learning about Nicaragua

This week we decided to learn about and pray for the country of Nicaragua.  I didn't know a great deal about Nicaragua prior to this week so I was also interested in learning more.  I did remember the United States and the dealings with the Contras and I was also familiar with Daniel Ortega and some of the things he has done.  What I didn't realize was what a beautiful country Nicaragua actually is and how rich in natural resources it is.  It saddens me to know that a country with so much potential is so impoverished.  Tyler also enjoyed praying for and learning about Nicaragua.  It was especially important to him that we pray for good leaders there.  He was pretty upset about the fact that Mr. Ortega has tried to change their constitution for his personal benefit.  This was a great opportunity for us to discuss term limits for a president and we had a nice discussion about when this was established here in the United States also and why it is so important.  I love it when we have opportunities to have great discussions like that. 
I did want to share some of the resources we used this week so that you also could enjoy learning about Nicaragua and hopefully you will also be moved to pray for them.  We discovered there is a lot of need for prayer there.  One the first resources I discovered was on Time For Kids it has a great science experiment about pollution and the lakes of Nicaragua.  It also has a worksheet we completed about Nicaragua's volcanoes.  We did this coloring page of the beautiful Nicaraguan flag.  I also made a few worksheet of my own for Tyler to complete.  The first one is a map activity .  The second one was a worksheet to learn more about the Nicaraguan Flag .  And the last one was a sheet of research questions for him to work through.  We had also wanted to make some Nicaraguan recipes this weekend but it was just too crazy around here so maybe even though we will be starting a new country this week we can still squeeze these in.  The recipes I had wanted to try with him were Gallo Pinto which is red beans and rice and Patel De Tres Leches or cake of three milks.  A couple of more resources I found for learning about Nicaragua are:
1. EdHelper
2.A great printable activity about migration during the Contr/Sandanista Wars (this is for older students)
3.Prayer point for Nicaragua
4.Operation World Links for Nicaragua

Hope you decide to check out Nicaragua!  This week we are going to be praying for Afghanistan.  We know a little more about this country as my husband spent most of last year there.  We are going to use The Kids of Courage: Bold Believers book to guide us along this week.  It is a great resource and I am looking forward to it.  We really are enjoying our prayer time together.