Originally, I hadn’t actually planned on studying India this year. We’ve done a lot of really great country studies and I thought that it was nearing time to move on to some different kinds of thematic units. But then my daughter drew this picture for one of our pastors:

My heart melted. She knows nothing about India and I’m not sure what prompted the picture, but like I said, my heart melted. I decided to put together a unit on India.

The library always has great resources, so I ordered several books, a DVD and a Hindi language CD.

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While browsing a nearby antique market, I found a gorgeous milk glass decanter that was perfect for our display.

Isn’t it pretty?

Before starting our unit, I took the girls to a little store in the city that sells Indian clothing. After looking around at the beautiful garments, we were about to head on our way when the owner stopped us.

“We have discount clothes upstairs,” she said. “Would you like to see?”

She locked the shop door and took us up a flight of stairs, across a hallway and into a little room filled with brightly coloured clothing. I can’t resist bright colours, intricate beading and good sales, so we came home with this…

…and this.

Although I put a missionary biography (Amy Carmichael) out on our display shelf, we didn’t end up reading it. We’re still trying to finish last week’s biography. We did, however, purchase this amazing book…

It’s a great story with a great moral.

There is an illustration in the book that shows the thief’s family sitting on the floor eating off of banana leaves. One morning, before breakfast, I cut banana leaves out of construction paper to use as place mats. Then I covered the table with a sheet to make a little house. The girls thought it was the greatest thing ever to sit under the table and eat breakfast.

I half debated purchasing a henna tattoo kit. However, based on the fact that: (1) I’m not an artist and (2) the ink stays on for several weeks, I wisely decided to forego the kit and come up with an alternate plan (thanks Pinterest!).

Here’s what we did instead:

There are so many things to learn about India. We watched YouTube clips about monkeys, tigers and elephants. We also talked a bit about the Ganges River and the Taj Mahal.

The highlight of the week was, of course, the food. I made butter chicken (my favourite!) and the girls helped make naan. Unfortunately, we ate it before I remembered to take photos. However, I did photograph our dessert.

This dish is called kheer, and we got the recipe from our Little Passports subscription last year. It’s like a rice pudding flavoured with cardamon and it tastes delicious. The girls made it with some help. They were so proud!

My six-year old is determined that the whole family is going to up and move to India. I’m more partial to Egypt, but I’m pretty certain that we’re staying put for now. 😉

We sure did enjoy this unit though!