Visiting the Netherlands: Week 1

Both of the girls were looking forward to our time in the Netherlands because my mom is from Holland and Laurianna visited there when she was just a little baby. I will have quite a few video links in this post and next weeks post and also share some of the fun things we did ~ including learning a easy Dutch prayer that we are saying at dinner time. It was one that I said growing up, and it’s been fun listening to our oldest three say it each night now.

Here are the words (and a little video clip) of the prayer we learned: “Dank u wel, Here Jezus, voor dit eten. Amen.” {translation: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for this food. Amen.}

The minit books that we are working on are not for a lapbook, but the girls enjoy doing them so we are putting them on a piece of cardstock and adding them to their geography binders. There are quite a few video clips at the end of this post – sorry if the page takes a bit to load for you.

Here’s a peek at how our week worked out:

Monday

• Introduce new geography song
• Locate and map the Netherlands (both wall map and minit book)
• Use the globe to find the Netherlands
• Read Hanna in the Time of the Tulips

Tuesday

• Practiced our geography song
• Learned about the flag of the Netherlands (notebooking sheet below)
• Talked about some of the symbols of the Netherlands: windmills, wooden shoes, and tulips (minit book)
• Read a story from Around the World in 80 Tales

Wednesday

• Practiced our geography song
• Read Hanna in the Time of the Tulips again
• Talked about the life cycle of a tulip (cards for a minit book)
• Watched a video clip on windmills
• Started our windmill craft
• Learned our new prayer in Dutch (video clip above has pronunciation)

Thursday

• Practiced our geography song
• Finished up our windmill craft
• Watched several video clips about the Netherlands (courtesy of Matt Lauer’s trip around the world)
• Kept practicing our Dutch prayer and Dutch phrase: “Ik hou van jou” ~ “I love you” (see video clip above for pronunciation)

  
  

  

Resources we used:

Websites we visited/used:

• Homeschool Share: Where are the Netherlands minit book and Symbols of the Netherlands minit book. There is an entire unit on Boxes for Katje available here (we are going to read the book next week)
• DLTK windmill craft: fairly simple craft using a toilet paper tube to make a windmill. Kids can either color their own or cut out a pre-colored sheet to make one.
• Bry-Back Manor – stages of a tulip cards
  
• Learner.org – parts of a tulip bulb. I printed this image 4 to a page so we could put it inside one of our minit books along with the life cycle of a tulip cards

Intro to Netherlands with Matt Lauer: some great info on how flowers get around the world and quick facts about the Netherlands