out of it). I liked the recipe and Steve said it was ok. Hazel did not like it though.

I am joining these amazing blogs to bring you Around the World in 12 Dishes and to include a blog hop where you can share your own recipes and activities! 

Adventures In Mommydom, All Done Monkey, Crafty Moms Share, Creative Family Fun, Creative World of Varya, Glittering Muffins, Here Come The Girls, Juggling with Kids, Kid World Citizen, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, Mermaids' Makings, The Educators' Spin On It and The Hands-On Homeschooler

 

For the wonderful Kenya Passport that Glittering Muffins puts out click here and the wonderful Kenya Placemat is here.

Now it is your turn to share a recipe, craft, activity with a Kenyan theme. Or if you do not have one, you can check out the other great ones on this blog hop!

The Season Sisters

In March I posted about one of our favorite books, How Robin Saved Spring by Debbie Ouelett. One of our goals was to expand on the story to include the other two months. The other night I did this for Hazel and made her some peg dolls to go with them. After reading it to Hazel, she told me I needed to write more, but I am going to share what I have so far with you. Since How Robin Saved Spring dealt with the change from winter to spring, I did not include that (which I have been told I should).

In a small house deep in the woods live four very special sisters. Their mother is Mother Earth. Each sister is awake for about one quarter of the year or at least that is how it is suppose to be. You see these sisters have magical powers and they control the weather. They are Lady Winter, Sister Spring, Girl Summer and Madam Autumn. Each loves her time of the year the best. Lady Winter thinks it should be winter all the time and the entire world should always be snow covered and frozen. Sister Spring however loves the awakening she brings the world and all the new life that comes in spring. And all the animals, trees and flower fairies love her and her kindness. Girl Summer is the youngest and tends to like to play and have fun in the summer sun. She does not always take her responsibilities seriously enough. She also tends to like to awaken even when it is not summer. Madam Autumn is good friends with the wind and the tree fairies. Her friends help her paint the leaves for the fall. 

Their cottage is rather small. It has four good size bedrooms--one for each of them and then a small living space that includes a sitting area with a fire place and a kitchen. Since only one sister is awake at a time the space does not need to be too large. Outside the house are many trees and plants and flowers. Or at least the flowers and plants can be seen when it is not winter. 

Girl Summer and one of her bunny friends

Now as I mentioned, Girl Summer does not like to stay asleep. Often she wakes up during all of her sisters' seasons. You may notice when she is awake. There will be a warm day in the middle of cold ones. This just means Girl Summer is restless and awake. Her older sister will get her back to sleep and the weather returns to normal. 

Sister Spring and a Crocus Fairy

Sister Spring is very calm with her hyperactive little sister. She does not get angry with her when she awakens early--which she always does. She lets her help with the decorating of the spring flowers and the planting season. Plus of course it is also the mating season for many of the animals, and the sisters help with this as well. Girl Summer awakening early is why we will have heat waves in early spring. Sometimes Sister Spring will be able to get her back to sleep and other times she will not.

Girl Summer loves frolicking in the summer sun. She loves to run through the wildflower meadows and on the beach. She often plays hide and seek with the animals in the forest or tag with the butterflies in the meadow. She also loves to collect shells and rocks on the beach and use them to decorate sand castles that she builds for the crabs. Often she forgets about having the rain, so many of the plants including some grass dries out and turns brown. The flowers begin to die as well because of the lack of moisture. 

Madam Autumn and a Maple Tree Fairy

When Madam Autumn awakens she often sees the burnt look of the end of summer. The plants cannot always survive her younger sister's heat. Madam Autumn quickly calls her friend the wind to come and help blow in the clouds. She also calls upon her friend the Rainbow Princess to help with the rain. Then she gathers her fairies and gives them their painting supplies. The fairies' job is to paint the leaves all the beautiful colors of fall. Just about when they finish the trees release their leaves so the wind can blow them in circles and have fun. Madam Autumn also reminds the animals to prepare for the cold winter. Some travel to warmer places where Lady Winter will not have as much control and others gather food to survive locked up in their homes for the entire winter. Then there are those who sleep all winter long. Lady Winter long ago knitted them magic blankets to put them to sleep for the entire winter. Madam Autumn helps them get cozy under them before her older sister has her turn at the control of the weather. Insects and such often go hide in walls of buildings. Madam Autumn helps them find their way in and closes them up so they will be warm. It will be Sister Spring who releases them when she awakens. 

