Travis’s latest package from Little Passports was a welcome find on a winter afternoon, taking him across the world to tropical Thailand. As always, he loved to locate the country on his world map and add a pin sticker, and to place the flag stamp in his passport.
The booklet this month taught Travis lots about Thailand’s flora and fauna, especially elephants. The only activity too advanced for him as a 1st grader was a fill-in-the-blank about Thailand’s tuk-tuk vehicles.
Souvenir:
The biggest hit was the souvenir and no wonder because it involved… )Poop. Yup, a pad of paper made from recycled elephant poop, which was an idea so wacky and brilliant that the whole family loved it.
Further Activities:
His booklet featured a nice hands-on craft to make Paper Lotus Flowers, following along with the instructions that involved only green, purple, and yellow construction paper. They turned out quite pretty!
There was also a Thai grocery list activity that was a neat introduction to the beautiful characters of Thailand’s alphabet. Travis helped find each ingredient by matching up the words.
Some of those very ingredients were needed for a dessert recipe we whipped up for Mango Sticky Rice, which was declared a big hit!
Recipe:
The recipe in this month’s booklet was for a chicken soup called Tom Kha Gai, which we made vegan with a few easy swaps. Travis loved smelling and savoring the myriad ingredients that we don’t use often, including cilantro and ginger.
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh ginger
- 4 teaspoons Thai red curry paste
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3 and 1/2 cups coconut milk
- 1 (8-ounce) package mushrooms, sliced
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lime juice
- 1 (9-ounce) package cooked Gardein chick’n strips
- Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the ginger and curry paste; cook for 1 minute.
- Add 1 cup broth and whisk to combine, then add the remaining broth and brown sugar. Simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add the coconut milk and mushrooms; simmer for an additional 5 minutes.
- Just before serving, add the cooked chick’n, along with the cilantro and lime juice.
Not only did Travis eat up a full bowlful of this, but my toddler ate two!
Next, I cut white tissue paper into squares about 8 inches long. I crumpled these into little “flowers” and then handed over to Veronika. Her job was to dip them in red and pink paint!
joyful parenting 