Cars 2 Fever :)

First let me just say that I am sooooo excited for this movie.  It looks much scarier than the first (not too happy about this Disney) but it still looks fun and endearing.  It is also exciting because Z is falling in love with his many Cars toys all over again :)  His Cars room that he has been begging me to change into a space or whale room is now the BEST again and his metal (and stuffed) cars are once again his most prized possessions.  I bought he and C each a new car and he bought one with his own money.  Add in the $3 I spent for a new Cars 2 story and we have spent a whopping $13 on this new movie and we are good to go :)

With each of Z's obsessions this year, I have turned them into a learning experience.  We have explored Dr. Seuss, the Rainforest, the Ocean blue, Maps and Space.  With this latest obsession, I was struggling with a way to make it "educational" until the other night :)  The movie is about Mater and Lightning traveling the world for the "World Grand Prix" race.  So right now Z, C and I are "visiting" each of the countries that they visit and learning all we can about them.


We started off by spending a day looking at the globe and finding each of the four countries (Japan, Italy, England and the USA).  We discussed how we could travel to each and what we might do when we got there.  We then made a garland that had the different cars and each of the country flags.  Z made these flags himself, he did a great job!

My plan is to spend 2 days exploring each country.  While we are there we will experience the food (Z style complete with candy sushi in Japan), music, learn some of the language (hello/goodbye, numbers 1-10 etc.), learn about some important places, explore maps, learn about the flags, explore some of the customs and talk about the weather. I have made him a book and also created a blog just for him.  On the blog I have put website links, songs in the different languages and pictures so that he can continue to explore the country independently at computer time.  We are so excited about this and it has been a fun way to expand upon the love he has for the world around him and Lightning Mcqueen :)