As we head into the countries of Europe, I’m picking up the pace a little. For one, I’d like to complete the continent before Baby gets here. Two, there are a lot more countries in Europe to cover (I had selected three from each continent, but how do you cover only three European countries?). So, instead of a two week study, we’ve shortened the next few to only one week, but still packing in a ton of fun.
First, we learned our geography and completed our notebooking pages. The Greece flag was a little tricky for them, with so many alternating stripes. And it wasn’t perfect on the first try, but a little white paint covered the mistake rather well.
We read about Yannis in our Children, Just Like Me book. As always the kids were most interested in what his religion was (Greek Orthodoxy) and what he ate (ham souvlaki in a pita wrap).
Now, my husband and I are pretty big fans of Greek food. So I took this as the perfect opportunity to capitalize on my children’s interest.
We found a casual Greek restaurant and embarked on the experience. What do you order the kids at a Greek restaurant? Well, I didn’t want them to get confused when we studied Italy, so I stayed away from pasta. Instead, we ordered a couple of appetizers: pita bread with tzatziki sauce and chicken souvlaki (essentially, grilled chicken on a stick). It was the perfect kid’s meal! They loved it all, and my son was even brave enough to try a bite of gyro (pronounced “Year-o”, per the menu).
Greece really made an impression on my son. He loved the food, quickly learned to find it on the map, and decided he definitely wanted to go there some day. In the meantime, he’s asked if he can mail Yannis one of his Bibles. I love getting to know the heart of a child!
