Worldwide Culture Swap...

If you have been reading my blog for a while you will know I love doing a swap, I have organised several in the past and joined swaps organised by other bloggers. I have made some great friends and we have had some fantastic packages which has made studying about another country or culture so much more exciting. I feel a bit guilty for not organising any recently but to be honest it is so time consuming, it is actually really hard work.

So, you can imagine how excited I was when Rachael dropped me a line last week to let me know about the site that her and two other bloggers, Deb and Mymy have set up, a site dedicated to culture swaps whoop-whoop!

I will hand over to Rachael to let you know a bit more about it...

My name is Rachael from Worldwide Culture Swap – a completely free resource for schools and families who are interested in learning more about different cultures around the world.

The project started lasted year when I set up an exchange on my blog after being inspired by the exchange page here! I asked if any families wanted to register to send packages to each other representing the country in which they were from and within a few weeks I was able to put together 25 swapping groups, each made up of 5 different families worldwide - the Culture Swap had started!

As time went on the swaps became more and more popular but I was struggling to keep up with the growing group of people. At one point I thought I would have to just close down the project so that I could catch up with the organisation but before I did I posted a quick plea for help on my Facebook page and that's when I 'met' Deb and Mymy, fellow bloggers and former participants in the project whose help just immediately transformed the project into the form that it is today.

We are three expat mothers all with a shared love of learning about different cultures, and together the three of us were able to set up a dedicated site just for the project and expand the types of swaps offered to suit schools, homeschools, families, clubs and just about anyone with an interest in cultural education.

Currently we offer the following (free) options

• Worldwide Culture Swap - A group of 5 families from around the world swap packages containing items related to their country and culture.
• US State Culture Swap -  A group of 5 families from different US states swap packages containing items related to their state's geography and culture.
• Culture Swap for Schools - An exchange between two schools / classes which takes whatever form is agreed between the two educational establishments.
• Find a Pen Pal - A service putting children and families in touch with potential pen pals from around the world

If you are interested in taking part in on of these swaps take a look at our site for more information about how to sign up and please visit our Facebook page for lots of updates about the swaps.

All that remains is for me to thank Jo on behalf of Deb, Mymy and myself for giving us this amazing opportunity to spread the word about our project. This site is absolutely inspirational and we are honoured to be part of it!

*all images are copyright of World Wide Culture Swap

Culture Swap partners wanted....

I have joined the culture swap that Melissa at Chasing Cheerios organised and I have two sets of goodies left over. Our Africa and Asia boxes are quite lacking in items so if you are in Africa or have ties to somewhere in Africa and can put together a few items and the same goes for Asia, specifially Mongolia, any of the 'stans' except Pakistan, Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, Laos, Myanmar or any of the Arabian countries then please get in touch.

The package I have put together contains several small items from Japan and I also made a PDF written in the voice of Ebi-kun and with loads of printables for you to use.

I plan to give Ebi-kun a package at the start of each month and we will concentrate of that continent for the month. I want to make him a passport to go with it but I haven't got round to that yet.

2011 International Postcard Swap

Zoe over at Playing By The Book is having her annual postcard swap, 

if you are interested in joining pop over to her blog and read all about it.

The most lovely swap package....

One of the best things about having a blog is the people that you meet, albeit virtually in most cases, one of the people I would love to meet in real life is Jodie from Ric-Rac we most certainly share the same silly sense of humour so i am sure much giggling and silliness would be had.  Anyway, a while back we decided to do a swap with the rough guidelines of containing something handmade, some fabric and something cute. I was very excited when this little pile of goodness arrived the other day....

and so was Ebi-kun since it contained goodies for him too, some erasers, 

an adorable story book about a wombat

I never thought of wombats being cute before!

and she also sent him Beet, one of her gorgeous elephants, although Ebi-kun isn't convinced it is a boy after looking in his shorts! The meds wiped him out but he insisted that Beet join him for a nap with giraffe, he must be very honoured because normally no one but giraffe gets a look in.

