"Mendhi" paint

September was India month at Roses Prep! We read traditional Indian fables. We watched Riki Tiki Tavi by Rudyard Kipling. We watched the Disney classic Jungle Book and III read the classic Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. He gave us a brief report on the differences between the two works. Shelby gave a book report on a classic fable, Nine Animals and the Well.

We tried to cook Indian food, but we couldn't find any recipes that didn't look disgusting to us. So, we spent some time in the library making fun of Indian food in the reference section. (I guess that counts as familiarizing them with it.)

We talked about the different religions in India and we discussed the cool Rangoli designs like the ones illustrated on the India poster in the background of the pictures. These designs are usually made with colored rice flour on the doorsteps of homes. Young women make them as a petition to the gods for good husbands. I considered letting the kids color some of the designs in our driveway with sidewalk chalk so that they could get a feel for Indian design. However, the Ten Commandments kept ringing in my ear. I didn't feel good about taking ANY chance on anyone seeing it and thinking we were petitioning gods. Nor did I want the kids to think it was okay to petition other gods. So, when in doubt, do without.

We talked about the Taj Mahal. Their dad and I checked out a cool video on the Taj Mahal and were planning on letting the kids watch it. Thankfully we previewed it for age appropriateness because after about 10 minutes on the Taj Mahal, the video segued to the other types of temples and alternative forms of ancient worship. This section including graphic images of statues and other images used to set the "worship" mood. I asked Hubby if they had taught him those techniques at the seminary he attended.

Our last Indian project was mendhi painting. This is usually done for Indian women for funerals or as part of a wedding party. It is usually done in henna and usually leaves residual color for about a month. We weren't that committed to authenticity in our study of India, so I bought Halloween make-up crayons at Wal-Mart and we "mendhi-ed" each other this afternoon.

BTW - the crayons were only $1 for a pack of 6. They only write when dipped in water. You don't have to press really hard for them to make good color, and the color really did wash off with just soap and water. We are going to go back to Wal-Mart and stock up on them. They would be great for Superhero make-up or alien make-up or wild animal make-up or anything else we might need to do. It's rare to find something so fun that is so inexpensive and really unlimited in its uses.