Asia is quite a big continent to cover. Many countries are represented, so you could conceivably have a huge variety of goodies for your box. I looked on Ebay and various other sites that sell more oriental type trinkets and such. I could have bought a lot more but needed to watch the budget. Also, with his age and no other munchkins following his footsteps, it made little sense to go on a spending spree for items. My sister/brother-in-law spent ten + years in China so we have some nice items from there. I don't have many post cards right now-which is fine. I could also add many more animals and would if I had younger kids. Because our lives have been upside down for several months, this is not high on my priority list. Contents for the Asia Box: *These items were gifted to us by my hubby's sister: *Stone, hand-carved stamp with the characters for my husband's name (with ink but I did NOT put that in there b/cuz that stuff is so stainy and messy!) I took it's picture individually so you could see the detail. *Delicate bowl (probably for rice) *Soapstone Elephant *Tigers (by Schleich. Can be found in most stores where toys are sold.) *Orangutan (no idea where or how this toy came about around here but we have it so I added it to the box) *Russian Stacking Matryoshka dolls (Ebay) *Chopsticks (local restaurant) *Coin purse from Vietnam (gift) *Japanese Samurai Doll (I think it was originally a necklace-where it came from?? No clue) *Taj Mahal, Great Wall of China and the Buddha of Lantau (from the Safari Toob Around the World and World Landmarks sets) *Asia Traditional Foods cards (Montessori Print Shop) *Asia Animals and Landmarks cards (Target dollar section. I suggest looking during back to school time for these, or check Amazon/Ebay). The Montessori print shop also has cards for landmarks, musical instruments, animals, and more to purchase. There is a whole Asia set you can buy to make your life easier. *Postcards -still need to add to this section *Stamps-for sorting in Montessori box (Ebay) *Coins (some from Ebay, China coins/paper money were gifts) Additional Items: I have many books from the varying countries in our library book bin next to the Geography center. I also put our Klutz Chinese Jump Rope book/rope (I see it as being available on Amazon thru some sellers, but there are nice rope substitutes for sale as well) into the basket on top of the center. Not sure if it is truly a 'Chinese' jump rope but hey-it's fun to do so I have it there. I included the Treasure Chests: Ancient China by Running Press we have too. This is a part of the older version of the Sonlight 5 history program. I see a few are available on Amazon, you'll just have to do some searching to find one. This has a fan, coins, ink and activities for the child to do. [images from Amazon.com] We are putting flags onto our notebooking pages that we are doing for our Mapping the World by Heart program, so I do not have individual flags for the box. And because we really like Asian food-we have been frequenting our local Thai and Chinese restaurants. I would love to find a Russian one but that may require quite a long drive. My oldest daughter has friends from Pakistan and so we have had that type of food too (delish), so actually we are quite familiar with most of those foods.
