The Waterstraut Waterspout: WWII Week: Italy

A couple of weeks ago Peyton told me he'd love to do a World War II theme week, and Calib responded with 'Why can't we do a good food week?' And honestly, when you look at the major players in WWII, you're looking at good food week. So, while Asa was in the office, I worked on putting together our next theme week, per Peyton's request You guys he was so proud of himself, announcing to his brothers 'Ah-ha! I made a theme week'. (After all the work I did for this one, I did remind him he 'thought up a theme week', while I MADE the theme week!)

But anyway, most of these countries have a pavilion at Disney. When we started with this project, I figure we'd save those Disney countries for a day when we wanted to go out and about, and eat at each of the sit down places around the world. But, this is what Peyton asked for, and I guess it is a blessing in disguise because Disney isn't cheap. Besides, we have already been to Via Napoli for their pizza made with water and flour imported to Italy (and it is A-MAZ-ING!) . We actually couldn't even do Disney this week, or next for that matter, if we wanted to. We're in black out dates until a week after Easter.

Anyway, with a new theme week comes a new board. I forgot to take a picture before our lesson, but there you have it. I'm using the map that I used to trace the map on the table for illustrations. I knew it would come in handy again!

So, they'll be getting some info each day to build upon. I just put the Axis and Allied Powers as a reminder, thanks to guys like Dwight Eisenhower, JFK, FDR, and Harry Truman- the boys are already kind of familiar with America's role in WWII.

So now instead of getting the view from America, we're getting the world view- and we started with talking about Benito Mussolini, Fascism and Communism, and the difference between Nationalism and Globalism (how relevant! Poor Peyton, sometimes he just shakes his head).

Today we got to Italy in 1922 for the March on Rome, when Mussolini and the Fascist blackshirts took control of the government. Tomorrow we'll talk about the rise of Hitler. I am kind of flying by the seat of my pants on exactly how to teach this all in an order that makes sense with both WWII week and our country days, but I'm sure it'll all be fine.

The boys are working on some file folder lapbooks for WWII as well, so they are putting those together as we go.

I'm also trying to have some activities for these countries. some WWII related, some just having to do with the country. But here's the thing, quite a few of these countries we've 'visited in our studies' before. Take Italy, it was Calib's country during the summer Olympics this year. We've done Ancient Rome Week. And speaking of Rome and Catholicism, we covered that during Religion Week. Da Vinci showed up, and we covered him during art week. When I try and Pinterest activities for these countries, a lot of them are things we've done before.

So while getting frustrated, I found a recipe for making your own Italian Ice, and I decided we would just go for it. I basically just left the boys to make this one on their own. I sat at the bar to observe (and snap pictures), but it was pretty easy, and they didn't need me at all. (I didn't even have to stop Hayden from using a 1/4 cup as a tablespoon- Calib did that all on his own).

They spread it out, and into the freezer it went.

While that spent some time in the freezer, we moved on to Italy. Like I said, we've done this country before, so I didn't have a lot new to report. We brushed over the Colosseum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and Gondolas in Venice.

But we did learn about the Battle of the Oranges! Every year in February, the town of Ivera imports 57,000 crates of oranges, which nine teams of people dressed in medieval costumes throw at each other.

Calib's postcard featured the leaning tower of Pizza.

Peyton made a nod to Da Vinci inventing things like the parachute (before there was the technology to make it), by dropping a stick Da Vinci in a very patriotic parachute into his postcard.

And Hayden put a whole army of guys at the top of his postcard to remember we were doing Italy for WWII week.

Dinner for these countries is going to be easy on us. We can take a whole lot of help from the store, with plenty of 'Product of Italy' items.

And my cookbook, 'Around the World in 450 Recipes' has all these upcoming countries, too.

Plus we have some drinks to try thanks to Trader Joes and Whole Foods (and Italian Olives from Sprouts).

We had the cheese, grapes, milk and honey cookies, along with Valdostana (Chicken with Parma Ham and Fontina Cheese), served with Farfalle pesto pasta. We also had the Fennel, Orange and Rocket Salad with some Pomegranate Italian Soda.

These meal, not surprisingly earned five spoons up (six if you count Porkchop who was begging for leftover chicken)

The salad and chicken were on point. We'd all totally eat this again, and Calib was pleased with the first country during 'Good Food Week'.

When we read about the orange battle, the boys got all excited and asked if that was our activity. We already had done the Italian Ice, but I was willing to go with it. I had plenty of clementines from Sprouts, and they didn't have too much left on their shelf life, so we played a little 'dodge the oranges as they get thrown at you' game.