Read the World Summer Book Club
Europe Week
Have you been enjoying our posts about the Read the World Summer Book Club?
Explore the world with us through books.
“Give Your Child the World,” a globally minded treasury of children’s books, by Jamie of www.simplehomeschool.net is the perfect resource for joining the Read the World Summer Book Club.
Each week we are sharing how the book club is impacting our ability to share the world with our children. We are enjoying books, ideas, and lots of fun activities, crafts, songs, and recipes! Each week, we are also finding an additional, unique way to bring more global culture to our home.
Inviting the World Into Our Home
Give Your Child the World encourages families to invite the world into our homes in variety of ways.
During the multicultural week of the book club, we collected a globe and new maps (including a shower curtain map) to add a global touch to our home decor.
Last week, I shared some of my favorite photographs and memories from Africa with my family.
This week we concentrated on “Now That You Have Those Maps and Globes – Use Them!.”
We added little sticky notes to the wall map in our dining room pointing to the specific countries represented by the books we are reading.
Jamie – if you are reading this – we would love some printable story discs like the ones available with FIAR and BFIAR 🙂 For those who don’t know, story discs are very small, round graphic representations of a storybook, such as blueberries for “Blueberries for Sal” and you can laminate them and then adhere them to a map. Just an idea!
Our family has committed to incorporating one of Jamie’s ideas for practical ways to invite the world into our home each week of the book club. It amazes me how something as simple as looking up where the stories take place on the map has impacted the kids’ understanding of geography, culture, and diversity.
Reading the World: Europe Week
We’ve been tracking the Europe Books we’ve read from Jamie’s book on Instagram using the tags #giveyourchildtheworld and #booksbeforebreakfast
Creating Global Art
Reading about Europe makes it easy to be inspired by some amazing artists.
We’ve had this collection of board books featuring famous artists since the kids were tiny. Both of my children are drawn to works by Monet and Matisse. Degas is another favorite.
I gave Ladybug paint (red, blue, yellow, and white) and some paper. A copy of “Chrysanthemums,” and the yellow frame to showcase her artwork was provided by one of our favorite preschool curricula, Mother Goose Time.
Ladybug used her paintbrush to create the swirls she loves so much in one of her favorite paintings, “Chrysanthemums (1897),” by Monet.
Owl has always been more of a Matisse kind of guy. I also provided him with some paint and he enjoyed using some different objects for stamping. I was waiting for the grapes to be painted, but somehow magically he resisted this time.
Since, he enjoys Matisse so much I also gave him some different colored pieces of paper and glue. He cut out a variety of shapes and had a great time using glue and paint to adhere them to his canvas.
Owl’s artwork below is a lovely combination of paint and cut outs or decoupage similar to those that Henri Matisse used later in his life. A fabulous book on Henri Matisse, Henri’s Scissors showcases this technique and is an excellent first choice picture book for introducing children to this amazing artist.
The best part of creating any artwork of course, is getting to show it off to Grandma!
Bringing the World To Our Table
We LOVED the Flemish Sauteed Brussels Sprouts recipe suggested by Jamie of Simple Home School. She has suggested several recipes from Global Table Adventure including this one and they have all been simple to make and delicious. I am not a recipe/food blog reader, but I love Global Table Adventure. She writes well, concisely, answers questions, and has great food ideas! I am a food blog convert…..well for the Global Table Adventure blog anyway.
We also enjoyed some amazing savory (ham and cheese) and sweet (cinnamon apple) crepes. Oh, my they were scrumptious and far less good for us than the Brussels sprouts. The recipe for the crepes came from Mother Goose Time – and I’ll share it in an upcoming post sometime very soon!
Exploring the Globe
We found this awesome game from Russia called “Gorodki.” The real version is a bit intense with large and heavy things that are thrown….BUT it can easily be adapted into a much safer and fun preschool and/or toddler friendly version. The premise is the building of “little cities” that can then be knocked down by a stick/ball.
Many of the suggested patterns or “skittles” are easy to build or mimic with our wooden block set from Melissa and Doug. The ball was a safer alternative than a bat or stick for both the kids and the house. The kids love this game and repeat it on their own 🙂
Singing Around the World
Europe has some of my favorite lullabies of all time.
Here are three that the kids and I have been enjoying this week.
1. A French Lullaby – Frère Jacques
2. An Irish Lullaby (Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ra)
3. A Czech lullaby – Hullee, baby (Halí, dítě)
Joining the World in Prayer
Although, our kids are too young to watch the news they are aware that sometimes bad things can happen. They’ve attended funerals, lost pets, and know that when an ambulance passes there is likely someone hurt or injured. Starting when they were very young I taught the kids to pray whenever we heard an emergency vehicle siren. We simply say, “Please Lord watch over those involved in that emergency.”
Given recent events in Europe when many people have been inured and hurt we repeat this prayer.
“Dear Lord, please watch over those involved in an emergency.”
This is always a great prayer to have in your arsenal to help when the kids or yourself are faced with a difficult situation. I have prayed this prayer several times this week and will continue to do so as the children grow.
We are having an amazing time learning more about the world through the Read the World Summer Book Club!
Want to join us? You can find all the details about the club on Simple Home School!
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook, add the tag #giveyourchildtheworld, and share in the fun!
Happy Adventures!
The image below is perfect for saving on Pinterest!
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