world cultures recommendations

[onyxravnos]

So I'm looking for country/world culture resources for my 4 & 7 year olds. Not little passports, as cool as it is it's just too much $$$.

anyone used anything? free? resources books? suggestions? i would like to over the summer use it for not only studying culture but weave all the other subjects into it as well.

[AllyRae]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Expedition Earth...it's really quite inexpensive, and was created by a homeschooling mom.  It does have a religious component (praying for the people of each country), but if you are not Christian, that can easily be overlooked.  It has a lot of facts, crafts, etc.with it.  Here is the blog I bought it from:

http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2011/04/expedition-earth-world-geography.html

[onyxravnos]

Oooo i'll check it out. i've looked at her site before but i had forgotten about it. Downloading the free animals one now to test drive it.

Welcome to any other suggestions!

[Callimom]

Threre's a really great book called Growing Up Global which is one of the ones I think should be in every homeschoolers library. Tonnes of suggestions for music, movies, recipe resources etc. It would help you pull together a great overview (rather than be the overview).

If you check out the Crafty Crow they had a "round the world" tour last year with lots of links to blogs for ideas, crafts etc.

Enchanted Learning has printables for a number of countries, Crayola has lots of country specific crafts etc.

Good luck

Karen

[allie911]

There's a free curriculum at http://www.scribd.com/doc/5622573/Countries-and-Cultures-of-the-World for Kindergarten aged kids, which you could use as a base. I am planning to use it as a loose guide and then add in extras for my older child.

[AAK]

Our mother/daughter book club is going "around the world" this summer.  We are reading a story from/about a country or culture, and then getting together to discuss it, make a craft, and have a related snack.  You could do this with your kids.  Look in the folk/fairy tale section on the non-fiction and get some stories from several places.  From that, you have your country list.  Then, you add what you want for your kids.  

My dd loves the "passport" from little passports, but I agree that it is pricey.  We won't be continuing it.  But, we are making "passports" to use with our book club.  We will also make our "around the world" cookbook with the recipes that we use.  We also have a map that we will use to find each country, etc.  Our book club is mostly with 8 yr olds.  I also have other moms to help collaborate with.  

Amy

[CCJWGM]

I've always been happy with the little hands books and will be getting this one for next year.

http://www.amazon.com/Around-World-Art-Activities-Continents/dp/1885593457/ref=pd_luc_top_sim_04_02_t_lh

I've also drawn inspiration from this book. 

http://books.google.com/books?id=VT8LjIYPmo8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Travel+the+globe&hl=en&ei=e_KxTZf3CIz0tgOx3-jsCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CEQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

[Ravin]

Last year I used a book and companion sticker book entitled Children Just Like Me.

[farmheart]

that sounds great.. i will have to look that up!

[rumi]

We have done "Top Secret Adventures" from Highlights.  It is fairly interesting but after 3-4 countries I am starting to wonder if it will continue to hold dd's interest - seeing how excitedly she did the first couple I bought a bunch more. 

Time will tell.