We are Worldwide Culture Swappers

We love our beautiful little island in the Mediterranean ....Malta and when we found this site on line we were very interested to participate and let others know all about it. When you sign up for the Worldwide Culture Swap you will be put in a group with 5 families from around the world.  The objective of the swap is to share information with each family about the country in which you live (or that you will be representing) so that they can get a feel for the culture of that country. This is achieved by sending a package (usually addressed to the child or children) with bits and pieces that you have chosen to give a good overview of what it is like to live there.  We were very excited in preparing our package. This is what our package included and a brief description is given about each item.

Here is a photo and some information on each object we put in our pack.

    A traditional Recipe – Figolla

    A figolla cutter

Brief information about the origins of the recipe for the traditional sweet
 Figolla with step by step instructions and a Figolla cutter.

    A traditional children’s game – Iz-Zunzana ( plus link to more traditional games)

    A soft ball to play the traditional children’s game

Translation of song for game and instructions how to play it.  Plus soft ball to play the game.

    Twistees ( a locally produced popular snack)

Twistees

    Galletti ( a locally produced water cracker ideally to eat with cheese)

Galletti

    Exploring Malta Activity book

A 44 page book full of fun information about the geography and history of Malta and Gozo. It’s bursting with activities such as mazes, colouring-ins, cut-out figures; crossword puzzles; join the dots; spot the difference and even a build your own balcony and galley!

    A Maltese cross  Filigree pendant (silver 925 with certificate)plus information

    Luzzu (traditional fishing boat) magnet

Luzzu magnet

    Lanyard 

    Bag

    Lapel pin of the Maltese cross

Maltese Cross

    Postcard booklet of Malta

    Map of the Maltese islands

    Information leaflets (sponsored by Malta Tourism Authority)

Brochures from Malta Tourism Authority

    Flowers of Malta postcard  (plus link)  for more information on flora and fauna of Malta

    Stationary – pen, pencil and bookmark

We also included an introductory letter with some photos of the family in various places in Malta.

K was very excited in the preparation of the package and I can say she is now even more excited to receive the four packages from our swappers which are from Scotland, Australia, Virginia USA and California USA.

To sign for a Culture Swap visit http://www.worldwidecultureswap.com/p/worldwide-culture-swap.html

And here are the pics of K and L opening their parcels

Scotland pack

USA - Virginia pack

USA - California pack

Australia pack

  

B is for beach D is for diving

Summer is our favourite time of the year and the best part of it is visiting the beautiful beaches in Malta and Gozo. These are some photos of the beaches we visited.

Crossing between Malta and Gozo. Comino island at the back.

Hondoq ir-Rummien Bay - Gozo

Xlendi Bay - Gozo

Kids on the Coast activity at Ghajn Tuffieha by Il-Majjistral Natural Park

Sunset at Ghajn Tuffieha - Malta

Swimming at Pembroke (our hometown) with cousins - Malta

Ghadira  Mellieha - Malta

K practising diving skills

Ghar Lapsi - Malta

Once in a Blue Moon.... and August Virtual Book club

Yesterday we experienced .... the once in a blue moon day.....!!! 

Well there are various ideas of what this really means but we decided to go for the appearance of the second full moon in one month. Here is a definition  given by Wikipedia. K and L seemed rather interested in the activity and we took the opportunity to link it to Our Summer Virtual Book Club activity at Toddler Approved. The author chosen for August was Kevin Henkes. To relate to our Blue Moon experience we read Kitten's first full moon.

The activity we did was to finger paint a moon. Well actually the first was to see the Full moon on Friday 31st August 2012.

 
We also watched this video for more info related to the phases of the moon.

For the activity first L had to choose on which coloured paper to paint between blue and black. He chose black as he said it reminded him of the night sky.

Next he had to choose the shape to use to draw the full moon.

He chose the circle and then drew around it.

Next it was paint time ......

.... and this is Lee's full moon!!

Next we did some role play of the story with a cat hand puppet and Lee's full moon!!

This was a great activity and I am sure it will not be one in a blue moon only ;-) we will be doing more activities related to moon ..... until the next post you can follow this Blog Hop related to Kevin Hankes books.