Little Passports and Geography At Home

Each month my kids eagerly anticipate receiving a Little Passports package, and they can't wait to find out from what country the package is coming.

"Sam" and "Sofia" are traveling the world, and each month they send the boys a package from whatever country they are visiting. The package includes activity sheets, a letter about famous sites they've seen in the country, a postcard, stickers, and a souvenir of some sort.

We store our letters, souvenirs, and passport in the Little Passports suitcase.

The souvenir from Egypt 

Each country also comes with a boarding zone tag that includes the secret code for learning about that month's country through online games, a favorite activity! We hook each tag to our Little Passports suitcase

Stickers go on the front of the suitcase.

Each monthly package includes a sticker of the country's flag for your passport.

The kit also includes a world map, and each month's package includes a push pin sticker to mark the countries as you learn them.

Anticipating a package in the mail each month from an unknown country seems to be more fun than I  anticipated! So I decided to build upon that monthly staple a natural geography lesson. I caught a freebie on notebookingpages.com for country notebooking pages, and we've started an Around the World notebook that includes maps and information on each country we study. 

The library has a great selection of easy to read books with lots of pictures for children on a plethora of countries. 

Sometimes my oldest writes, and sometimes I write while the other boys dictate to me what they've learned.

They all get to color a map of each country.

There are around 50 pages you can print to use for each country; here are the handful I selected for our purposes.

To include in our notebook I've printed off a prayer guide for each country from Operation World located under Country Lists. It includes information about the country, unreached people, answers to prayers, and challenges for which you can pray.

The country pages on the Operation World site often include a video from PrayerCast which really brings the people you're praying with and for to life. It's powerful to hear a native praying for his country while you watch video of the people. 

I thought it would be fun to try some cuisine from the countries and experience a bit of culture. I sent my husband and the boys to a nearby Japanese restaurant and reminded them to ask if they could hear someone speak in the Japanese language. When they got home, I eagerly asked how it went and what they had learned. They told me the people there were from China and didn't know any Japanese. First bummer. Then we opened our food. Second Bummer. Kennon and I tried to set the example by smiling and taking big first bites, but we didn't get too far. That night the boys prayed they would never have to eat Japanese food again! I've got to find a way to reclaim an adventurous appetite. 

Oh well, live, learn, laugh...and make memories!