The Educational Summer Vacation: Studying Costa Rica

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This summer, we've picked a handful of countries around the world to learn about over school vacation. It gives us structure, keeps our brains active, and if I'm honest, when your kids can readily identify dozens of flags from obscure countries it's kind of a neat party trick. This week we learned about Costa Rica!

Monday

We started by reading the picture book Costa Rica ABCs and drawing the flag. The kids immediately said "This is just the opposite of Thailand's flag!" proving my point about it being a neat party trick. (We did Thailand last summer.)

Then the kids found Costa Rica on the big wall map in the dining room and filled out a passport page.

Free blank pages to print and download are here.

Spanish is the language spoken in Costa Rica, so I introduced them to the phrase "pura vida" and talked a little about what it means and why it's important to Ticos (people from Costa Rica.) And, since the kids are subjected daily to hearing me talk in and about Spanish over the past year as I've been learning it, we skipped some of the basics and had a little discussion about conjugating verbs. The kids were riveted, I'm sure.

When we were done, I left an early elementary school reader out for them called A Postcard from Costa Rica. And sure enough, the cover is so colorful they picked it up right away.

Tuesday

Costa Rica has one of the lowest deforestation rates in the world (my 19-year-old said she saw online that they have actually reversed deforestation) and there are 27 national parks in a country the size of West Virginia. 25% of the country is protected in either a park or wildlife reserve.

We read two books today about the rainforest and the cloud forest. The first was a bilingual book called Fernandos' Gift (El Regalo de Fernando) and the second was called  Forest in the Clouds by Sneed B. Collard III.

We watched a beautiful documentary on the hummingbirds of Costa Rica (we got the DVD at the library but it's also on Amazon Instant Video.)

Since today was all about nature and animals, I also gave the kids these books to read on their own (they devoured the ones about sloths which were full of adorable photos):

• Destiny Finds Her Way (story of a sloth in a wildlife rehabilitation center in Costa Ricea)
• A Little Book of Sloth (baby sloth cuteness overload; life in a Costa Rican "sloth orphanage")
• Tortuga Squad (true story about Costa Rican kids who save endangered sea turtles)
• Lost! from the Survivor Diaries series

Wednesday

Costa Rica generates 99% of its electricity from renewable resources, so we watched a Bill Nye video on renewable energy to teach the younger kids about the difference between renewable and non-renewable. 

I'd checked out this library book on renewable energy with project ideas at the back, and we decided to give the project on windpower a try. (You actually don't even have to have a copy of the book, just scroll down to "Renewable Energy" here to get the instructions and template.)

First we attached some paper windmill blades to a cup with a dowel and straw:

And then we set it up in front of a fan to make the blades spin. On the end was a paperclip on a string that it rolled up to demonstrate how electricity was generated.

We also decided to make one more renewable energy product, a waterwheel. I found lots of different tutorials online, but I liked the super simple design here. I just showed a picture to my 15-year-old son and he got right to work figuring out how to make it.

The website mentioned that if you need to do this indoors, you can use rice instead of water to make it less messy. But it was a nice day outside and the kids love to play with water until someone stomps in the house soaking wet and mad, so we used the garden hose to test it out:

I had planned to watch Pave the Road, a documentary on Green Pavement technology used in Costa Rica, with the older kids but we ran out of time. Not sure how excited they'd be about it anyway, but Phillip would probably be interested in it and maybe it's a nice date night movie for two people who have been married for 20 years and were never that exciting to begin with.

Thursday

With 60 active volcanoes, Costa Rica is one of the most seismically active countries in the world. We watched this YouTube video about four different volcanoes in Costa Rica:

The third volcanoes in the video is called Poás, and I found it fascinating. There's a large crater lake at the center called Laguna Caliente. It's so acidic that nothing can live it it except bacteria; scientists actually study it to learn more about Mars.

Sometimes Laguna Caliente shoots acid up into the air like a geyser (which is called a phreatic explosion.) There is also acid rain and fog that limits what can grow in the area, causes things to rust quickly, and is a health hazard to people who are out there too long.

With the help of my trusty educational sidekid ChatGPT, I invented a volcano game that the kids could play outside. Using sidewalk chalk they drew a big circle on the driveway and put a bucket of water and some water guns at the center. 