Lady Winter and a Snowflake Fairy

Lady Winter often tries to get control early. If she had her way it would always be cold and frozen. Sometimes you may see snow in October because of her fighting for control. Madam Autumn however never gives up on maintaining her control and if she must she involves their mother to help keep Lady Winter where she belongs.

Easter and Spring Match Games & More!

Today I thought I would share some Easter and spring games I made up with free printables. The first is a sequence game of the Easter story.

Fairy Tales from Different Cultures--Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters

In honor of Black History Month, I thought I would focus on some stories with black Cinderellas or from countries with a majority of black citizens. With one exception being next week, where we will honor the Chinese New Year with Cinderella from China. This week we are looking at a different version of the story taking place in Africa. This story was inspired by a folktale collected by G.M. Theal and published in 1895 in his book Kaffir Folktales. The illustrations in the book were inspired by the ruins of ancient city found in Zimbabwe. The book is dedicated to the children of South Africa. The book is Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: An African Tale by John Steptoe.

Source

First a little bit about Africa. Africa is the second largest and second most populous continent. It covers six percent of the earth's surface area and 20.4 percent of the total land area. Eastern Africa is widely accepted as where human beings began life.  The climate of Africa ranges from tropical to subarctic on the top of its highest peaks).  It's northern part is arid and desert. Central and Southern Africa has both jungles and savanna plains. 

Africa's population has increased greatly in the last 40 years. The population has a large proportion of its members under 25-years-old as a result. It is estimated that over 1,000 languages are spoken in Africa. Traditional African cultures have become less practiced in recent years due to neglect and suppression during colonialism and post-colonialism regimes.  (Source)

Now onto our book.  Mufaro's Beautiful Daugthers: An African Tale by John Steptoe is not your traditional Cinderella. In fact there is not very much of the traditional story in this one. There is a father and not a stepmother. There is a sister and not a stepsister and there is no talk about shoes lost or found. There is a bit of magic and of course the good and kind win over the cruel.  To begin let me tell you mufaro means happy man, nyasha means mercy, manyara means ashamed and nyoka means snake. This is in the author's introductory notes.  

Nyasha Doll

This story is about the two beautiful daughters of a man named Mufaro. His daughters are Nyasha who is kind and caring and Manyara who is selfish and mean. Manyara only mistreats her sister when their father is not around. She is often heard saying some day she will be queen and Nyasha will be her servant.  Nyasha does not understand why her sister is so unhappy and miserable. She wishes Manyara could enjoy her life more. 

Nyasha is always kind to everyone and has no problem helping with the household chores and even has her own vegetable garden. She loves singing while she tends her vegetables and it is said that her plants grow bigger and more bountiful than anyone else's because of her singing. One day she finds a green garden snake in her garden. She welcomes the little Nyoka since he will scare away the animals that may eat things from her garden. Each day she sees him there and sings to him.

One day a messenger comes to their village saying the king would like all the beautiful and worthy daughters to come to the palace so he may choose a wife. The palace is on the other side of the river is a half a day away. Mufaro tells his two daughters that they both will go with a wedding party the next morning. Manyara tries to convince her father that only she should go since Nyasha will grieve to death to be separated from their father and home. Mufaro says that the king must choose between two such worthy daughters so they both will go.

Manyara leaves during the night by herself since she wants to be the first to see the king. She has not traveled through the forest during the night before and is a bit scared, but wants to be there first. She sees a young boy who begs her for food, but she says no. Then an old woman calls her by name and gives her advice and Manyara yells at her. She also does the opposite of the advice.

At daybreak Nyasha gets dressed for the journey and meeting the king and hears commotion outside. It is discovered that Manyara is missing. They find footprints on the path to the city, so they assume she went on her own, but Nyasha is worried about her sister. 

When Nyasha sees the young boy she gives him the yam she had packed for her own lunch before he even asks for food. The old woman points the way and Nyasha gives her a small bag of sunflower seeds. Finally the reach the peak and see the river and the city and Nyasha says she has never seen anything so beautiful.

