Creative Family Fun

Your one-stop shop for kids activities and family fun

Terri Thompson

Around the World in 12 Dishes: Japanese Curry Rice

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I have to confess that coming up with a dish for Japan that I thought the whole family would eat was difficult.

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 searched through books and all over the Internet until I finally stumbled upon the idea of curry rice. I was surprised to learn that curry was one of the most popular dishes in Japan. Usually it’s made with an instant curry roux. But, I knew I would never find that in my small town. Luckily, I happened across this recipe for homemade Japanese curry rice from No Recipes.

I discovered that making the curry rice was going to be a long process. It took me about 1.5 hours from start to finish. Since our typical meal usually take about 30 minutes, I really had to plan ahead.

We made plans for a special night of Japanese food and by the time that night got here, everyone was excited.

But, no one wanted to help. So I chopped… and I chopped. I tossed veggies in a pan. I cooked up a batch of rice. Finally, a little helper came to the kitchen to help.

I had AJ (age 3) stand at the stove and help stir. There’s a lot of stirring involved, so it helps to have a helper.

So, we worked and worked softening up all of our veggies.

We added the chicken, the potatoes, and the carrots. Finally it was time to make the roux. Yum… did the kitchen ever smell good!

AJ and I gathered the family and it was time to eat.

My little kitchen helper gobbled her curry. Boy, was it good!

Unfortunately, it turned out the the other two members of the family weren’t fans of curry. Oh well. We still had fun on our culinary trip to Japan.

I hope you’ll consider joining us by making a Japanese dish of your own!

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?

We had started our journey the same way Phileas Fogg did in London, UK, and Stockholm, Sweden continued on to Moscow in Russia. Now our next stop is New Delhi, capital of the exotic sub-continent of India!

  • 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 1 – The fifth country is Japan!

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 Japan: 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: Sushi, Gohan, Chicken Yakitori, Gyoza, Sukiyaki, Yakisoba.
    • 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!]
    • Read a book: We recommend “K is for Kabuki”.
    • Fun fact: Many of the western style toilets in Japan have a built-in bidet system for spraying your backside.

Kid’s Co-op: Full of Great Advice

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It’s Friday and you know what that means? It’s time for the Kids Co-op! Link-up your favorite kid-related post and make sure and check out all the fun that has been linked up from other bloggers.

There was so much information shared last week from crafts to outdoor activities. There was also sensory play ideas, baby play ideas, book recommendations, kid-friendly recipes and more. Today, I’d like to share three posts that are full of wonderful parenting advice.

B. Inspired, Mama! shared 13 Tips for Taming Toddler Aggression.

In week 2 of their series “10 Simple Ways to Connect With Your Child,” One Perfect Day talked about listening. It’s a must read!
Now it’s time for you to share all the fun you’ve been having! Please join up and share your favorite post. (And, we’d love you forever if you’d link back to us!) Your link will show up on all of the hosts blogs. It’s time to link up, visit some new blogs, and have a lot of fun!

Math Play: Square Hunt

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Our driveway shape maze wasn’t the only game we played while learning about squares.

We also went on a fun square hunt throughout the house.

The set-up for this game was easy. I took a sheet of paper and divided it into four areas. I then chose four room of our house.

You can do as many rooms as you would like and make your tally sheet as simple or as pretty as you like.

I just happen to like pretty.

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 went room by room and the girls started hunting squares.

They found blocks, Kleenex, Duplos, my iPod dock, window panes, the TV screen, board books, baskets, boxes, and many more things.

Each time they found something I would add it to our list.

When we were finished with a room, we could count the items together.

Then Lizzie (age 5) was given the task of recording the number. I’ll take any excuse I can find to help her practice writing her numbers and letters.

Once we were finished with all of the rooms, we practiced a few more simple math concepts.

I asked the girls which room had the most squares and which room had the fewest squares. We then ranked the rooms from most to least.

You could also help the kids add all of the room totals together to find out just how many squares you found.

The variations to this game are endless. Hunt for circles or triangles. Hunt for a variety of shapes to see which one shows up the most at your house. Hunt for colors instead of shapes. Anything goes!

What variation of this game would you like to play with your kids?

Get Crafty: Spider Web Painting

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We’ve had so much fun learning about spiders lately that we decided to do a spider art project.

So, we found some fun materials and made these awesome spider web paintings.

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.

Supplies Needed:

Brown construction paper
White & black paint
Yarn or string
Bottle caps
Paintbrushes

Our first step was making the spider webs.

In order to get the wispy look of an actual spider web, we painted our webs with yarn.

I poured some white paint on a plastic lid. The girls ran their yarn through the paint, then ran it all over their paper.

It was so much fun and so very messy!

When we were done, we had a couple of wild and wispy spiders webs and two pairs of paint-covered hands.

But, we weren’t done yet. Now it was time for the spiders.

We used the bottle caps to stamp the bodies of our spiders.

I had originally though we would make cute little round bodies and paint eight legs on each. Lizzie (age 5), who was considering herself quite the expert on spiders by this time, informed me that this was incorrect. My little scientist insisted that the spiders have a head AND a body.

The bottle caps just wouldn’t work for her. So, she grabbed a paintbrush and painted her spiders.

I’m definitely not one to argue, especially since she was correct!

So, she painted a family of three spiders on her spiderweb.

You can see her finished product in the first picture. AJ (age 3) enjoyed the stamping so much that her picture was more of an abstract rendering of a spider’s web. I can totally see it!

Spiders don’t have to be reserved for Halloween. Get out and observe a few, then come back and draw them!

Do your kids like bugs? Have you done any bug-related artwork recently?

Kid’s Co-op

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It’s Friday and you know what that means? It’s time for the Kids Co-op! Link-up your favorite kid-related post and make sure and check out all the fun that has been linked up from other bloggers.

After browsing through all the posts linked up last week, it looks like everyone has been having a lot of fun this June. I can’t wait to see what is linked up this week! Here are three posts that caught my eye from last week.

Mommy Labs shared an indoor obstacle course and talked about the value of big body play. She shares some great information that should not be missed.

 

I’m always excited to hear about ideas for teaching children about all the corners of the world. All Done Monkey share some wonderful resources for travelling the world through music.
Now it’s time for all the fun you’ve been having! Please join up and share your favorite post. (And, we’d love you forever if you’d link back to us!) Your link will show up on all of the hosts blogs. It’s time to link up, visit some new blogs, and have a lot of fun!