They walked around the outside of the circle until I yelled "phreatic explosion!" and then they ran to the center, grabbed a gun, and shot water into the air. When I yelled "eruption!" they had to run out of the circle. There was one less gun than kids (think musical chairs but with water guns) and we took away one every round until only the winner was left. 

Guess how long it was until the shooters turned on each other.

The younger kids wanted to play several rounds, and the older kids humored them.

Friday

There's a rich indiginous culture in Costa Rica, some of which is actually kind of a mystery. Have you heard of the Diquis Spheres? Dozens of spherical stones of varying shapes and sizes that were found on the island in the 1930s as they cleared land for banana plantations, and nobody really knows what they were for. We watched this video and then had fun reading the guesses in the comments.

Another cultural celebration in Costa Rica is La Fiesta de los Diablitos, a yearly reenactment of the Spanish conquerors meeting the indigenous people. This video was kind of long, but a good explanation of what the slightly confusing festival is all about. 

After watching the video, we made boruca masks like the people in the dance use. They all chose to do it slightly different ways. Some kids made the design on paper modeled after a picture they found online:

Others wanted to color and cut the masks out. My two kids on the outside did that, and one even taped it to his face (I may or may not have walked in to find him reading on the couch like that later on). 

Truly horrifying and would definitely scare away a Spanish conqueror.

(My middle child posed for the above picture using a glazed mask she made in art class at school that is "scary and only good for this project." Her words, not mine.)

Gallo pinto (translation: spotted rooster) is a Costa Rican breakfast food, but we made it for lunch using this recipe. I was impressed because it was a pretty easy meal and the taste didn't offend anyone in our family, even if it didn't wow them.

You can't go wrong with rice, beans, and a fried egg.

Our week studying Costa Rica was a lot of fun. We learned about sloths, rainforests, volcanoes, and had lots of water play time in the driveway. What activities would your kids have liked the most from this week?

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7 Quick Takes about Weird Kid Habits, Being the House Amazon Doesn't Want to Visit, and Birdcages Full of Stuffed Animals

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

—1—

We don't get graham crackers very often anymore, but we happened to have some in the house and it brought back childhood memories for the kids.

"Remember how we used to dip them in water at snacktime?" the 15-year-old laughed.

"I thought it was normal at the time but now I realize how gross that is," the 19-year-old agreed.

Turning to me, the 17-year-old said in an accusatory tone, "Why did you let us do that?"

I shrugged and explained something like, "That's just what you wanted to do. It was weird but it wasn't hurting anyone, so I wasn't about to die on that hill."

Little does she know they'll be asking me that in 10 years about stuff they do right now. And my answer will be the same.

—2—

At church on Sunday, the speakers talked about being united with a common goal. More in the sense of a congregation working together, but it inspired me to talk with the family about a goal we can pursue as a group this summer.

We were brainstorming what types of family goals we could have, and Phillip mentioned how much he enjoyed taking the older 4 kids to climb a mountain earlier this summer. "You know," he said, "Some people have a goal to climb all the 5,000-footers in New England."

One of the teenagers grimaced and said, "My goal is to not do that."

—3—

The weather has been beautiful outside and as much as I'd like to go on a day trip to the beach or somewhere fun, someone has needed a ride to or from work or some other activity every few hours so we're mostly homebound so I can be the taxi.

But the kids have been making the best of it. Specifically, they've been going out in the front yard and shooting each other with the hose and water guns until everyone is either crying or mad. But it's fun up until that point.

—4—

Yesterday the kids were outside playing in the water and getting soaking wet, and one by one they drifted inside to change into dry clothes until my 11-year-old was the only one left. 

She was standing in the driveway with a 5-gallon bucket over her head, spraying the hose up into the bucket (I think she was experimenting with ricocheting the water off the side of the bucket into her mouth?) and of course the Amazon delivery driver chose that moment to stop by with a package.

Watching out the window, the 17-year-old sighed, "That guy is probably like, 'Man, I hate this place.' The delivery drivers probably drew straws to see who had to come here today and he lost."

—5—

The Amazon package was the birdcage my daughter has been saving up for. And how is this for a weird coincidence? Just after we received it I went to the swap shop (an area of our town dump where you can take or leave any gently used items from toys to dishes to sport equipment) and I saw this sitting there waiting for me:

A perfectly good birdcage. Which my kids are using for stuffed animals until we get a real animal to put in it.