When they enter the gate of the palace they hear screaming and Manyara runs out. She begs Nyasha not to see the king saying that there is a snake with five heads in there. Mufaro comforts Manyara while Nyasha goes in to the king. On the throne she sees her friend, Nyoka. She smiles and asks why he is here. Nyoka then changes to the king and he tells Nyasha he knows her to be the most worthy since he has visited her as Nyoka and was the young boy and old woman in the forest. He asks her to marry him. Mufaro is proud that one of his daughters is the queen and the other is one of her servants. Quite the opposite of how Manyara always planned it.

Here is my summary sheet for our different Cinderella stories for this book. 

Our craft this time was to make a green snake to represent Nyoka. We used the tutorial at Ziggity Zoom which was a craft for the Chinese New Year since this is the year of the snake. We used Q-tips and masking tape (well we used blue painters tape because we had it) and then painted them and added some eyes and a tongue.

Next week we will be discussing some Chinese versions. I hope you will join us!

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures-Vasilissa and Baba Yaga

Today we will look at a Russian version of Cinderella. I found two picture books with basically the same story and we will look at both today, but first a bit about Russia. Somehow after a week of a deep freeze in New England, Russia seems like the right country to talk about. (I literally heard a radio host mention a town in Russia for having the record for lowest temperatures. She kept checking them because it made our temperatures seem so much better.)

A Waldorf Birthday Celebration

 Today we had the pleasure of joining Hazel's class in her birthday celebration. Steve took the day off so he could join us. He and I needed to arrive at 9:45. We spent a few minutes in the hall waiting for the class to be ready and then we joined them for a story written for Hazel about crossing the rainbow bridge and then for snack with the added part of cake and fruit. We brought the fruit. Hazel picked strawberries to bring. It was truly wonderful.

Tonight I made a quick needle felted picture of the story Hazel's teacher told. It started with a star child playing with her star children friends in a beautiful garden. They were playing hide-and-seek and she hid under a large green leaf that was as big as an umbrella. While hiding she noticed for the first time a small hole. The closer she looked the more she saw in the distance and was fascinated with it. She saw a cozy home where a man and woman came out and asked her to stay. She was shy and went back to play with her friends but continued to visit this new place each day. Until she got brave enough to find her angel and ask to go live with this new couple in this new world. The angel was happy for her and took her to see Father Sun who gave her courage. Then they saw Lady Moon who gave her wisdom. Then they went to see the stars who gave her joy. Then her angel put her in a boat to cross the rainbow bridge. Before leaving the star child asked where the angel would be since she would miss him and the angel told her he would always be near watching over her even if she could not see him. Then he covered her with a blanket and she took the ride to cross the rainbow bridge. When she arrived on the other side hands helped her out of her boat and there were the man and woman. The name of the star child was Hazel. 

If you lift the leaf, you can see the star child hiding and the black hole she noticed.

It was so interesting to see the class in action since I hear stories about the children. It was a bit disappointing that three were absent, so the class was very small today (only four children). However, we really enjoyed the snack and the cake. The snack ended up being my lunch since it was vegetable soup and I had two bowls. After the celebration, Steve and I went to Starbucks and then came back to pick her up. What an amazing way to celebrate such an important event. I truly love the Waldorf story of the star children crossing the rainbow bridge and that they customize it to match the child's personality and interests.

Happy Family Times #38--Polar Express Ride

Have you done anything fun with your family this week? Kelly at Happy Whimsical Hearts and I would love to hear about it. We are collecting great ideas to inspire all of us to have more family together times. Please share yours below.

This weekend we headed to my parents. Hazel and I went on Friday and Steve joined us on Saturday. Our big plan was our parents had arranged for the five of us to go on a Polar Express Ride. Hazel and I went early to help my mother decorate their tree. My father does not like to decorate the tree. He will bring it in, water it, etc., but will not decorate it with her.

After Hazel went to bed on Friday, we brought the tree in and put on the lights. I got to sleep in on Saturday since my parents get up with Hazel and when I came downstairs a third of the tree was decorated. We finished it up right before we needed to leave for the Polar Express. I gave Hazel the choice of wearing her pajamas or her regular clothes. Someone had warned me to dress us warm because it is cold waiting for the train, so she decided to wear her regular clothes. She did say next time she wants to wear her pajamas.

It was a long cold wait. In fact I went back to the car to get the second layer of pants for Hazel. Above is a picture of her with my parents waiting in front of the train. We were on car H. We said it was for Hazel the announcer said for Happy. Then there is a picture of us in our seats (well of everyone else in their seats since I took the picture).

