little passports - japan!

Our package arrived from "Japan" courtesy of Little Passports - and we're having fun learning about this country so far away... Beginning with our wall map, we started off by admiring the distance of this new country to study. Of course Ava asked, "Can we go there?"

After reading the letter that came with the package from "Sam and Sophia" - Ava stamped her passport with the provided stickers and added a thumb tack to the map. Then she found this cute eraser shaped like a sushi! Very creative...

As a subscriber of Little Passports, we used our new luggage tag to access general information about this country on their site. But our learning didn't stop there - there's so much more - including great fun facts, photos and pictures on these sites: National Geographic, and Web-Japan!

 

To help the kids learn more about this new place, I tried to look for things that would resonate with what they are interested in now...

1} Mt. Fuji, Japan's tallest mountain is actually an inactive volcano, which last erupted over 300 years ago. 

2} Japan's country flag - one of Noah's favorite colors, and so easy to make! 

3} Kokeshi dolls - similar to matryoshka dolls, which Ava loves so much, they are wooden toys and an instant collection 

4} Hello Kitty - more of an icon in my generation, but she still sees this kitty's face on Happy Meals, and trips to the toy store. 

5} Japanese cars - because Noah is so good at spotting cars, I pointed out a few made in "Japan" - and particularly looking at the symbols made for a fun challenging game on the road. 

6} Dressing up as a princess is what Ava loves to do best, and this is a costume version. The idea here is that not all princesses where crowns or puffy sparkly dresses like she's use to seeing on Disney tapes. 

7} Our favorite gum. I never knew what they were called, but I could always spot them at novelty stores. Most oriental stores will carry these too. I actually chewed, and preferred, these more than Bazooka when I was a kid... 

8} Origami - We got a packaged set with this delivery, but don't let the pretty paper fool you - Some are easy to do, but even with instructions, we fumbled trying to make some planes...Here are some more online to try.

But that's ok. Noah zoomed away with his blue checkered one that I turned into a semi-plane, and Ava drew a picture on another and mailed it to her friend, who is also Japanese!

Regarding food... we've always used Panko bread crumbs for homemade chicken nuggets, but I think the kids are ready to venture out and try something new. Sushi may take awhile, but maybe some vegetable tempura? Oh... yum!