The Russia Parent Pack
What is a Parent Pack?
Parent Packs are designed to help parents who want to give their kids a little extra when completing a workbook. Lots of parents come to us because they want to do a themed homeschooling unit around a country, or do a themed evening meal, to help their kids experience different cultures.
Parent Packs are a collection of different ideas to try with kids, including crafts, sports, music, films, TV programmes - all of which are linked to the country in question. Although different activities require different equipment, we try to make sure everything is safe for kids and doesn’t require too much prep.
Each Parent Pack is themed around a different country for which we have a workbook.
Crafts & Activities
Russia has a long history of beautiful handicrafts, from shawls to beautifully ornate Matryoshka dolls. There are plenty of options for trying out traditional crafts as well, some more complex than others…
Khokhloma
Khokhloma is a traditional style of painting on wood, which uses designs of flower, berry and leaf patterns, and sometimes the iconic firebird. Traditional colours are red, black and gold, and sometimes yellow and green. It’s often painted on wooden objects like spoons or bowls. SOmetimes Khokhloma is used on larger pieces of furniture as well, like tables or cabinets.
How to do it
For kids crafting, the intricacies of true Khokhloma might be tricky (even adults would probably struggle). So the best way to keep it authentic is through the colours you use and the objects you paint. Cheap wooden spoons are a great object to start with. Restrict kids to red, black and yellow paint and see where they get to!
Faberge Eggs
Faberge Eggs became famous when the Russian Tsars began giving them to their wives as Easter presents. The ‘eggs’ were made of metal and covered in precious jewels. As time went on, the eggs were made more and more elaborate, sometimes with internal machanisms. Only 69 true Faberge Eggs were made by the House of Faberge, of which 57 survive.
The Eggs are colourful and elaborate, often covered in gold.
How to do it
Faberge Eggs often spark the imagination of kids because of their bright colours and endless possibilities for embellishment. Get some cheap supplies from a craft shop (emphasis on jewel colours and sparkly bits) and get decorating. You can use real eggs for the base, following this tutorial.
DIY Matryoshka Dolls
Everyone knows Matryoshka dolls, the lovely dolls which fit inside each other, getting smaller and smaller. Dolls are painted all the same, albeit using smaller and smaller paintbrushes. This is a great opportunity for kids to develop motor skills - they can start with a big design, but need to go smaller and smaller as the decorating goes on.
How to do it
There are 2 ways to make DIY Matroyshka dolls - you can buy actual blank wooden dolls for the full experience (for a fairly low price), or use outlines of the dolls on paper. Kids can use paints, pencils or crayons to draw their dolls, but remember each doll has to look the same, only smaller.
Decorations
Khokhloma (again!)
Khokhloma is often used to decorate furniture, as well as smaller objects. Don’t worry, we’re not asking you to let your kids paint the kitchen cabinets in garish colours! But, there is a way to add a little Khokhloma to your house in a temporary way.
How to do it
Take a large piece of paper - A2 or A3 is best, but A4 will also do. Ask kids to paint or colour Khokhloma patterns all across the sheet of paper - covering the whole thing. You can use some of these images as inspiration…
Once the pictures are done, and filled with colour, use sellotape to stick them to the outside of kitchen cabinets, doors, even walls. Voila! A house decorated in (temporary!) Khokhloma.
Snow themed decor
It’s a stereotype of Russia, but it’s also true - it gets very cold there. For a Russia themed week or dinner, turn on the snow machine and make some snow and ice themed decorations. You could even get the kids to dress up with coats, hats and gloves and turn the central heating off for the evening!
How to do it
Here’s a tutorial for making various snow themed decorations, and here’s another.
Sports & Physical activities
Gorodki
Gorodki is a traditional Russian game which is still very popular. It does involve some special equipment and should probably be done outside to avoid smashing anything. The sport involves throwing a bat at 5 little wooden cylinders (called gorodki), which are arranged in various formations.