Once the train started they passed out hot chocolate and cookies. Then they started the recording of the story and walked around with copies of the book to show the pictures. I had taken the book and the CD out of the library so Hazel would know the story ahead of time. Hazel wanted to sit with Pop, so she did. They looked at the coloring book we bought at the gift shop (and they sold on the train) and Pop tried on Hazel's mittens. He is always trying to get her clothes and toys from her and pretend he can wear/use them.

Then we were told to look out the window at the North Pole. We saw Santa out there waving to us. The train stopped and he got on. (They apparently had multiple Santas on the train so he could spend some time with each child.) He gave each child a silver sleigh bell engraved with The Polar Express. We are going to sew Hazel's onto her stocking since our stockings have bells on them and hers does not.

Then Santa's elves came to visit and entertain the children. One of them stayed and talked to Hazel for quite awhile. We told her how Hazel said she wanted to be an elf, so she let Hazel try on her hat. They were going to start a pajama fashion show with the kids, but the conductor had made it to our car (we were the last one) finally.

Hazel was a bit scared of the conductor. I had to do the talking, but she did try on his hat. She got her special ticket punched with an H and a D (for Ducky) and a smiley face. Then the trip was over and we went out to dinner before heading home. Our church pageant was the next day so we needed to get home so Hazel and I could be angels.


Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.

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St. Nicholas

December 6th is St. Nicholas Day. And to let you in on a secret, he is visiting the Nursery Classroom at Hazel's school tonight. The children will be surprised when they go inside tomorrow morning. They will also hear a little about St. Nicholas. Do you know about him?

Saint Nicholas was born in the third century in Asia Minor, now Turkey, to a wealthy family. He was raised to be a devout Christian and lost his parents in an epidemic. There are many stories about his giving spirit and caring for the poor, the sick and the suffering. There are also many stories about how he cared for the children. For more information you should check out my source of this information, the St. Nicholas Center.

In the classroom tomorrow the children will hear about a good boy named Nicholas who was given so much good food and toys that he would walk with his pockets full of them and when he saw someone suffering or poor he would give that person his things. He went on to become a Bishop when he grew up and heard about an entire town that was suffering from hunger. He had all of his servants gather food and sailed a ship with blue and white sails to the town and knocked on the doors of the people. No one saw him, but when they answered the door there would be food at it.

There are also customs in some countries of leaving shoes out for your gifts. Apparently one of the times Nicholas threw the food in the windows it landed in a shoe and after that the shoe legend began.

So not only will Hazel get some St. Nicholas celebration at school in the morning, but we also made the hand puppet pictured above using the pattern I found at St. Nicholas Center. We followed the directions and glued everything. Hazel will get to play with it tomorrow.

I also made a felt ornament. I am going to give it to Hazel in the morning. I found the pattern at St. Nicholas Center as well. They also have stories, pictures, printables, find hidden object game and other crafts.

In the morning we will rush to school, but after school we will have some time to explore St. Nicholas a bit more. I printed the hidden object game (one of Hazel's favorite things to do nowadays) and pages to color as well as some of the paper crafts for us to try. 

We also found this book at the used book store, so we will be reading it tomorrow again. The book, The Gift from Saint Nicholas by Dorothea Lachner is a wonderful story about how children making a wish to St. Nicholas and he comes through with giving everyone what they wished even though it had been snowing for days and no one could leave their homes.

Now why do I love celebrating St. Nicholas? Well I love the fact that it changes Santa Claus to someone who believed in Jesus and followed God. I love that it takes the importance of what you receive away and makes it more important that you are a giving person. I feel that it reminds us of the true spirit of the holiday.  How will you be celebrating St. Nicholas Day?

Lavender Fairy & Bedtime routine

Continuing with our fairies of late, meet Lavender Fairy. We light a lavender candle most nights at bedtime. It stays lite while Hazel gets dressed and we read our three bedtime books and I tell her a made up story. One of my made up stories was about Lavender Fairy who always brings calm and relaxation wherever she goes. When we blow out the candle we thank the Lavender Fairy for her relaxing scent. 

I made this little Lavender Fairy using felt, purple beads and stuffed her hat with dried lavender, so she smells of her scent as well. Needless to say, Hazel loves having her to play with the Mushroom Fairy of the earlier post.

Tomorrow I will share some of our nature crafts from all the treasures we have collected on our nature walks!!