Amazing Race Study Notebook

We love to watch The Amazing Race! Why not turn it into a great way to study geography and social science? This one printable will help your students engage deeper with what they see in the show and learn about the countries that the contestants visit.

Pages one and two give you art for your binder. Page three is a page to put in information about the country visited (map, flag, country stats).  The fourth page is a place to record the events that occurred in the episode ind interesting facts or situations that arose. The last page is a place to record information about the culture of the countries visited. 

Pages 3-5 will be printed as needed, depending on the season being watched. We have had a lot of fun using this workbook over the years and we hope you and you kids do too!

This unit is available for all of our Patrons at any level, so come check it out and get started learning with the show.

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World Travels France Letter

 

World Travels With

Written by Michelle Morgan for her son

For private use only, you may print and use in your own homeschool. Do not copy or replicate without express permission. Copyright Michelle Morgan 2015

Find the rest of our series here.

 

Hello!

Dinah and I enjoyed our first trip on the hot air balloon so much! It was amazing seeing the earth from so high up. We floated through the sky for a very long time, going wherever the wind blew. The wind brought us from the United States of America, across the Atlantic Ocean, to a huge city!


Standing in the middle of the skyline was an incredible tower, the Eiffel Tower. We saw so many cafes, bakeries, and architecture. In Paris, France there is so much to see and I wanted to see it all.


Dinah reminded me that not everyone can see the sights that we were able to see. She told me that about 200 years ago there was a boy named Louis Braille. He lived here in France. When he was just three years old, he had an accident in his father's workshop that caused him to be blind. As he grew up, the one thing he wanted to do was read. Louis left his family to attend a school for the blind in Paris.


In Paris, he was able to learn to read. The letters were raised so he could read with his fingers. There weren't many books to read though. Louis began to think of a new way for the blind to read, a way that could make books for the blind easier to make and to read. He created the Braille Alphabet Code. Each letter was made with a series of dots that are easy to create, feel, and read. Braille's alphabet is still being used by the blind today.


I can't wait to learn more about countries all over the world. They are all bound to have their own amazing stories.


Till next time,





 

Image via Nicole Codega


 

France is our first stop on our study around the world. Netflix and Amazon Instant Video should be great resources to find documentaries about Paris and France as a whole. This is your chance to break out your flag sticker book for the first time too. At my house, we put the big flag for the country in our passport and the little flag on or near the country in the book. Then we color in the country. Here are some other things you can add to make your study of France more enjoyable and hands on.

World Travels Introduction Letter

World Travels With

Written by Michelle Morgan for her son

For private use only, you may print and use in your own homeschool. Do not copy or replicate without express permission. Copyright Michelle Morgan 2015

Find the rest of our series here.

Hello!

My name is Delbert. My good friend Dinah got a very special Christmas gift this year, a hot air balloon! Can you believe it? It is beautiful, with gold, red, and black stripes. Dinah had a great idea of how to use her special gift. I bet you can't wait to hear her idea! Well, she thought we should travel around the world in her balloon. I thought it was a great idea and said yes right away.

I came up with a great idea of my own too. I knew we would learn so many new things about lots of countries we have never seen. Then I thought we should share what we learned with someone. We thought long and hard about who we should share our adventures with, and we thought of you!

Dinah and I are going to have so much fun traveling all over the world in the hot air balloon. We hope that you have fun learning along with us too. I will write again soon when we land in our first country!

 

 

Balloon photo © Walleyelj | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

 

This introduction letter is a great opportunity to share some items with your kids that they can enjoy for their whole journey. We use a play passport, which would be easy to make. We also introduced these items into our study.

World Travels Geography Series

World Travels With

Written by Michelle Morgan for her son

For private use only, you may print and use in your own homeschool. Do not copy or replicate without express permission. Copyright Michelle Morgan 2015

Welcome to World Travels! We are so excited to learn about the world with you. In this series you will find an introduction and 16 country studies. Delbert and Dinah will be flying around the world in their hot air balloon, learning about the countries they visit and how Christianity has impacted them along the way. Here are the stops we will be making. We will begin in France, then head to Ireland, England, Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India, Mongolia, China/Hong Kong, Australia, Guatemala, Mexico, and finish in the United States of America. Click the country to find the post when it is available. The introduction letter can be found here.

In addition to the letters from Delbert and Dinah, we will be using several materials. You can choose to use these to further your study or use your own ideas that will spark your children's desire to learn. I will share country specific items after each letter, but the following we use in our home for all or nearly all of the countries.