And for me? These amusing cards with various high style fashion pictures on the front and a suggestion for the correct type of undies to wear with it on the back, very handy for when I go for a night on the razz.

Plus a whole load of Jodie's kits and patterns, I have plans for the Little Boy and ...of the week labels (you embroider your own message on to them, like these) I think I will make the birdcage as Ebi-kuns ornament this year, I started a tradition when he was a baby and got him a beautiful tree ornament each year, all hand made and all completely different, I think this would be a perfect addition to the collection. The others will have to be put to one side for a while or I will never get any work done! If you want to get your hands on some of these Jodie had the kits and patterns in her shop.

that's not all.... make your own bunting by Yardage Design, such a neat idea.

Goodies from the most famous Aunty in the sewing world, the cookies fabric is most certainly going to be my new bag, I am not sure who made the lotus flower print, anyone? I thought it was from Ink and Spindle but now I am not sure.

and finally, something that makes me laugh every time I look at it, and it went straight onto my bag....

thank you Jodie, it was the perfect pick-me-up package after such a rotten week.

Where In The World Postcard Swap - round up

We have had most of our postcards from the swap, and some great postcards they are too.

Ebi-kun has been getting his encyclopedia out each time a new card arrived to find where in the world it is and we have also been reading Children Just Like Me which is a great book that looks at children from all over the world.

The cards haven't made it into their respective continent boxes yet instead we have left them out and they have sparked numerous conversations. One of my swap partners mentioned that they had a tough time finding suitable pictures due to her being assigned a war torn country, I must admit that this hadn't crossed my mind when I dished out the countries, something to consider for next time. I do have a soft spot for Zonnah's cards purely because they are from North Korea, when the first one arrived I had left it on the table, my husband is used to finding postcards from far flung places but his face was a picture when he picked it up, he did the whole double take thing and looked completely confused, ahh well, I am easily amused.

I would like to thank everyone who took part and helped to make it a successful swap, I hope you and your kids had fun with it too, no matter how your use the cards.

Another swap?

No, I haven't gone insane, I am not running this one, Zoe over at Playing By The Book is.

If you want to sign up, pop over and have a read of what is involved.

Where In The World Postcard Swap

Rightie, who is up for another swap?

When I organise swaps I always get about 70% of people from the USA sign up and then a mix for the rest, so to try and mix it up a bit and to get some of the more obscure and small countries included I have come up with a plan..... now, I know this isn't authentic and isn't as good as the real thing but it might be the spark that leads to something bigger, plus you can get the kids involved with the research....

Each person will be in a group of five so you will need to prepare 4 cards (and one for yourself if you like).
When you sign up I will mail you with the name of a country, you then have to make your own postcard to represent that country, so some research will possibly be needed and remember to put the name of the country on the front. 'Greetings from ... ' or the such like. The internet is a wonderful resource for images but I do request that you ask permission before using some one's image or at the very least give credit on the card with the web address where you found it.
How you actually make the postcard is up to you.

On the back you need to write 2 facts about the country - anything you like and a short message, remember to sign it so your swap partners know who sent it.
For the stamp you will obviously need to add a stamp from your own country but it you wanted to paste a copy of a stamp from the country you represent that would be cool too.

That is all. I will mail you back with your designated country within a couple of days. You can start making your cards straight away.

When the sign up date is closed I will send you your swap group, keep your designated country a secret but exchange mailing addresses. If, you sign up and you are from a country that doesn't usually get much representation then I will give you the option of making a card from a different country or using the real thing from where you live.

Sign up date closes September 25th. you will get your assigned country by Sept. 30th.

I will send out your swap group the first week of Oct.

Your cards must be mailed by Oct. 15th

This bit is important - if you wish to join a bigger stake swap in the future, such a culture swap, you must sign up and complete this one. The only people who don't have to follow this rule are those who have already done 2 or more swaps that I have organised. Anyone who doesn't stick to their end of the deal doesn't get to participate in bigger swaps.

any questions, pop them in the comments section, don't try and sign up in the comments, it won't work!
and please spread the word!

