For second grade, I wanted to introduce my daughter to countries from all over the world. She and her sisters(kindergarten and 3yo) get Little Passports as a Christmas present from their grandparents and they love opening the envelope and learning a little about that country. I wanted to expand on that love of geography in a fun and simple way.
I looked around for fun, simple, and inexpensive introduction to world geography for kids and just couldn’t find quite what I was looking for. So, I decided to just do our own Trip Around the World!
We follow a very relaxed homeschooling style in our house. All the prepackaged curricula I found was either too expensive or too much or both. I wanted to give my girls a brief overview of each country, but not burn out their spark with too much work.
I’ll link each of the country unit studies as we cover them. I’m hoping to include books, videos, crafts, maybe a recipe, and some activities for each country. And hoping to do it on a shoestring budget!
Let’s go traveling!
Our Path Through World Geography
Canada
Mexico
England
I let my daughter choose the countries, so we are skipping all over the map!
She chose Mexico and Canada because they are our neighbors. Next, we traveled to England since we have been talking about the Revolutionary War and she was curious about England from that.
Why World Geography is Important
Introducing children to the countries of the World at a young age is important for many reasons.
The first reason being simply so that they know where countries are in the world. Yes, they will continue to learn about various countries throughout their schooling, but from a practical standpoint it is just important to know where places are. As my girls grow and we start talking about current events, I want them to have prior knowledge of the countries that are talked about in the news. This helps them make more sense of and connect to current events more thoroughly.
Another reason that learning about other countries at an early age is so important is to raise culturally aware children. The world we live in is so large and yet, so small.
People travel for work, travel for pleasure, and travel for survival. I want my girls to be aware of the different cultures around the world and realize that not every place is like where we live. People wear different clothes, speak different languages, believe different things, and have different values. I want our girls to know, respect, and appreciate the wonderful diversity of the world.
A third reason for teaching world geography is because kids are naturally curious. I don’t want to miss this window of opportunity where they just want to know and see everything about everywhere. I hope to be able to travel as a family when the kids get a little older and my hope is to spark (or fan the flames of) a love a travel and experiencing different cultures.
We are so enjoying our trip around the world and are so excited for you to join us!