What can I say, we have really been enjoying Italy! There are so many neat things to explore, books to read, activities to do and music to listen too, not to mention food to eat. A few highlights have been...
In the food catagory, we have determined that Sophie could eat pasta or pizza every day of her life and be a very happy girl! We made our own pizza's one day, spaghetti and meatballs another, but the clear winner was Pasta with Ricotta Salata. This recipe is super easy and delicious. Ryan and I added some red pepper flakes to our pasta to give it a bit more of a kick. As you can see Sophie was very happy to eat it!
Music wise, Sophie and I have been listening to the Opera channel on Sirius (I think it is channel 78?). They have live/taped broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and other opera pieces as well. Did you know that Opera originates from Venice?
We have added a few new books this week as well. I enlisted the help of the local librarian to help me find some books for the Country of the Week and she showed me some great tips. She even told me how to request books be purchased by the library.
Sophie's favorite would pobably be Mangia! Mangia! by Amy Wilson Sanger. Written by the same author as My First Book of Sushi, it has great rhymes and excellent mixed media pictures. Being a board book, it holds Sophie's attention and she has reached for this one quite a few times the past few weeks. I like that it combined some Italin words along with English to help the rhymes out and highlighted some common Italian foods that are not so common in the US.
Sophie also liked looking at the pictures in Italy-Enchantment of the World. We did not read this book, but looked at all of the pictures and talked about the famous sites in Italy.
I read Sophie Tony's Bread by Tomie de Paola. Altough Sophie left my lap after the first couple of pages to do a puzzle, I finished reading the book to her. I loved it! I thought that it was a wonderful folktale of sorts on how the Italian dessert bread Panettone came to be. I loved how de Paola used a few Italian words and phrases and kept the story charming. I think when Sophie gets a little older we will have to make some panettone and re-read this book!
Sophie and Ryan made the Italian flag to round out the week while listening to the Italian National Anthem.
Next week we are headed to France!
2 comments:
Hey Susan, it's Dana! I finally started updating my blog. You inspired me. :)
It's been great reading about your trips around the world. I am looking forward to France week. :)
Such a fun idea and I think my girls would love "traveling" this way at home with the books, flags and food!! We may have to try this as one of our camp at home weeks this summer : )
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