Swaps...

I know, it has been a while, I have had a number of messages asking when I will be doing the next one. My first swap was with Meg, I was quite new to blogging and Montessori and it sounded like an exciting idea, I sent her a box of goodies from Japan and she did the same with some Mexican goods, many of which we are still using.
Once I got into the whole blogging game I decided to organise a few swaps, admittedly it was purely selfish to begin with, I was trying to expand our classroom collections and I have joined a few other swaps run by other bloggers, mostly it has been good but I have been stung a few times, my swap partner from Meg's seasons tradition swap disappeared off the face of the earth (strangely after she knew I had mailed her gift) and the last couple of swaps I have organised I have had complaints about swappers not living up to expectations or simply not sending out swap packages. I know sometimes life gets in the way and I like to think that when a swapper doesn't follow through it is because they have something big going on in their life but in my heart I know that is not the case with some swappers and they are just out to get free stuff.

I have been feeding my swap habit by having private swaps, I have one in the works just now with one of my favourite bloggers, so I am very excited about that.

But, I am in a strange place right now, I have been putting off organising another big swap, I do enjoy the swaps and I have had some great swap partners yet I have lost heart knowing that some people out there are not joining for the right reasons. I feel awful when I get those emails from good swappers saying that their swap partner hasn't replied/sent anything. I have tried swapbot but it wasn't really to my liking, I'm not sure how I can 'vet' potential swappers, any ideas?

A swap from afar

A while back I made some gifts for a little girl in French Guiana, well after sending a few emails back and forth her mom and I decided to do a culture swap, we got the package the other day with some lovely things to add to our South American box. It included a pretty necklace, colouring book, beautiful picture book of native animals, a card game with the native animals on the cards, a CD of French kids songs and a recipe which sounds delicious but it uses papaya which I can't get hold of, any ideas on what I could substitute instead of papaya? the dish is a kind of gratin.

Thank you Vanessa for a great package and I hope mine has arrived by the time this is posted (I have scheduled this one!)

International Postcard Swap...

I was waiting for all the cards to arrive before sharing what we got from the International Postcard swap which was hosted by Zoe from Playing By The Book. Some of the cards actually came in envelopes with little gifts or extra letters inside, in fact the first 3 came like that to which I was kicking myself thinking I had missed an email somewhere on what the swap included. We made our postcards from a damaged book,  I cut, Ebi-kun glued, I hope handmade cards were OK, I feel a bit bad about it now.
We did get some good book recommendations 'Orrible histories series is one I think we will have to check out :o) Thank you to all those that sent cards, most didn't have a blog/email/address of any kind so I can't thank them in person.

I also have to give Zoe a big thank you for the books that she sent as prizes to her blog contest that we won. The first was Three Cheers For Inventors, this is a fantastic book, jam packed with information and Ebi-kun LOVES it. We have been reading an inventor a day before yochien, it is written in a fun and humorous way and lots of attention to detail.

 The other book was The Planet Gods, which is beautifully illustrated, we haven't sat and read this one yet, we are saving it for when we study planets, Ebi-kun did sit for a long time looking at all the pictures. If you are looking for a good deal when buying books, I have to recommend The Book Depository, it is quick and it has FREE international shipping, yes, I know, I sound like a broken record but there are new readers who might not know about this :o) PLUS there prices are often cheaper than Amazon!

International Postcard Swap

Remember Zoe from Playing By The Book? Well she has set up and international families postcard swap, if you are interested, pop over here and have a read of what it entails. For those who are Montessori inclined, it is a good way to add some things of interest to your culture boxes.

Those who are swap addicts, I will have another one for you here in May, I have to get Golden Week out of the way first!

Continent swap

The last couple of weeks Ebi-kun has been working on continents - more of that later. Anyway, it got me thinking, it would be fun do do a Flat Stanley type of swap. I have recently been asked to help with a Flat Stanley project which we will do but I would like to do another project too.

