Our momstown Milton mamas and kids explored Morocco at our Trip Around the World program this week. The momstown theme for July is 'the desert', and since Morocco has the amazing Sahara desert it was a great country to travel to.
We looked at some pictures of the desert, including sand dunes, an oasis, and camels. We also looked at some of the handiwork that is famous in Morocco, including beautiful carpets, hand painted pottery and multi coloured lamps. The kids got to look at and touch a Moroccan carpet done in a traditional Berber pattern in bright red, with black, orange and white design.
We talked about a very popular symbol in Morocco called a khamsa. A khamsa is a lucky charm in the form of a hand. The hand is often embellished with semi precious stones, and metals, and usually has an eye in the centre. The khamsa is often hung on doors to keep bad luck out of the house. For our craft, we made our own khamsas using our hands for the design.
We outlined our hands, then decorated them with sequins, "fingers" cut from design magazines, glitter glue and an "eye" - also cut from a magazine. Moms helped their kids cut out the hands and put them on colourful paper. The home made khamsas turned out beautifully.
When we were done with our craft, we all had a sample of a Moroccan tagine. We first looked at the beautiful tagines, and talked about their interesting shape. Our tagine today was a veggie version, with sweet potatoes, carrots, potatoes, chick peas, lentils, kale and apricots. Twelve spices were added to make this delicious and easy dish. This is a very healthy tagine. The recipe makes a huge pot of stew and uses only two tablespoons of oil. Moms were delighted to see their kids happily eating the dish. Only one of our little travelers decided that he wasn't a fan of the tagine! Not bad for a stew filled with vegetables!
After our snack, a couple brave travelers tried on a head scarf that is worn in the desert while riding on a camel. I wore this beautiful scarf back in 2007 on a safari in Erg Chebi while traveling in Morocco. These turbans keep the sun's heat and rays away from the head and it is tied in a way that leaves a piece of fabric that can be draped over the face to shield from the sun and blowing sand.
A fun morning for all. Thanks to all who came out, and see you at our next adventure!
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mother of two amazing girls.
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