Voyage Around The World

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Last week our homeschool group had our annual geography fair. We really enjoy doing projects like this with our group. It is so much fun and a great hands on way for the kids to learn about different countries and cultures. In one day we were able to take a voyage around the world to visit about 12 countries. If you are part of a homeschool group I highly encourage you to set up a geography fair.

Our family chose to do England, another country that I had an opportunity to visit with People to People Student Ambassadors. Before we started learning about England I dug out my photo albums and keepsake box which the kids had a blast digging through. They were full of questions and wanted to know all about the trip I took in 1999.

After they were done exploring we utilized many of the books that I purchased during my travels as well as several from the library to learn all about England. Then we put on some Beatles music and sorted through my keepsakes. The kids picked out the postcards, brochures, souvenirs, coins, and photos that they wanted to include on their board. I went online and printed the map, flag, crest, crown jewels, national animal and flower. I printed these items in black and white so the kids could color them in...really making the project their own. We also printed a colored photo of Queen Elizabeth II and the native animals of England.

Last year when we did our Australia project we had a lot more text on our board, but because of the age group that generally attends we decided to include more visuals and less text this year. The text that we included was very simple and in a bulleted format. We included the names of some famous scientists, artists, authors and singers. As well as various facts, British words and information about the climate, holidays and type of government. And of course no project is complete without a Lego sculpture. Rowyn's task was to build Big Ben! He did a fabulous job and Gwyn helped him with the clock face.

For our authentic dish we choose to go with shortbread cookies and tea. Gwyn made the cookies all by herself and they turned out great. They were a huge hit with all of the kids.

Here is the recipe we used:

Shortbread Cookies

Makes about 2 dozen

Ingredients:
-2 cups of softened butter
-1 cup of sugar
-3 teaspoons of vanilla
-4 cups of flour

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Then stir in the vanilla, add the flour and mix well.
3. Roll out the dough and use a cookie cutter to cut the cookies.
4. Put the cookies onto a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.
5. If you choose melt some chocolate chips and dip half of each shortbread cookie into the melted chocolate. They taste great though with or without chocolate.

Take a look at all of these amazing projects.

Each family spent lots of time preparing their display boards, costumes, authentic dishes and even dances. It was amazing to see how unique each one was. During the fair each family got a chance to talk about their country and share their board. All of the kids did a fabulous job and we all learned some really great facts about some really amazing destinations!

To enhance the learning experience even more I made my kids their very own passports. I used this FREE passport printable from Guest Hollow. I laminated the front and back cover to make it sturdy. And on inside the kids filled out their passports and pasted a photo of themselves. At the geography fair they wrote or drew pictures in their passports as they visited each country. I was very pleased with how these turned out and even more pleased at how great the kids did with filling them in. 

So my kids want to know, what country do you want to visit?

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