Learned Tot: On the Go

Wow, it's been a good while since I've posted about our learning-at-home-after-school activities. It's not that we have slowed down our learning efforts, indeed not. Yet finding a quiet moment to write about the said endeavors can be a challenge.

In a matter of days we will be boarding a plane for a spring break (destination is another matter, there will not be a palm tree in sight). Travel calls for packable activities, preferably with educational value, that fits into the carry-on with room to spare.

This before you is a fairly balanced curriculum that will serve us well for the duration of the trip, especially one the road.

Here is our packing list:

• Tiny flashcards of words to review spelling - this itty bitty flip book I chanced on at Muji is perfect size for words.
• The Angry Birds pack with a handful of twisty color pencils (less messy and easier to use than crayons!) and a pen.
• We love any books that Simon Basher has to dish out. These books were selected off the shelf for their slimmer size and to cover a range of subjects: U.S. Presidents for a bit of civics, Math (in lieu of daily worksheets, it is spring break after all), and Extreme Physics to learn about way-out-there concepts. 
• Wimpy Kid notebooks, one for writing and the other one for drawing. This was a great buy indeed - slim to pack and as evidenced by the smudgy nose well loved.
• A fold-up map (no spontaneous Dora songs, por favor) - all of us in this house love maps and this one, which came in the mail from a charity, is perfect for travel.

Best part? All the materials stack up to fit into a medium size backpack with room for a snack and a hoodie.

How do you incorporate learning into your travel plans?

The Lake House

For months now I've been meaning to post these photos from lake house visit last fall. In the midst of daily chaos (did you expect Modern Klatch called a day spa home?) I long for the calm of the log cabin over the lake. And fried green tomatoes.

A word about said tomatoes and this is where things get weird. My cousin's cabin isn't in the Dixie but the green tomatoes were abound. She ingeniously turned an abandoned tennis court into a kitchen garden. We picked enormous tomatoes in the cool late fall and it felt like a visit to Mrs. Haversham, if she ever took up gardening that it. Oddly in the middle of this wilderness kitchen was stocked with buttermilk and cornmeal, so naturally we made amazing fried green tomatoes.

The cabin is lovely.  One drives past corn fields and turns left after passing the third herd of cows, onto an unpaved road.  Inside are rustic logs, well stocked book shelves, and wonderful coffee.

The lake is wild - it was such a high zipping around!

Is there anything better than a fall walk through the rustling leafs?

Country slogans to amuse and puzzle

Speaking of absurd, a recent article in the Smithsonian Magazine got me thinking about country slogans designed to entice tourism. How does one distill the essence of an entire country into a single line?

Several of the gems came from the former Eastern block feeling their way in the global tourism marketplace. Croatia – “The Mediterranean as it once was.” I get their “Adriatic is the new Mediterranean” message but saps who did not bother to look at the map might be disappointed…

Source: LonelyPlanet.com

Latvia is “Best enjoyed slowly.” What? Otherwise you will run out of sights and landmarks?

Some slogans are downright trampy. Montenegro “Wild Beauty” is almost demure compared to “I Feel sLOVEnia” and Lithuania's “See It! Feel it! Love it!”

Not to be outdone, U.S. states have been branding themselves for some time. Everyone knows that “Virginia is for Lovers” (a man and a woman only, of course). Kentucky has “Unbridled Spirit,” which perhaps is one of the more successful distillations.

I will end this post with my favorite (translation, most ridiculous) slogan. Washington state’s “Say WA” reminds me of a Budweiser commercial – it is really like a tale of a King who found himself naked except here the branding ‘experts’ hoodwinked state’s tourism agency.

Did I miss any slogans that deserve a mention?