Maple Syrup and Five Dollar Bills

I promised the Galloping the Globe group that I'd update everyone on our geography travels, so here we go. We took a week longer studying Canada than originally planned, but that's the beauty of homeschooling--flexibility! There were many unexpected library finds and spontaneous activities that popped up, so we couldn't leave Canada just yet, eh?

We started off our study by reading from the terrific DK book, Children Just Like Me, identified Canada on the globe as well as in the Rand McNally Junior Classroom Atlas. Many books from the terrific reading list in GTG were read aloud. Jonathan colored a picture of the Canadian flag and added it to his notebook.

We fell in love with the book A Prairie Boy's Winter by William Kurelek. It reminded us of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books--full of nature stories and old fashioned fun. I can't believe we've never heard of this author before. The quaint illustrations of children playing in snow were very charming-- especially the scenes of snowball fights, snowmen building and ice skating. (Winter scenes like those of Currier & Ives have always fascinated me as a Hawaiian-born gal.) Since reading the book, the kids have been begging us to take them to see Real Snow this winter (not the machine-made kind they saw last year at the art festival). So we're seriously thinking about a winter trip to the nearby mountains.

We also read Lumberjack by Kurelek. There were a few references to unsavory characters, so I skipped over those parts and focused on the main character--a Canadian lumberjack--and his fascinating observations of his life working in the forest. As soon as we finished the last page, Jonathan asked if we could read it again. A sign of a good book!

Another book we enjoyed was Very Last First Time by Jan Andrews, about a little Inuit girl's adventure as she goes mussel gathering and walks on the ocean floor for the first time. It's a classic FIAR book also.

In one of the library books, we spotted a photo of a man pouring maple syrup on a bowl full of snow to make maple candy. It looked like great fun, and I came up with what I thought was a brilliant plan. Though we don't have snow here, we thought we might try substituting a bowl of shave ice.

We whipped out our little shave ice machine, and proceeded to make our own maple candy. The only thing was, it didn't work. The syrup didn't harden into candy; it just penetrated into the ice. Oh well, the kids enjoyed their maple syrup flavored shave ice and we chalked it up to another "science experiment."

I thought we were done studying Canada by then, but the Lord had three surprises in store for us.

Surprise #1: Last Monday (October 11th), I heard Canadian homeschoolers on loops and blogs wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. Huh? Call me culturally clueless, but I had no idea that our neighbors up North celebrated the holiday on a different day than we did in the U.S. It turns out that their colder climate pushes their harvest season earlier on the calendar, so they celebrate Thanksgiving sooner than we do. Well, in God's providence, I just happened to be making crockpot turkey and mashed potatoes for dinner, so we celebrated a Canadian Thanksgiving that night!

Surprise #2: Over dinner, I mentioned to the kids that it was Thanksgiving in Canada, and Jonathan asked how could it be? This led to a conversation about seasons, the weather and cultural differences and celebrations. In our stack of library books on the coffee table, we just happened to find a book that went along perfectly with this discussion: On the Same Day in March, by Marilyn Singer. With poetry and bright illustrations, it explores various weather patterns around the world on the same day in March--The Arctic, Paris, the Nile, Kenya, New York City and so on. Delightful reading.

Surprise #3: While decluttering my desk drawer, I just happened to find a Canadian five dollar bill! Alan had gone to Canada for business years ago, and when he returned he discovered he still had the bill in his wallet. Rather than go through the hassle of exchanging it back to U.S. currency, we stuck it in the desk drawer. Now it turns up, years later.

I took out an American five dollar bill and had the kids compare the two. Differences were noted: the colors, text, photos and designs. The CDN bill had a kingfisher on the back, which thrilled Elizabeth for some reason. A discussion entailed about the monetary systems of different countries, banking and exchange rates. A fun video covering these economic concepts is "Money Rock" from the Schoolhouse Rock dvd. (Did I mention that this past week, they also just happened to open their own kiddie savings accounts at the bank and were very interested in learning more about economics?)

Coincidences? I think not.

Homeschooler, be encouraged. The Lord is interested in your lesson plans! :-)

This week, we're moving on to Mexico. Alan is already anticipating the beef fajitas, chicken enchiladas, tacos, burritos, rice, beans, chips, salsa and so on. We've decided to rename him the Galloping [Gourmet Gobbles] the Globe. It's a good thing our scale is broken.

"For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and He has set the world upon them." 1 Samuel 2:8b