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Deanne

Thursday, September 22, 2011

middle eastern feast

We are rounding up Term 3 and about to head into our spring school holidays.
This term saw us looking at the Middle East for Geography.
I like to keep Geography simple.
We choose a different area of the world to study for a term and then pick so many countries from that part of the world. 
Each week the children spend some time drawing a map and flag and finding out some basic facts about the country: capital, language, economy, agriculture, longitude and latitude etc. and they fill these in in their geography books.
Usually we try to cook a meal from that particular country each week, I usually Google recipes and pick things that are a. simple to make, b. things my family would eat, c. easily obtainable ingredients within our budget.
This term we studied the Middle East, but we didn't feel we had the time or energy to do a meal each week so opted for a meal at the end of term.
We also had a Middle Eastern Night at Church a few weeks ago where we ate Middle Eastern food, dressed up and watched the movie Behind the Sun
The funds raised were sent to Open Doors.
I just used some of the recipes from the night, but at the last minute found a drink recipe to use.
I had planned to make a gluten free tabouli with quinoa but had forgotten to buy enough parsley and so that didn't happen.
I had also planned to make gluten free pita bread which tastes very similar to wheat pita bread but didn't get time so we all ate the wheat pita.
It probably wasn't the best day to have it.
We had a very busy day.
I had decided to Spring clean B4 and B5's bedroom and do a little rearranging, sort through their clothes and wash the walls down, so that took up the majority of the day (just don't ask what I found in there- YUCK!!). B1 was off refereeing a Catholic Schools soccer carnival and VCH was going out after. 
Thankfully B2 and B3 were here to help.

 So here is our basic meal, I forgot to take a before photo so these are the leftovers, very unusual at our house but I had a sick child and VCH ate and ran.

 The bottom salad you see is an Israeli salad, with tomatoes and cucumber and the top salad was a carrot and raisin salad.

 These are beef koftas, made to fit inside our pita bread.

 Here are some felafel, I cheated with these and used the Orgran pkt mix, you just add water leave for 15 minutes and roll into balls.

 I made a batch of my yummy pita bread- so easy and yummy- but my hayfever is not thanking me, this morning, for eating it- should have done some gluten free!

Here is the drink, a Middle Eastern lemonade, done in the blender with lemon juice, mint sugar, water and ice.
Do you like the glasses? 
I picked 6 of them up at a garage sale on Saturday for $5, these usually retail for around $3-$4 dollars each.
We didn't do dessert, we rarely eat dessert except on special occasions, I had thought of making Turkish Delight but didn't bother in the end. 

5 comments:

  1. I home schooled my three, and we also were lucky enough to explore the world through such investigations and celebrations!

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  2. I like the sound of your Geography plan Deanne, it sounds very do-able. Do you also do History or, mostly focus on Geography for your HSIE?

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  3. We do a 4 year cycle for history year 1 Ancient, year 2 Middle ages, year 3 Australia and year 4 Modern, we are just finishing off our 4th year so will head back into Ancient Times next year.
    In this same time I try to cover the globe as well, except we started a year late
    Year 1 Europe and South America
    Year 2 Australia (this lined up with our Australian History)
    Year 3 Asia and Middle East
    next year we will do
    Year 4 Africa and North America,

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  4. Well done thou good and faithful servant, what joy can be found in training up our children in the way they should go with our promise that when they are old they shall not depart from it.
    You sound like a great mum/teacher, I wish my geography lessons were like these, when I was younger, I still struggle to remember where places are on the globe, luckily for me I get to learn it all again with my own children..I love learning with my kids..
    thank you for your post..
    Nell

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  5. You amaze me..this looks delicious. i wish I had enough confidence to home school my children . What a great teacher you are ! xx Ava

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Thanks for taking the time to comment, I always appreciate your kind words.