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Showing posts with label Peru. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peru. Show all posts

Books to Explore Our World -- Maps Poster Book and Panorama Pops Boston Book Reviews

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of these books free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

We love books that help us learn about places and cultures. In case you cannot tell I am a bit obsessed with teaching Hazel and learning myself about other cultures and places. However we are not big travelers, so books are our answer. Candlewick Press sent me two great books for our family. The first to share is Maps Poster Book by Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinski. 
http://candlewick.com/cat.asp?browse=Title&mode=book&isbn=0763688355&pix=y


The Incas -- Global Learning for Kids -- Peru

Congratulations to Bernice for winning the DVDs from NCircle Entertainment!!

This month Global Learning for Kids is exploring Peru. Since we have explored Peru previously with Around the World in 12 Dishes, I let Hazel have some say in what we focused on. We started by watching two DVDs. One was on Peru and the other on the Incas.


Hazel was fascinated by the one on the Incas, so we focused on them. We have been exploring books about the Incas from the library.

Around the World in 12 Dishes--Peruvian Purple Corn Pudding

Have you entered my current giveaway yet? There is just over a day left to enter!!

This month we are exploring Peru with Around the World in 12 Dishes. Now for Peru, I e-mailed my friend, Daria for recipe advice. Daria actually lived in Peru for part of her childhood. She suggested we make a mazamorra morado or Peruvian purple corn pudding. She even suggested a recipe for us. But before we get into our delicious recipe, let's talk about Peru. Now we discussed a little of Peru awhile ago when we reviewed Daria's A Child's Life in the Andes and the companion CD Little Songs of the Andes. Both are available for sale at Daria's Little Village Store.











Peru is a country in western South America and was home to many ancient civilizations including one of the oldest in the world, Norte Chico, and the Inca, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. The Spanish Empire conquered Peru in the 16th Century and Peru gained its independence from Spain in 1821. Peru has the peaks of The Andes as well as the rainforests of the Amazon Basin. Spanish is the main language in Peru, however many Peruvians speak Quechua or other native languages. (Source)



Now let's talk about our mazamorra morada. If you want a wonderful scent in your house, I suggest you cook this pudding. I can still smell the sweet pineapple, cinnamon and cloves in the air a day after making it. Now we used this recipe found on About.com. Normally I post my Around the World Dishes on the third Tuesday of the month, however I had some trouble finding purple corn. Daria had suggested a Hispanic market. I called six I found on-line. Only one answered (and one had been disconnected). The one that answered did not have purple corn, so I goggled it and found it at Amazon. I didn't get it until after the third Tuesday and then I had to get the other fresh ingredients.

Mazamorra Morada or Peruvian Purple Corn Pudding



Ingredients:
1 pound dried purple corn
1/2 pineapple (including rind)
1 quince (or a green apple if quince is not available)
1 teaspoon whole cloves
3 cinnamon sticks
1 apple
1 cup dried fruit: prunes, apricots and/or cherries (we used prunes)
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons corn starch
juice of 1 lime

The first step is to put the dried fruit in a heat proof bowl and cover it with boiling water. Then set aside to cool.

Next put the purple corn in a large pot and add 10 cups of water. Then cut the pineapple into small bite sizes. Put the cut pineapple aside but add the rinds to the pot. Quarter the quince and add it to the pot with the cinnamon sticks and cloves. Bring the water to boil and boil uncovered for about 30 minutes until the water is purple (which it is almost instantly) and the quince is very soft. While it was boiling, Hazel juiced the lime and we took a pineapple break with the other half of the pineapple. It was the first time Hazel liked a fresh pineapple though she did get a hurt tongue from eating too much of it.

Once the mixture is done, strain the liquid and return the liquid to the pot. Throw away the corn, pineapple rinds, cinnamon sticks and cloves. Take 1/2 cup of the liquid and put it in a small bowl with the cornstarch. Set it aside for later. Peel and cut the apple into small bites. Add the sugar, pineapple, apple, dried fruit (strained from the water), and a pinch of salt to the pot. Bring the mixture to a boil and boil for about 20 minutes until the apple is soft. Stir occasionally.

Add the cornstarch mixture and bring to a boil again. Stir constantly for about 5 minutes until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and stir in the lime juice. Cool. Serve room temperature or chilled. Sprinkle with cinnamon when serving.

