Cultural Exchange Deadline- Last Week of September

A friend (who has organized swaps in the past) has given me the good advice of setting a deadline for everyone to send out the cultural exchange packages. Please send out your packages by the last week in September. Some of you are traveling and won't be able to do this, but just email your exchange partners and let them know. Please email your group members when you mail the packages, so they will be expecting them. Also, it would be great if you communicate with your group members via email before you send the packages. A lot of you are already doing that, and I'm loving reading the emails...so much excitement! :)

Another Cultural Exchange Post

I've had several people email me who requested groups of 12, and only received an email for a group of 6. If you requested a group of 12, and did not get that, please let me know ASAP. I'm creating one last group...Group 29!

I'm amazed by how this exchange has grown from me hoping to find 12 people to exchange packages with me into having 28 groups of people exchanging packages around the world! Very cool!

Thanks for all of the excitement! It was a little time consuming to sort and divide the groups, and I definitely made some mistakes, but I really enjoyed setting this up. I've learned a few things, and I think it will be easier next time! Yes, there will be a next time (several of you have asked).

I'd love to do a "Christmas Around the World" exchange and have our kids send & receive Christmas cards from around the world...maybe in groups of about 15. I also think an international postcard exchange would be fun as well as a 50 States postcard exchange. So many ideas, so little time :)

Baking Biscuits

Guhguh taught us how to make biscuits during "Laura" Camp. She showed us how to level the flour, and she told us about the difference between liquid and dry measuring cups.

In the interest of being authentic, we used a Mason jar to cut out our biscuits.


I told the girls about how I (along with my sister and cousins) used to help my grandmama bake biscuits, and my favorite part was when grandmama let us have the tiny pieces of leftover dough to make miniature biscuits. The girls got right to work making miniature biscuits. Then we all tasted the raw biscuit dough. This brought back many wonderful memories of time spent with my grandmama and created new memories for the girls with their grandmama :)



While the biscuits baked, we made butter! We poured heavy cream into baby food jars, dropped in a marble, and shook and shook. I learned the hard way that you CAN shake too hard! I was showing the girls how to shake vigorously and the marble broke my jar!

Eventually, we had butter, and it tasted wonderful on the fresh, homemade biscuits! We ate them all within minutes :)

Done!

I've finally finished emailing all of the cultural exchange group members with your group members names and addresses! I am sure that I have overlooked some emails, so if you sent me name and address and did not get an email from me, please let me know. I have space for 4 more people in a group. Also, if you requested a group of 12 and only received 1 email with a group of 6, please let me know. THANK YOU! I've loved seeing the emails back and forth between the group members. It looks like everyone is very excited about this, and I am, too!!!

Our Art Museum

The girls are SO proud of the "Art Museum" that I set up with their summer art projects in our den. I labeled each painting with their names, ages, and art medium. We set this up before O(4)'s bday party, so they could share their art with their family and friends. O says she wants to keep our Art Museum up FOREVER!

Our Flag Cake

The girls and their friends had a great time decorating (and eating!) this flag cake on July 4th. My mom baked an angel food cake, and the girls "iced" it with Cool Whip. They then decorated it with blueberries and strawberries to make the stars and stripes. This is a July 4th tradition that we started a couple of years ago and hope to continue for many years.

Painting Canvases

As a part of "Art on the Beach" week, the girls painted canvases. E(1) painted a very abstract painting, and O(4) said she was painting a landscape. We've been reading about Monet, so she was painting a landscape like we read about. Her interpretation of what she saw was VERY different than the way I would have painted it!

They had fun, and I have 2 more masterpieces to hang on my walls!

"Laura" Camp

Since O(4) is totally obsessed with "old times" and Little House on the Prairie, I decided to have "Laura" Camp this summer! O and I have been talking about it and planning for months!

For one week this summer, we did a "Laura" activity each day. Since then we've done a couple of "Laura" activities per week. One of the girls' favorite activities was washing clothes on a washboard. They dressed in their prairie clothing and out we went to the front yard to wash clothes!

The struggled with washing one of Elliott's t-shirts, but O loved washing his socks! They were easier for her to handle, and we were all amazed by how white she got them!


Thanks to Guhguh (my mom) for finding the washboard and tub for us to use!!!

The Complete Little House Nine-Book Set

Still Working On It...

I took yesterday off from working on the cultural exchange, but I'm working again tonight. I need 1 more person (who is not from the US or Canada) to exchange in a group sending/receiving 6 packages. I'm double checking the groups for diversity and will hopefully start sending emails to group members tonight or tomorrow night. So far, I think I have been able to include everyone who has emailed me. However, the last few people who have requested groups of 12 will be in groups of 6...sorry about that. So, if you've emailed me your information, look for an email from me within the next few days. I'll post on here once I have everything sent out. Thanks!

Golf Ball/Ping Pong Ball Paintings

On our first "Art on the Beach" morning, the girls painted with golf and ping pong balls.

To do this activity, we dipped the balls in paint and then rolled them around on the paper in a large container. O(4) was not very interested in this activity (some glittery gel that was in the bag of paint caught her eye, and she only wanted to play with that), but E(1) enjoyed it.

Painting with Medicine Droppers & Liquid Watercolors

The girls really enjoyed using medicine droppers (they call them "shotmakers" since they pretend to give shots with them) and liquid watercolors. I diluted the liquid watercolor a little bit with water in an ice cube tray. I gave the girls white cardstock since the paper needed to be thick in order to not tear. They got right to work!

Clarification on the Cultural Exchange

There seems to be a fair amount of confusion about how this exchange will work, so I want to clarify...

If you choose to be in a group of 6, you will send out 6 packages to 6 different children in 6 different countries. You will (hopefully) receive 6 different packages from 6 children in 6 different countries.

Each package should contain a letter from your child to the recipient's child. The recipient's name should be included in the letter. I will type our letter on the computer, and change the name for each child. I will not write an original letter for each package as that would make it much too complicated and time-consuming.

Every package should contain at least 1 picture of the child who is sending the package. Each package should also contain several cultural items, such as coins, stamps, a small flag, stickers, postcards, trinkets, toys, candy, games, etc. For example, I may include several small toys that my children love...encapsulated foam animals that you put in water and they emerge from the capsule (I'm not sure what they are called), growing animals, silly bands, American Girl stickers, etc. I'm hoping to find things that are original to the US, but also fun and entertaining.

If you have any questions, PLEASE post them in the comments section of this post, so that everyone who is participating can read them. THANK YOU!!!

Another Cultural Exchange Update

I started working on dividing the groups last night and realized that it was futile since I was still waiting on information from some people. So, I'll divide the groups tonight. If you haven't emailed me with your preferred group number, please do so immediately. I think I'll be able to include everyone who sent me their information. Although, some of the groups may have more than 1 US and Canadian participants. I hope that's not a problem. The other problem I'm having is that I want to exchange with everyone! I just wish shipping wasn't so expensive!

Cultural Exchange Update

Thanks to everyone for their responses. I've gone through all of the emails, and if you haven't emailed me with your group choice (1, 6, or 12) you should have gotten an email requesting this information. (if you have emailed me this info, and I sent you an email asking for it...just disregard my email!) I need this information ASAP as I am dividing everyone into groups right now. Thanks!

Spray Paint Art

The girls had fun making art using spray bottles filled with watered down liquid watercolors (from IKEA). I taped big pieces of paper to our fence and gave them a couple of spray bottles of paint (thanks to Amber for this idea!). E(1) got a little frustrated because she couldn't spray the paint without help, but she still had fun.

I also gave them a pack of blow paint pens, and we all really enjoyed that!