Friday, July 23, 2010

"Hello! I'm Stavros from Greece."

"Greece!?!?  Like grease?"
That was Red's first reaction to that sentence.  We've been reading The BFG by Roald Dahl and in it the giant mentions that the only country they don't eat humans from is Greece because they are so greasy.  I guess it's all tying together nicely.  Ha ha.

To make school a little more fun, I'm starting to formulate some ideas for geography units studies for when we officially start in September.  For now, I bought a globe, a world map, and a map of the United States at Target.  We're reading some books from the library about maps and children of other cultures.  The books we've read so far are Children Around the World by Donata Montanari (the book with Stavros in it!) and Wake Up, World!: A Day in the Life of Children Around the World by Beatrice Hollyer.  These books were both great introductions to what life is like for children in other countries.  Wake Up, World! is a photo book about a day in lives of eight children in different parts of the world so it led to Red asking a lot of questions about their dress (or lack thereof!) and their lifestyle (Cidinha gets to sleep in a hammock in her house!?!?).  We also took a moment to find each of their countries on the globe.  Children Around the World is illustrated and had more general information about what life is like for twelve children of different countries.  Great introductions!  I can't wait until we get more specific.  I'm hoping to be able to read some books, do a craft, and cook a meal from each country we investigate.  I hope to find some good age appropriate DVDs to watch too.

Tom Thumb is currently obsessed with having me point out where Niagara Falls is on the globe since we just got back.  I get to hear "Where Niagara Falls?" while he is vigorously tapping the globe over and over and over. I guess he's learning something about geography too. :-)

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