Its been a pretty new tradition but we are keeping up! Whenever
my older sister and her family are in town we have a day where we
learn about the culture of a country or area. Reece and I put it on at our
house. We try to have activities that will keep all the different ages
paying attention. First we did Japan day with the theme being
the different seasons, then Indian Day where we studied through our 5 senses.
This year we did a Cambodian Day since Reece and I just returned from
there and it was one that the kids all thought would be fun.
We started out in the backyard where Reece had cut out the continents
so all the kids could walk across the world to find the areas we would
be talking about and to try to visualize the distances.
We also talked about the equator and the different tropics and the
climates that are found in each of them.
Although not as many as in Bali, we still did see a lot of
rice paddies in Cambodia so I taught how rice is grown.
How it is planted, why and how often the rice paddies are flooded,
and how it looks right before it is harvested.
Then we talked about vines and aerial root systems. The kids then got to
swing on a vine into my basement and into the next part of the
culture we were going to talk about. (there is a green bungie attached
to one of those pull up bars you can hang in doorways)
Once inside I had all the rubbings we bought in Cambodia hanging up.
I talked about the traditional dancing, I had tons of pictures and
videos from the dinner we had in Cambodia where we got to watch
all the dancing. I discussed how there were special hand gestures
that are used in dancing and can be seen in many of the carvings of
dancers that adorn all the temples in the Angkor Wat complex.
Each hand gesture was meant to resemble something in nature
and symbolize an emotion or idea that goes along with that object.
i.e. a sprout coming out of a seed symbolizing new growth and hope.
We then played Simon says doing the hand gestures.
I had made some cheap replicas of the styles of crowns that are
worn by the dancers, and my mom brought a mask she had
that would be worn by a dancer playing the part of
a demon or evil king.
Then everyone had fun trying them on and posing for pictures.
I then talked about Angkor Wat and how the different temples
are being restored. I showed them pictures of temples that still
need to be restored and are more like heaps of stone blocks that
are covered in jungle, and compared the restoration to putting together
a puzzel. I had cut up blocks of flower arranging oasis that I had spray
painted with granite texture spray paint. Each child then could
built/restore a temple in the jungle. I had lots of fake leaves
and plants that they could use as the jungle surrounding their temples.
Pipe Cleaner monkeys were made to be swinging from the vines...
the boys had to put toothpick barriers on their temple walls
for protection from invaders. ;)
Looking pretty close to the real thing, no?
Here is a picture we took of a temple we ventured through
on one of our last days in Cambodia.
then came lunch. I made a coconut curry, ginger beef, and
a salad of tropical fruits.
mango and guava juice drinks.
Another afternoon having fun learning and
being exposed to different foods and cultures.
