As an anthropologist I love learning about new cultures and it's a passion I hope to pass on to our children. Our oldest loves learning about different animals and see in pictures from other cultures so to inspire her curiously further we've started to incorporate formal lessons on geography and culture into our meal time!
I plan on making the lessons a little more involved but for the first one our Madagascar lesson was a total success! While dinner was cooking we found Madagascar on an atlas. We talked about it being an island, what an island is, and that it's located off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. She loved studying the map and asked so many questions! After dinner was complete and we were all around the table we talked about lots of facts about Madagascar and she picked her three favorite to write on a picture of the island and its flag. She decided their flag wasn't very fun :)
Her three favorite facts were:
Lemurs live there
It's the 4th largest island in the world
And, Romazava is a food!
Romazava was the dinner we enjoyed. My research told me that it was the national dinner of the island. It said that every family uses the main ingredients of a meat combined with chunks of tomato, onion, garlic, and spinach, and it is served over a wild rice. So that was the dinner we made! Not only did our oldest finish her plate, she asked for more!
As we cleaned up the kitchen together after dinner she told me that she can't wait to go to Madagascar and she's excited to eat a new countries food next week! Success!
I plan on making the lessons a little more involved but for the first one our Madagascar lesson was a total success! While dinner was cooking we found Madagascar on an atlas. We talked about it being an island, what an island is, and that it's located off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. She loved studying the map and asked so many questions! After dinner was complete and we were all around the table we talked about lots of facts about Madagascar and she picked her three favorite to write on a picture of the island and its flag. She decided their flag wasn't very fun :)
Her three favorite facts were:
Lemurs live there
It's the 4th largest island in the world
And, Romazava is a food!
Romazava was the dinner we enjoyed. My research told me that it was the national dinner of the island. It said that every family uses the main ingredients of a meat combined with chunks of tomato, onion, garlic, and spinach, and it is served over a wild rice. So that was the dinner we made! Not only did our oldest finish her plate, she asked for more!
As we cleaned up the kitchen together after dinner she told me that she can't wait to go to Madagascar and she's excited to eat a new countries food next week! Success!