I am very excited to have Kim from Life Over C’s visiting my blog today with her special activity and (!) a free printable!
Kim is a fellow Multicultural Kid Blogger!
Kim is a world traveling, homeschooling, mom of four beautiful girls. She and her family live in the tiny country of Georgia, where they have been missionaries for 8 years. She blogs at Life Over C’s, where you can read all about homeschooling, kid crafts, and whole lot of fun traveling experiences. You can follow Kim’s blog on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest!
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I’m so excited to be with you all today! I appreciate Varya opening up her wonderful blog to me.
Today I want to share with you a bilingual play dough activity that will introduce your child to a whole new world!
Very few people that I meet know that there is a country called Georgia, but that’s where I live right now. Georgia is a tiny country of about 4 million people located in the middle of, well, everything. We are just north of the Middle East, south of Russia, east of most of Europe, and west of Asia. Most map makers can’t even decide on which section to fit Georgia.
My family and I have lived here off and on for eight years now, but most days I feel like I can’t speak the language at all. It is a language all to its own. Nothing in common with most of the larger language structures.
And, it’s just downright complicated.
To give you a sample, I’ve created a printable play dough activity and included some identification cards that have some “simple” Georgian words on them. Now, of course, without lots of study you would not be able to read the Georgian language, so rather than write out the words, I’ve included scannable QR codes.
All you need to do is scan and listen. You can download a free QR code reader, such as NeoReader to scan the codes. Simply hold the QR code in the camera of your smart phone or iPad and the reader will do the rest.
My littlest one had fun listening to the words on the iPad. She also thought it was really cool that she could see the cards she had just been holding on the iPad screen. It’s a great way to utilize technology for learning.
While you’re at it, go ahead a print the included fruit cut-outs and have a blast creating a farmers market, fruit basket or salad with some play dough.
I made up some play dough to match the different colors of the fruit in the set. The kids had fun creating their own food. They also matched the different fruits to the correct color of play dough for a fun sorting activity. I printed three copies, so that we would have lots of fruit for playing.
To use the fruit simply print, laminate, cut out and have fun!
I’ve also included a set of printable cards for playing Memory. You can match the cartoon image of the fruit to a real-life picture.
A great tip for creating memory cards is to print on the white side of scrapbooking paper, so that the cards aren’t see-through.
These are great for building language skills. Both in English and in other languages. In addition to Memory, you can lay all the cards on a table and ask your child to find the different fruits, using whichever languages you prefer.
You can download the Bilingual QR Code Play Dough Set and Memory Game here.
I hope that you enjoy your little taste of Georgia!
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