Here is our booklist:
We fell in love with Allan Say's books. The writing and illustrations were incredible. Our three favorites were Grandfather's Journey, Tea with Milk and Kamishibai Man, but now I want to find more of his books! The kids loved how The Magic Fan has a fan to open on each page, and they got a kick out of the The Funny Little Woman. I also really enjoyed How My Parents Learned to Eat, and how it shows the blending of two cultures.
I love our Around the World Coloring Book and we enjoyed the Let's Learn About Japan activity book.
We made a number of Japanese meals, including sukiyaki (thanks to reading about it in How My Parents Learned to Eat) and a stir-fry from my favorite cookbook, Extending the Table: A World Community Cookbook by Joetta Handrich Schlabach, along with homemade sushi with tuna and imitation crab.
Rosie narrated The Funny Little Woman:
The funny little woman, she says, "My dumpling, my dumpling!" She goes to tell somebody. And then the fun little woman laughed and the people say, "Hide behind me because the wicked oni is coming." He put her in the boat and swimmer across the ocean to the weird house, she had to cook rice. She bringed the rice paddle and she goes in the boat, and then she called in the mud. The wicked oni spat all the water out, and then she goes back home, and she got some for the little babies!
And Juanito narrated The Magic Fan:
Yoshi found a magic fan. And then he opened the fan and then he build a boat to sail across to touch the moon. Then he built a kite and then a bridge. And then the huracán came. And then all the personas went to the bridge and they stayed there until the huracán was gone. And then when people saw their houses driven away by the huracán, Yoshi said, "We can build houses and fences, wagons and walls." Yoshi didn't need a magic fan because the magic he discovered was his own.
For co-op, we prayed for Japanese sign language people group and read about them in the Wycliffe book Around the World with Kate and Mack. Then, we read X and X. For snack, we ate pocky.
We made two crafts, one was mini koi and another was making cherry blossom paintings.
Next up, Central America!
Here are the previous countries in the series:
About Hannah Hinojosa...Hannah is a long time Compassion sponsor and writes about her sponsorship journey at Because of Shamim. In addition to being a wife and mother, she is a part-time math professor and loves to read.
