Viking Festival

We were so fortunate this week to have found a local Viking Festival put on by the Sons of Norway.  Yesterday, after coming up with some make-shift costumes….a towel cape, big t-shirt with mom’s belt, napkins as head coverings and a $1 Viking Hat found at Target….we made our way to the Festival. 

  

  

  

  

  

The Menu

 

  

  

Norwegian Sampler Platter with Lingonberry Lemonade

 

Viking Feast

 

  

  

  

  

Fresh Hot Bread

 

  

  

  

  

One Sleepy Viking

 

It was super hot and  all the kids were red-faced and tired when we got home. Although, we still managed to have an excellent time and I was super impressed by all the different exhibits they had, including some authentic Norwegian music in the “Beer Garden”.  We couldn’t hang long enough for the fish fling and log toss, which the kids really wanted to do, but we did get a fun feel for what Viking life may have been like.  As it continues to be scorching hot, we decided to consider our Sampler Platter and the kids’ “Troll Treats” to be sufficient for our Norwegian food sampling. We also tried the Lefse-thin potato pancakes with cinnamon and sugar-for dessert, but I’m not sure where that picture went.  And, we definitely enjoyed the lingonberry lemonade on this super hot day.  

Thank you Norway, Tusen takk.  I hope to be back in your fjords someday and as we put on our Viking attire, we will be reminded of your great country.  

Ha det!

De tre bukkene Bruse

For over a hundred years children have loved listening to the Story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. In our reading about Norway this was definitely a story we included and yesterday we made some “cork trolls” to remember the troll from this popular tale.

I almost titled this post “A Troll Wedding” as we have two cute little trolls of the opposite sex, but the wedding has not yet taken place and I didn’t want to be presumptuous.

I found this fun craft on FamilyFun.com and it was a little easier this time to work with corks after we had a bit of practice with our Estonian deer. First, we glued two corks together, then we attached googly eyes, beads for a nose, pom-poms for arms and legs, ribbons for a belt and tissue paper for the body and hat.  This definitely required a bit of help from me and I worked one on one with Tallinn and Addie which was a bit easier.

The Happy Couple

 

Fjords and Arctic Currents

The past few days as we’ve studied about Norway, we have learned about their many fjords (narrow passages of water with cliffs on both sides), glaciers, the ancient Sami people group in the northernmost part of Norway-Finmark, their love of music and more.  We even learned that the name of Norway-Norge in Norwegian-came about because Norway is the Northernmost country in Europe. 

Today, after a couple of days of reading, we took a field trip to our local aquarium. Now, this doesn’t necessarily have much to do with Norway, but it was “home school day” at the aquarium and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Also, because Norway is such a coastal nation, tying in ocean studies does actually fit into our week, even if the oceanic creatures are a bit different in the arctic. 

So, here are some fun shots of our day today….. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

last night we had red snapper for dinner, so fun to see some in the exhibit today

 

 

one of my favorites....sea dragons

 

 

 

Addie and Tal both brought backpacks and journals and were quick to bust them out when the opportunity arose to capture what they saw on paper. 

Honestly, how fun is homeschooling?

Norway: Land of the Northern Lights

Yesterday, we crossed the equator once again and traveled WAY north to Norway.  While I have been to Norway briefly and have some trinkets and funny memories of our trip (my father who doesn’t drink alcohol taking a big chug of dark foamy beer, thinking it was iced tea, among a few) Norway is currently close to our heart for other reasons.  As I have shared before we named each of our children after capital cities.  Recently we have stepped forth in adopting another sweet baby boy from Korea.  After circumnavigating the world a few times, we landed on Oslo for his name….Oslo Jeremiah Wu.

I LOVE it and was so excited yesterday when I realized that the picture I painted a few years back with cities that are meaningful to our family (I got the idea from the Land of Nod) also included Oslo.  It’s perfect!

We began like usual, with our map coloring and flag craft, this time a “snowflake flag” that I found on patriocrafts .  This was a bit tricky to cut so I helped a bit.

Today we read a Viking book that my parents brought back from a recent trip to Norway.

We learned about the different journeys of the vikings, the foods they ate and the clothing they wore. We saw pictures of different Viking weaponry and ships and, perhaps most importantly, read about Leif Eriksson, the Norwegian (Viking) who really discovered America.

After perusing the pictures in this lovely book, we moved onto another “new book” that was a recent gift from my mom’s friend. I’m so thankful for this book that is actually quite old but contains several fun, somewhat authentic, stories about different children from all over the world.

(not the best picture, but you get the idea).

In this sweet book we read about Olga from Norway and how she learns how to go ice-fishing with her father in winter and loves being out in the Northern Lights.  When summer comes, Olga’s family returns to the hills with their cattle and farm animals to their dairy farm, making lots of cheese and butter in preparation for the cold winter to come.

We have much more to learn about this great Scandinavian nation and are excited about what we’ve learned thus far.  For our verse this week, I chose the verse that we have chosen to be Oslo’s life verse.

I know, O LORD,

that a man’s life is

 not his own;

it is not for a man to direct his

steps.

Jeremiah 10:23