It doesn't have the little plastic trays for food and water, but other than that it's actually better than the one we originally bought so I think we'll return it and have the 15-year-old design food and water dishes and 3D print them.

—6—

My 7-year-old has a really nasty-looking swollen lump on his leg. I assume it started with a mosquito bite that he scratched and it got infected. When I noticed the infection I tried to lance and drain it at home, but it actually looked worse the next morning so I took him to the doctor.

For now we're treating it as a normal infection and he's on antibiotics, but the doctor is also testing him for MRSA just in case. Yikes. 

—7—

I'm the president of the Young Women's (teenage girl) organization at church, and we hold a fun youth activity at the church one night a week. This week we were combined with the Young Men for "Kindergarten Night." They played recess games like tag, duck duck goose, and 4-square, with graham crackers and juice boxes for snack. It was a great success.

The girls had the idea to have everyone come dressed as a kindergartner, and everyone got into it. We had boys show up in their younger siblings' character PJs and girls wearing pigtails or facepaint. Some of them even brought props (I saw a Thomas the Train lunchbox and a toddler balance bike.) The night could have gone poorly if everyone hadn't gotten so into the theme, but they did not disappoint and everyone had a fun time.

Now I'm thinking we should actually do something similar for the adults, but instead of playing kindergarten games we'll just roll out little foam mats and have an hour of naptime. I would come to that activity for sure.

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The Educational Summer Vacation: Studying Portugal

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, and I may earn a small commission when you click on them at no additional cost to you. You can read more about my being an Amazon affiliate and other legal stuff here.

Every summer, the kids and I do a little thing we call The Educational Summer Vacation, where we pick a country every week and learn about it. As much of a planner as I am, I completely spaced this until the day before we were supposed to start studying Portugal, so it was a mad dash to put something together. Thank goodness for ChatGPT, which planned a good portion of this for me.

Monday

So I wasn't super-prepared, but the kids know the drill after doing this for 11 years and when I threw their passport booklets at them they knew what to do.

Free printable of the inside pages are here.

They found Portugal on the map, on the Iberian Peninsula right next to Spain, and wrote down whatever physical features they could learn from the giant wall map in the dining room.

Then they looked up the flag of Portugal, which has a pretty intricate crest with a ribbon thing strung across the back of it that made my daughter grumble a lot while drawing it. But we got it done, and then the 7-year-old colored it in.

We learned a little bit of Portuguese with this video (turn down your volume or the beginning will rupture your eardrum) and one of my older kids learned for the first time that Portuguese doesn't come from Brazil, which should have been apparent from the name but I guess you never can assume.

I read a few things about the sites in Portugal and kept hearing about bridges, so I decided to tell the kids a little about some of the most famous ones:

1. Vasco da Gama Bridge. At 10 miles long, it's the longest bridge in Europe. Look up some pictures; it just stretches on forever.
2. Dom Luis Bridge. This one was designed by Gustave Eiffel, who designed the Eiffel Tower, and it's kind of funny how similar they look somehow.
3. April 25th Bridge. Famous for looking like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, but another fun fact is that it was originally named the Salazar bridge after a Portuguese dictator who sounds like he went to Slytherin, but it was renamed after a revolution on April 25, 1974.

We finished off the day by watching this drone video of Portugal, featuring the three bridges I just described to the kids:   

My 11-year-old's first grade teacher was from Portugal, and after watching this video my kids were going, "WHY DID SHE LEAVE???" It does look amazing.

Tuesday

If you visit Portugal, you'll see a lot of walls in the city decorated with blue-and-white tiles, called azulejos. They've very iconic. We watched this video on azulejos and how they're made, and then decided to design our own.

Using a 3"x3" square paper, each of the kids penciled a design. We then used a widow or a lightpad like this one to trace and rotate it 4 times, ending up with a symmetrical "tile" that measured 6"" by 6".

The artists' process.

Here are the finished results, next to the smaller square that they traced to make it:

The 17-year-old.

The 7-year-old.

The 11-year-old.

The 15-year-old.

Then we played this family board game called Azul. Weirdly enough, we already own this game! We've had it for a few years, but we had no idea until this week what it was based on. All we knew was that it was a fun strategy game, and that it was also pretty to look at. 