This is the idea....

We have a group of people, one from each continent. I will supply a child template, you print out and decorate the doll either in traditional costume or your everyday dress. You need to do 7 of these (one for each participant). Then you need to include the following:

• A day in the life of...(name of your doll) a photo story
• Favourite foods of.... and include a simple recipe
• Favourite festival of.... describe what happens, include anything you think relevant
• The religion of.... basic info about your religion, if you are not religious include info about your countries major religion
• The home of.... include some pictures of the house and the are you live in, where you go shopping, play etc.

You can then include anything else you fancy.

Make up 7 packs, one for yourself and 6 to send. Obviously we won't have anyone in Antarctica so I am hoping someone will volunteer to do Antarctica - and pretend to be a research scientist.

It is quite a big project so please only sign up if you are prepared to commit 100%. I imagine it will take quite a while to get everything together so the mailing date will be the end of November. What do you think? Interested. If so, leave a comment with a contact email and which continent you live in (or if you want to do Antarctica). It will be first come, first served. I will do Asia, so we need the other continents please.

Right, now I have to go and sort out my eyeballs and severed fingers for the playgroup Halloween party....

In Love With Hema

A couple of weeks ago Katy did a post on Hema, I wasted a good chunk of time drooling over the keyboard as I looked round the shop online. Then what should arrive in the post yesterday? These cuter than cute plates, plasters and picks from my swap partner Kristel! Ebi-kun declared that he couldn't wait to have an accident (so that he could use a plaster!).

Kristel always picks out something special, I am beginning to wish our swap was a weekly affair not bi-monthly LOL.

sorry about the picture - not the best, the weather has been miserable recently, no decent light for photos.

Continent Boxes Swap

Here we are, as promised.

Please read the post carefully before signing up and you need to email me (see below) to sign up.

The continent boxes are used to enhance the learning of geography and culture. Each class should have a box containing small objects related to the continent in question and a folder containing photos/postcards of daily life, people at work and at rest, animals, crafts, landscape, plants, art etc.

Taking that we have enough people sign up I will put you into a group of 4. That means you need to send 3 sets and you will receive 3 sets. I will try my hardest to mix up the groups therefore you need to tell me which country and continent you will represent.

Each set you send must contain 10 small objects for the continent box.

ideas for objects suitable for the box...

• small coins or bills of the local currency
• traditional children's toys/games
• flag
• children's books
• examples of traditional artwork/crafts/textiles
• dolls dressed in traditional attire
• non-perishable food
• small representations of the local animals, foods, houses, landscapes, plants etc.
• a CD of music
• postage stamps
• small books/pamphlets of local life/animals/plants etc.
• examples of local transportation
• items used in local festivals
• examples of the countries script if it is not the alphabet we use in English (Kanji, Hangul etc.)
• examples of rocks and minerals specific to the country

If you have any other ideas to add to the list please pop them in a 'comment' thanks.

Please remember that you will be sending packages overseas so don't put in anything that is against immigration regulations.

If you would like to participate then copy and paste the following information..

name:

continent and country you are representing:

email address:

fill in the missing bits and send it in an email to me at

montessori.swapshop at gmail dot com

please write continent swap in the subject bar.

The swap will closes February 14th, I will send your groups info within a few days and then you will have until the end of the month to get your packages in the post.

***Please Note*** I don't want to know where you are or where you are posting from, I just need to know which continent and which country you will be representing, you maybe living in Canada but want to sent items representing Asia, Cambodia. or you may live in the UK but want to send items from Europe, Norway.

I guess we will have more entries from the United States than anywhere else, so if you are in the States and able to represent another country please do so. At the end of the day it will be potluck, it all depends on who signs up.

When you are gathering the things for the packages you will send think about what kind of package you would like to receive. Most Montessorians prefer objects made from natural resources over plastic and the objects should be beautiful and interesting to capture the imagination of the child.

OK, if you are still interested after reading all that, send me an email.