Creative Family Fun

Your one-stop shop for kids activities and family fun

Terri Thompson

Exploring Alaska: Resource Post

By

(map image via Brian Swan Creative Commons License)

Do you want to do your own exploration of Alaska? I’ve compiled a list of books, activities, blog posts, videos, and websites that helped us with our project. Bear with me as this list is quite extensive, but I’m providing it in the hopes to help you create your own virtual journey through Alaska.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Alaska: An Overview
Books:
Alaska (Welcome to the U.S.A.) by Ann Heinrichs
Denali National Park and Preserve (True Books: National Parks) by David Petersen (Both this book and Alaska (Welcome to the U.S.A.) are not widely available for purchase. They are however, widely available in public libraries. So, if you want to use these books, check your library first.)
Under Alaska’s Midnight Sun by Deb Vanasse
The Salmon Princess: An Alaska Cinderella Story by Mindy Dwyer
Arctic Lights, Arctic Nights by Debbie S. Miller
A Child’s Alaska by Claire Rudolf Murphy
Videos: 
Travel Alaska YouTube Channel – We watched several videos on the Travel Alaska Channel to see all the different areas of the state. Some of the videos are ads, but those are clearly marked. The others are a great overview of this beautiful state.
Websites:
Nature Walk: Denali, Alaska at Imagine Childhood – Take a virtual nature walk through Denali in the wintertime
Activities:
Alaska-themed Creative Family Fun Night
Alaska state coloring page via Crayola.com

Moose
Books:
Moose (Animals That Live in the Forest) by JoAnn Early Macken

It’s a Baby Moose! (Baby Mammals)
by Kelly Doudna
Amazing Animals: Moose by Kate Riggs 
Elusive Moose by Joan Gannij
This Moose Belongs to Me by Oliver Jeffers
Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose by Dr. Seuss
Looking for a Moose by Phyllis Root
If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Joffe Numeroff
Activities:
Moose Silhouette Paintings
Moose craft and If You Give a Moose a Muffin activities from Crayon Freckles
If You Give a Moose a Muffin muffin-tin meal from Coffee Cups & Crayons

Sled Dogs and The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race
Books:
Mush! Across Alaska in the World’s Longest Sled-Dog Race by Patricia Seibert
Douggie: The Playful Pup Who Became a Sled Dog Hero by Pam Flowers
Wind-Wild Dog by Barbara Joose
Dogteam by Gary Paulsen
Websites:
Iditarod – The Last Great Race – The is the official website of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. You’ll find videos, photos, a history of the race, and a very extensive education section.

Native Alaskans
Books:
Eskimo Boy: Life in an Inupiaq Village by Russ Kendall (This is another book that is not available to purchase new, but it was too good of a resource not to include. Look for it in your public library.)
Kitaq Goes Ice Fishin
by Margaret Nicolai
The Eagle’s Gift by Rafe Martin
Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest by Gerald McDermott

The Polar Bear Son: An Inuit Tale by Lydia Dabcovich
Activities:
Totem pole project and writing prompt from Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational
Totem pole craft from No Time for Flashcards

For the Older Kids (Elementary-Aged & Beyond)
Books:
Dogsong by Gary Paulsen 
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
White Fang by Jack London
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
Activities:
The book,Hands-On Alaska: Art Activities for All Ages by Yvonne Y. Merrill, was full of art and craft ideas that would be appropriate for your older children. The projects were based on traditional Alaska Native art. The projects are amazing, and the instructions will help you make masks, jewelry, and many more works of art.

Other topics to consider:
Northern lights, grizzly bear, bald eagle, the tundra, glaciers, totem poles, salmon, and snow

I hope these resources help you in planning your own exploration of Alaska (or just to find some awesome new books to read). If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me or ask in the comments. Have fun!

10 Ways to Play This Weekend: Week 23

By

Around the World in 12 Dishes: Greek Salad Bites

By

We’ve been to so many fun places while participating in Around the World in 12 Dishes, and this month we landed in Greece.

I was excited; I love Greek food. Now, I just needed to find a way to introduce it to the girls in a way that they would get them excited to try.

I stumbled across this fantastic idea for a Bite-Sized Greek Salad from Cooking With My Kid and knew that with a few tweaks, it would be perfect for us.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

We started with some grape tomatoes, black olives, sliced cucumber, and feta cheese.

I showed the girls how to thread them on their toothpicks and put them to work.

They loved the assembly line we set up and threaded salad bite after salad bite.

One olive on the toothpick, one olive in the mouth. One tomato on the toothpick, one tomato in the mouth.

As with all of our food projects, I’ve learned that it works best to only introduce one new food at a time. This time, I was introducing feta cheese. It was much easier to get them to try it when it was combined with foods that they love, olives, tomatoes, and cucumbers.

