Mongolia

Our country for the month of April is Mongolia!  I was excited to learn more about this country, as I had friends at BYU and in Hyde Park that were either from Mongolia or lived there for a couple of years serving a mission.

Mongolia is just north of China, sandwiched between China and Russia.  On the west, it almost (but not quite) touches a corner of Kazakhstan.  It is the 19th largest country in the world by area, but 132nd in terms of population, which makes it the least densely populated country in the world (not quite two people per square km).  Approximately 45% of the country's population lives in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar.  The Gobi Desert is found in the southern section of the country.

We always love the Geography Now videos, as they are both entertaining and informative.  Here is the one on Mongolia:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpdGIPHPBwU

However, the video keeps talking about how everyone knows about Genghis Khan, but my kids didn't.  So we searched on YouTube to try and find a good kid-oriented video about Genghis Khan, and we found this excellent series by Extra Credits.  My kids were so captivated that when we found out there were more episodes to Genghis Khan's story, they begged to be able to keep watching.  Turns out there are 6 of them, and my kids were enthralled to the very end.

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Later, we also watched the following videos for some additional fun:

• Top Rated 10 Tourist Attractions & Destinations in Mongolia
• 15 Surprising Facts: Mongolia
• Flag / Fan Friday MONGOLIA Geography Now! (the first part)
• 10 phrases for introducing yourself in Mongolian - Easy Mongolian Basic Phrases (1)

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As I mentioned, I have a friend who is from Mongolia, so I messaged her on Facebook and asked if she had any tips on Mongolian dishes we could try to make or any stories she could to share.  She gave me her family's recipe for гурилтай хоол (guriltai khool), a beef and homemade noodle soup literally translated as 'food with flour'.  She even recorded a series of videos to show me how to make it step-by-step!

I had never made homemade noodles before, so it was quite an adventure, but it turned out pretty great, and the whole family loved it!  Essentially, it is diced chuck roast cooked in water with spices like Vegata to make a nice broth, and then you add homemade noodles cut into 2 to 3 inch long strips, kind of like fettuccine.  So tasty!  The kids really enjoyed it and hoped that someday they would get to try the real thing in Mongolia!

United States

We found it super funny that after drawing such a novel place as North Macedonia, the next country we drew was ... the United States of America!  

Since we are from the United States, my kids have been learning about our culture, history, language, and foods since birth, so we tried to take a novel approach to our country.  We decided to focus more on our territories, although we did watch a few episodes of Liberty's Kids (see below).

Video List

• US Territories Song - lists all of the inhabited territories and their capitals
• A look at America's territories - short video that describes more about the legal relationship between the territories and the US

I often list to Radiolab podcasts, and around this time they broadcast one called Americanish that talks about the interesting dilemmas posed by being an American territory, especially in American Samoa where its residents are US Nationals, not US citizens.  Really fascinating, but won't really hold the attention of kids.

Here are some other resources for those who want to dive into the US a little more.  While we didn't watch them for this round, we have used these to help us learn about the country in conjunction with school projects, etc.

• All 50 US States summarized (Geography Now!) - since this is, by definition, a short informal description of the states, he gets a little stereotypical, which may offend your local loyalties
• Things You Didn't Know About the US Territories - longer and dryer, but interesting
• Liberty's Kids is a series that used to run on PBS all about the American Revolution.  It is really interesting and covers a very wide scope of historical figures and events.  My kids love it and always beg to watch more episodes.  We own the complete DVD set from Amazon.
• Stack the States - my kids have a lot of fun playing this app, and it is never a chore when I tell them to spend some time on it.  It teaches state shapes, names, capitals, abbreviations, neighbors, and several other things.
• Geography Drive USA - this game lets kids take a virtual road trip back and forth across the USA, learning facts about all of the states along the way

Republic of Northern Macedonia

Now that we had completed a brief tour of our closest neighbors, we turned again to our bin of country names and drew one out.  It was the Republic of Northern Macedonia!  It was exciting because knew so little about the country.  We immediately looked it up on a map.

The Republic of North Macedonia is on of the states that resulted from the breakup of Yugoslavia.  It is bordered by Serbia on the north (and Kosovo, a partially recognized state in the southwest corner of Serbia), Bulgaria on the east, Greece to the south, and Albania to the west.  Completely landlocked, it shares a couple of large lakes with Albania (Lake Ohrid) and Greece (Lake Prespa, also shared with Albania).  Its capital is Skopje, located near the northern border.

Video List:

• Geography Now! Rep of North Macedonia
• Flag/Fan Friday Rep. of North Macedonia - no fan stuff this time, just flag stuff
• Why Do Greece & Macedonia Hate Each Other? - the first couple of videos allude to ongoing disputes between the two countries, so we thought we would look up what was behind it.  Informative and professional.
• 10 Cool Facts About Macedonia - the kid isn't sure about his pronunciations, but the facts really are cool
• Macedonian Language - a native speaker of Macedonian runs through a lot of typical phrases and words
• Macedonian Food Tour in Skopje - a little more talking than eating, but shows some fun food and the atmosphere of Skopje (NOTE: does involve alcohol consumption)
• Why You Should Visit Macedonia - has a lot of cool jazz going and the pace is slow, but the views of the area are gorgeous and the video isn't that long

We had fun using Google Earth to visit the places mentioned in the videos, like walking through Skopje and Lake Ohrid.  I wasn't sure what to do for food, though.  I looked up a wonderful list of Macedonian dishes, but didn't feel up to the task of making any of them.  Tavce Gravce (a baked beans dish) looked like the most likely candidate, but I didn't have a terracotta dish to be authentic. There are no Macedonian restaurants (that I could find) here in San Antonio.  So as a last ditch attempt, I went to Amazon to try and find something from Macedonia - and success!  I found ajvar, a spread made from roasted peppers and eggplant.  It was made in Gevgelija, Macedonia and tastes really good on warm, toasted pita bread.