Wednesdsay

Portugal is the world's top cork producer. A lot of that goes into wine corks, and Portugal is known for its wine, but with screw top bottles getting so popular there is a proliferation of cork products wherever you go in Portugal: backpacks, shoes, purses, and so on.

My kids all knew what cork was: they each have a corkboard to hang up their important papers in their rooms. But did they know where it came from? They suggested that it came from:

• the sea
• a plant
• the ground

I guess "plant" was the closest answer, because it actually is the bark of a tree. We watched this video on cork harvesting to prove that I wasn't just making stuff up (the 7-year-old wouldn't believe me.)

For an activity, we could have made some coasters out of cork, but we don't really use them in our house and I don't like clutter, so we instead opted to get this small cork globe and mark all of the countries we've learned about in The Educational Summer Vacation since we started in 2012:

Smaller than you probably think it is, but all the pins came with it so that was a plus.

I debated getting this flat cork map which was cheaper, but in the end I decided I liked the globe better.

Thursday

Two famous explorers from late 15th century (early 16th century) Portugal are Vasco da Gama and Ferdinand Magellan. You've probably heard their names even if you didn't know exactly what they did.

This is where ChatGPT really helped me out. I asked it to help me create a game for my kids to learn about these guys. First, it gave me this long and frankly kind of boring-sounding board game that would've been a lot of work to put together. So I asked it for a more active game, and the suggestions it came up with were not too bad.

I divided the kids into 2 teams, which were creatively named Ferdinand Magellan and Vasco da Gama. I gave them a copy of a world map and had them look up what each explorer did, and draw the route they traveled on the map. Then they competed in four different contests:

Event #1: Vasco da Gama's Voyage

We happened to be dog-sitting for a family friend with a very long driveway, so this was perfect. Vasco da Gama set up a sea trade route from Portugal to India, so the kids raced up the driveway, touched the mailbox (India), and then ran back.

Event #2: Sea Trade Challenge 

We did a makeshift egg-and-spoon relay across the yard to symbolize trading items with India, which absolutely ended with someone crying and throwing theirs on the ground (luckily we didn't use actual eggs.) I'm sure Vasco da Gama did the same thing.

Event #3: Magellan's Circumnavigation

Ferdinand Magellan is famous for being the first to circumnavigate the globe, and sailed west to get all the way around the world. So I timed each of the kids while they ran around the perimeter of the yard around the house.

Event #4: Sailing Through the Storm

When Magellan discovered the shortcut through South America now known as the Magellan Strait, it was by accident during a storm. So I asked the kids to draw a long, zig-zag line across the driveway with sidewalk chalk, and the younger ones had fun trying to run on it from beginning to end as quickly as they could.

At the end of each challenge, I read them some facts about Magellan and da Gama from the biographies here and here. Maybe I should have given out prizes at the end, but I forgot to ask ChatGPT about that. 

For dinner, we had a Portuguese soup called caldo verde.

The kids ate it without complaint because we regularly have something very similar, a knock-off recipe of Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana soup. It just uses a different kind of sausage and adds cream. Even though my 17-year-old initially looked at it and joked, "I'm very excited to try your dishwater-and-spam soup."

Friday

Today, we watched this video to learn about folk dance in Portugal:

About halfway through the video, without any prompting from me, they asked "Are we going to make castanets?" They know me so well.

Following this tutorial, which is totally my kind of tutorial because I actually hate crafts and this one was so simple, we made a set of castanets and then we played the video again while the younger kids danced around and played with them. (In the following hours, they drove me crazy until I hid them in a pile of clean laundry so no one will find them until they decide to fold it.)

For last few days, my older girls had been working on these Portuguese custard tarts called pasteles de nata. They made the crust one day, the filling the next, and then baked them today. 

There are actually a ton of egg-yolk pastries and desserts in Portugal, because egg whites were historically used for starching monks' and nuns' habits in Portuguese convents and they needed to invent a use for all the leftover yolks!

The week in Portugal flew by, and the kids learned a lot including the origin of cork and the origin of a game we have and play regularly in our own house. Thanks to ChatGPT for all the help in planning this week, and I look forward to doing it again in another few weeks, when we're (figuratively speaking) off to Costa Rica and then Pakistan!

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