Homeschool Geography--Mexico

 I love geography. I love looking at maps, tracing roads, rivers and mountain ranges and imagining what life is like in other countries and climates. Learning about other cultures has always fascinated me, and I want very much to pass that love on to my children. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that I have already started teaching them some world geography.

What started the lessons was last spring in the middle of the quarantine when I started noticing that when Jimmy and I talked about things happening in other countries, the kids had absolutely no idea of where we were talking about. Now I know they're young, and I know that they don't really start teaching world geography until 4th or 5th grade in elementary school (and none of my three are there yet), but it's never too early to start, right? So we started. 😊

We take two weeks to study each country, and I've focused on the biggest, most populated countries to begin with because those are the ones you hear about the most. Taking two weeks has been really practical for us; once the kids started back to physical school, we've done our geography lessons on the weekend, with some breaks here and there when the house remodel kept us busy, school schedules got hectic, and the holidays came, My goal is not to overwhelm them with facts about a particular country, but instead to give them a taste and feel for what makes each country different and unique. So far, we've studied India, China, Russia, Australia and Brazil, and now we're learning about Mexico.

I like to check out books from the library on the country in question; I generally pick ones with lots of pictures due to the age of my kids, but also because a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Some of the best have been an older set our library has following the life of a child in that country; the kids are always amazed to see what school and home is like for kids in other countries.

I also pick out any books I have in our own home library, anything from legends and fairy tales from that country to stories about people in that country. For Mexico, I found these three on our shelves: 

Nine Days to Christmas by Marie Hall Etts and Aurora Labastida

The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola (I'm a HUGE fan of his work, & have several books by him)

Donald's Fantastic Fiesta from Disney's Small World Library

This last set especially has been invaluable--I picked them up at a garage sale a few years back, and they're full of interesting pictures and fun facts about each country all presented in a story about Mickey and his friends. My kids love these books!

Once we've read about a country, I want them to have a chance to interact with all the new information, and these little minibooks from 123homeschool4me.com are perfect! 

The books are free if you download them individually from her website, and my kids love to color the pictures and read the different facts about each country! There's a simpler version for children just learning to read and write and a slightly more in-depth version for older kids.

I also like to find Youtube videos and/or movies or cartoons that show what life is like in each country. Our new favorite family show is Expedition Unknown with Josh Gates, so we definitely watched the episode where he investigated the demise of the Mayan civilization in the Yucatan Peninsula. I also pulled out our DVDs of The Three Caballeros and Scooby-Doo and the Monster in Mexico; you'd be surprised how much culture is in a kid's show! And of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the show Let's Go, Luna on PBS Kids--that is a great show to introduce kids to world geography!

So much for the sights and sounds of Mexico; I also want my kids to get the taste and feel of each country, and that means art projects and food! In India, we tried curried chicken and rice, in China it was stir-fry, in Australia, lamingtons (those were a big hit 😋), in Russia, crepes (mixed results), in Brazil, brigadeiros (another big hit--my family loves anything with chocolate!). For Mexico, I made homemade tortillas and flan. This had mixed results as well--nobody liked the flan except me and Curly (I already knew I liked it, which is why I made it), but the tortillas were an overall success. In fact, they were so good and so easy to make, that I'm seriously considering never buying store tortillas again! 

For our art project, I thought it would be fun to make miniature piñatas. After doing a little research on Pinterest, I decided to use empty toilet paper rolls for our piñatas and to make them in the colors of the Mexican flag. For this craft, you will need one empty toilet paper roll per person, one piece each of red, green and white tissue paper, a glue stick, and small candies (we used some of our leftover Halloween candy that we're still going through 😉).

Cut two long strips out of each color of tissue paper and then cut fringes in it.

Cut four small squares out of one of the colors of paper just big enough to cover the end of the cardboard roll, then glue two pieces, one on top of the other, over one end of the tube. Once it's securely fastened (the glue stick will dry quickly), fill the tube with candy. We found that individual mini chocolates or gummy snacks, Skittles, etc. out of the package worked well.

Of course, Tater had to sample from what wouldn't fit in his tube! 😂

Once the tube is filled with candy, you can then glue the other two squares of tissue paper over the other end, sealing it in. Then it's time to wrap the fringed paper around the tube, effectively covering the ends of the squares. It's okay if the strip overlaps itself.

Continue wrapping each color around the tube, spacing them slightly apart so the fringes overlap. I let my kids choose what pattern they wanted to place their three colors in, so all four are slightly different. I also decided to tie a little gold string around the top of mine for added decoration.

And that's it! These turned out so cute, and the kids were so excited to open theirs after supper (yes, I made them wait a little before breaking theirs)! All we had to do was poke through the end and pour the candy into our hands, leaving the rest of the piñata intact, which is good because all three declared that they want to keep theirs! 😆 

As we made them, I commented that these would make really fun party favors, and the kids immediately agreed, so I wouldn't be surprised if we make these again before the year is out!

Learning about Mexico has been a lot fun for me and the kids! I wonder what country we'll visit next?