There are 15 different formations, with names like ‘fork’, ‘airplane’ and ‘lobster’. The goal is to knock the cylinders out of alignment with the bat.
These are the positions for the gorodki
How to do it
For those who don’t have random wooden cylinders lying around (most people, I should imagine), try replacing the gorodki with anything else - empty toilet rolls, tin cans, empty bottles. Almost anything can be used, provided they can still be arranged into the different formations (see right).
I guarantee your kids will have more fun arranging the gorodki into their formations than actually throwing anything!
Cossack Dancing
Everyone knows Cossack dancing. Almost every adults has tried to do it while drunk. There are debates about whether Cossack dancing should be considered Russian or Ukrainian, but it comes from the Cossack ethnic group, who originated from near modern-day Ukraine, but were deeply involved in Russian culture and history. The dance itself is easy to understand, but can you do it?
HOw to do it
You can learn the basic movements with a simple YouTube video. This is a quick intro to the basic movements that kids can try and copy - try to do on a softer surface, as falling over is pretty much inevitable.
If you want to see how the real experts do it, check out this video…
Recipes to try
We’ve already covered quite a few recipes in our previous blog post, but if you want to pick one or two, try these for an authentic Russian taste.
Blini
Blini are soft round pancakes often served with smoked salmon and sour cream or with caviar. There’s even a sweet version eaten with jam! Try this recipe, which is relatively simple.
NB: ONE BLINI IS ACTUALLY A BLIN - BLINI IS THE PLURAL. LOTS OF ENGLISH PEOPLE SAY IT WRONG!
Medovik
A delicious special occasion treat but not one to try unless you have lots of time and patience! This is a simplified version….
THE RUSSIAN WORD FOR HONEY IS ‘MED’, AND THE WORD BEAR IS ‘MEDVED’ MEANING ‘ONE WHO LIKES HONEY’.
Songs & Music
Songs are a great way to get a feel for the culture, even if they’re only playing in the background. They can also be a great way to learn good pronunciation and simple words in another language.
Russian Pop
This is a simple playlist of Russian pop music - perhaps not to everyone’s taste but typical of what many young people in Russian will listen to.
Kalinka-Malinka
Kalinka is a very famous Russian song. This version (confusingly called Kalinka-Malinka, instead of just Kalinka) is a kids version of the song. It’s got Russian subtitles, which is great for kids who do know a little Russian. Beware! If you get songs like Baby Shark stuck in your head, steer clear. This one will stick in your brain for days.
(just) Kalinka
This is the grown up, more Soviet version of the above song. Kalinka was written in 1860 and is about a small tree - the snowball tree.
This version is perfect for very fast, out of control Cossack dancing.
Language
Duolingo
Always great for trying out a new language, even if it’s just for a few lessons.
Learning Russian
This is a great little video for learning some basic Russian phrases and can be pretty helpful if you’re struggling with pronunciation.
Even if your kids aren’t going to learn Russian, it’s great to expose them to different sounds, ideally even trying them out. This will help them later in learning languages. Our ability to mimic and even hear sounds decreases as we age, so get them practicing different sounds as early as possible!
Potential pitfalls…
As with most countries, there are some things you might come across in your learning journey which are more difficult, or emotional to explain to your kids. While we want to ensure we cover aspects of difficult history in our workbooks, we can’t include everything and some topics are best addressed by parents, carers or teachers in closer proximity to kids.
Here are some topics you may come across while researching Russia which might merit longer conversations with your kids:
Poor LGBTQ+ relations
Heavy casualties and suffering during World War II
Racism in Russian society (including against people from Caucasus region, e.g. Chechnya)
Serfdom, and similarities to slavery (although slavery and serfdom were not analogous)
We’re planning on gathering together some resources for talking about various socio-political issues with kids - racism, homophobia, colourism, slavery and more. Stay tuned or sign up to our mailing list to learn more.
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