Once the salad bites were complete, I dressed the salad with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The result was a light and refreshing snack (or side dish) that was gobbled down by everyone in the family. Success!

Would you like to participate? Here’s how:

Welcome to “Around The World in 12 Dishes”. We will be taking you on a journey around the world, (loosely) following in Phileas Fogg’s footsteps, exploring 12 different countries with our children, by cooking 12 dishes with them. One for each country visited.
The world is such a wonderfully diverse and colorful place. Our children see maps, flags and books. They see postcards and maybe they see films about the world.. but let’s really bring it to life through food! Taste and smell don’t often get explored, we think this would be wonderfully fun and interesting for you and your children.
Not only is it an exciting and different way to learn about cultures, but cooking with children brings a host of benefits – from numeracy to science. How can you beat that?

Around the World in 12 Dishes

We had started our journey the same way Phileas Fogg did in London, UK, and now are arriving in Athens, capital of Greece!

  • March 4 – First country was the UK
  • April 1 – The second country was Sweden
  • May 6 – The third country was Russia
  • June 3 – The fourth country was India
  • July 7 – The fifth country was Japan
  • August 5 – The sixth country was Australia
  • September 2 -The seventh country was French Polynesia
  • October 7 – The eighth country was Mexico
  • November 4 – The ninth country was Brazil
  • December 2 – The tenth country was Morocco
  • January 13 – The eleventh country is Greece

How to join the fun!

  • The only mandatory part is the dish, the rest is all up to you, we just thought it would be fun and more concrete to the kids as to why we are making a unusual dish.
  • Cook a dish from Greece: The goal is to explore this country through FOOD and activities if you wish. Make a typical dish (sweet or savoury) from the country with the kids, take photos and have fun!
  • Typical dishes: Gyros, Souvlaki, Spanakopita, Baklava.
  • Print your passport: Click here to download, comes with space for a photo of the child with the dish. Here is a little cover for it if you wish 🙂
  • Color a placemat: Once colored/painted or whatever other way you want to do this, you can laminate it or put it between clear contact paper to use it over and over. Great conversation piece for you and your kids. Click here to download it.
  • Make a craft: you can make a country related craft with the kids [optional!]
    • Fun fact: Santa Claus is Greek. St Nicholas was a rich Greek that used to donate his money to the poor.

Exploring Alaska Family Fun Night

By

Our exploration of Alaska led to a great idea for a family fun night.

Alaska is rich in culture and history, which can set the stage for a fun family evening.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

I prepared a easy dinner of baked salmon, sourdough bread, and a green vegetable. Salmon is one of the most important foods in Alaska, both as an industry and as a food source. Sourdough bread has been popular in Alaska ever since the gold rush. The green vegetable was chosen to round out the meal.

While I was cooking, the girls made place cards for everyone. We traced a bear stencil on black paper and cut them out. Lizzie worked on her writing and wrote everyone’s names on the bears. To help the bears stand up, we cut an empty cardboard tube into four sections. We attached the bears to the tube sections with double-sided tape; glue would work just as well.

We spent the meal telling Creative Daddy all the fun things we had learned about Alaska. The best part for the girls was learning about all the amazing wildlife that make their homes in Alaska. Our evening ended here, but I want to share an additional project you can do to enrich your Alaska Family Fun Night.

Make a Family Totem

Totem poles were often used by the Native people of the Pacific Northwest to symbolize a family or clan. They were created to tell a story and often used animals as symbols. This is the perfect project to work on together as a family. We took our inspiration from the totem poles located in Totem Bight State Historical Park.

Supplies Needed:

Empty paper towel tube painted brown
Various colors of card stock or construction paper
Black marker
Scissors
Glue

Before beginning the project, you’ll want to choose an animal to represent each member of your family. We used this explanation of Northwest Symbols as our guide. Creative Daddy was the wolf, chosen because it represents intelligence and leadership. I was the bear, which represents motherhood. We chose the loon for Lizzie, because it represents peace and generosity, and the beaver for AJ, because it represents creativity and determination. We also drew a simple dog and a cat to include our pets on our totem. Have fun choosing your animals. It’s fascinating to see what choices your family members make.

Elect a family member to draw your animals, or each person can draw their own. (Our animals look a bit diabolical & cranky, but believe me, our family is not usually like that!) Once you have them drawn, cut them out and glue them to your totem pole. We arranged ours according to age with the cat and dog at the bottom.

I hope you have fun exploring Alaska together as a family. What other locations would you like to see a Creative Family Fun Night designed around?

10 Ways to Play This Weekend: Week 22

By