We loved it!! Steve thought it was a bit spicy, but he enjoyed it.

We of course enjoyed some stories from Peru. Hazel really loves hearing the different stories from all the different cultures.


We also listened to some Peruvian music with songs from these CDs. 


We also looked at some resource books.


Now a few of these books are craft books. The textile book suggested a Peruvian weaving as a craft. Since we did a weaving recently, I decided not to attempt this right now. We did however try the Peruvian clay whistle from the World Crafts Musical Instruments book. Ours did not turn out well though. (It was suppose to look like the yellow one on the cover.)



So that is our exploration of Peru. Have you explored Peru or made a Peruvian dish? Feel free to link up here and visit the others to see more dishes and explorations!! Also print out the Peru Placemat and Passport Pages to have explorations with your own kids.


Trinity Snowman & January Happenings

Today I am going to share with you a wonderful way to teach the Trinity to children and what will be happening this month here at Crafty Moms Share. First our lesson. I found on Proverbial Homemaker, Art Day Trinity Snowman Project on Pinterest. Her post led me to Hope Is Where the Heart Is to get the printable, Trinity Snowman. The printable is available for free at that link.
It is a lovely description of how the bottom ball of a snowman is the Father--the rock foundation, the middle ball is the Son with open arms and the head is the Holy Spirit--our counselor and friend. I think I like this explanation better than the apple one we read about and did a craft with in the fall.

The obvious project to go with this printable is a snowman craft. We went out to dinner tonight, but I prepared ahead of time by cutting out the three circles and gathering some supplies for Hazel to make a snowman. It entertained her until the food came. For other snowman ideas check out the features at this week's Sharing Saturday, our past snowman crafts and activities and our Winter Pinterest Board.

This month's author for Virtual Book Club for Kids is Laura Numeroff. She is best known for If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, but has a variety of books on all sorts of subjects. We will be sharing our chosen book and activity on January 13th.

Then on January 21st we will be "visiting" Peru with Around the World in 12 Dishes. We did a little exploration of Peru previously when we reviewed Daria's A Child's Life in the Andes. I am really excited to try the dish Daria suggested for us as well as a fun musical instrument craft I found. We will be posting our official dish on the 21st!! So join us then!!








I have been toying with the idea of running a Valentine swap again. Would you be interested in participating or having your child/ren participate? It would mean making some homemade Valentines and mailing them worldwide and then receiving some from all over the world. If you are interested, let me know. If there is interest I will put it together. 

That is what January brings! I hope you will join us for all the fun!



A Day in the Andes

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Today I am going to explain our "trip" to the Andes thanks to Daria. Daria recently published a new CD and e-book about a child's life in the Andes. The CD is called Cancioncitas De Los Andes/Little Songs of the Andes and the e-book is called A Child's Life in the Andes.  Both were released April 2nd and Daria was kind enough to offer us a free copy of each to review and we LOVE them!! The combo pack of the book and CD are available at Daria's Little Village Store for $12.99. You can also buy just the CD at iTunes and Amazon.

Now before I go into how wonderful these activities are, I want to give you a little background. Daria lived in the Andes in Peru for part of her childhood. Needless to say she knows much about the area firsthand.

Now onto this great book and CD. Every time I play the CD, Hazel says to me, "Mommy, I like your music." The music is not like the music we normally listen to or even the other amazing album of Daria's that we have. We began our journey to the Andes by just listening to the CD a couple of times and loved it. 

Now that our mood was set, we sat down to read the book. We learned all about life in the Andes including what food was native to there. (Sorry we didn't have a play potato or I should say I couldn't find it if we still have it.) Plus about the animals and life in general for the children. Then there were all sorts of coloring pages.
Hazel only colored this llama so far, because we were busy doing the other activities like making musical instruments. We had already made a rainstick, so we some zampoñas following the easy instructions in the book. Hazel loves trying to play them!


Then we decided to follow the suggestion in the book to have a stuffed animal parade, but we decided to use our two llamas (one stuffed and one plastic) and also to use our two instruments. We had Steven video us. (Fair warning, he is not the best with a camera of any sort!)
Now if you are interested in exploring the Andes from your home, please stop by Daria's page and buy her new CD and E-book. They are amazing and we really enjoyed them! Thank you to Daria for sharing these wonderful resources with us!!