 

Introduction Letter

France Letter

Ireland Letter

England Letter

Netherlands Letter

Italy Letter

Greece Letter

Egypt Letter

Saudi Arabia Letter

India Letter

Mongolia Letter

China/Hong Kong Letter

Australia Letter

Easter Island Letter

Guatemala Letter

Mexico Letter

United States of America Letter

World Travels in the Works

World Travels with Delbert and Dinah has been a very fun part of our homeschool in the past. I already mentioned that I will be bringing the series back. I have spent a long time thinking about what I want to do with it. There are countries to choose, artwork to make, and words to write. I made the decision to re-write the previous posts, add the new countries, and make it into a pdf book. I still plan to post it on the blog, but a pdf book will put all the information into one easy to read spot.

There will be some other changes as well. Instead of using photos, I will be creating original artwork for each country. Delbert and Dinah will be sharing geography from a Biblical view. They will share stories of missionaries, historical significance of the areas they visit, and Christianity in the area. Not all of these will be in every story, but I want it to be the underlying theme that binds them all together. The letters will still be fun to read and not too heavy for smaller kids. I may also rearrange the countries so they follow a more route like flight instead of the random line they once were.

It will take a while to put them all together, but I hope to post the studies along the way. Did you want to know the countries we will be covering? Here they are:

England

Italy

USA

Mexico

Egypt

Easter Island

China

Hong Kong (possibly, since they are technically part of China)

France

Greece

India

Mongolia

*Guatemala

*Netherlands

*Ireland

*Saudi Arabia

*Australia

*Starting Letter

 

*(from first series)

This would make a total of 18 months of geography letters. I hope you are excited about them as I am!

World Travels With Delbert and Dinah

When we did kindergarten we selected Little Passports as part of our curriculum. We really loved it and Jayne loved getting a package in the mail every month. Then we had some big life changes and knew that it just wasn't in our budget. So we finished the second half of the school year by creating a DIY Little Passports type series called World Travels With Delbert and Dinah. It was a hit with our son and with our readers.

We stopped when kindergarten was over because our little guy's interests had moved from geography to math, go figure. Below I have the entire series linked. As we near our move to a new country, geography is beginning to perk our son's interests again. So, we are considering bringing the series back. What do you think? Would you like to see us bring it back?

World Travels: Introduction

World Travels: Guatemala

World Travels: The Netherlands

World Travels: Ireland

World Travels: Saudi Arabia

World Travels: Australia

 

 

World Travels: Australia

G'day Mate!

Our last adventure was very dry in the desert, but this time we found ourselves wet, wet, wet! We landed our balloon in Australia. Not on the western side, because that is mostly desert and we had just come from one of those. We landed on the eastern side of the country where most of the people live. Did you know that Australia is a country and a continent?

We met a visitor to the eastern shore, Adam. He was about to head out into the water to explore the Great Barrier Reef. Adam invited us to go with him and we couldn't resist. We rode with him on a boat to get to the reef.

We snorkeled in the water. It is kind of like swimming with a giant straw in your mouth so you can keep breathing while you swim. Delbert took a huge breath and swam 35 feet under the surface to see the sharks, but I liked staying near the top. The sharks in the reef were very friendly and safe to swim with. We saw a lot of beautiful and big fish. After a while a deadly water snake came along and we all had to get out of the water. 

We had a great time exploring with Adam. We even found some itty bitty fish toys to play with as we float away to our next great adventure. See you then!

Mister's own dad went to this country so we already have some fun stuff to play with. We have a bull whip, an alligator skin bracelet, and a boomerang. We are still getting a fun goody for him too though and we are sticking to our squinkie theme because he just loves them and he uses the zinkies a lot for math. He will also get to hear lots of stories from his daddy's trip. We will only have our Amazon Prime membership for 1 more week, so we may not get any videos in. He will have a blast tossing the boomerang around and hearing lots of stories though.

The picture this month is from here: http://madasamarinebiologist.com/post/35278601428/scinerds-coral-autopsy-reveals-great-barrier
Poor Adam didn't get a single good shot on his trip of the reef.

World Travels: Saudi Arabia

Hello!

This month we landed somewhere very hot! We landed at the edge of an ocean of sand called The Empty Quarter in Saudi Arabia. We met an Arab boy named Fadil. He came with his camel to see our balloon. 

Fadil brought us to his home at Al-Khamasin. There were even more camels there because this is an important area of the country for raising them. We visited with Fadil's family and told them about our adventures so far. They told us some wonderful folk tales from Saudi Arabia. 

When it was time to leave, Fadil gave us a book to read during our long days of flying in our balloon, 1001 Arabian Nights. We can't wait to read some more of their fantastic folk tales! 

Till next month,

The photo from this month is from this site: http://americanbedu.com/2011/11/02/saudi-arabia-how-empty-is-the-%E2%80%9Cempty-quarter%E2%80%9D/

This month I decided to browse some goodies and let them inspire the month. Mister has developed a love for Squinkies and when I saw this Aladdin themed set (which is also not ultra girly, yay) I knew I needed to look into Saudi Arabia. 

The middle east is a rocky topic for many people, but they are still people just like us and with interesting geography. We shouldn't let the bad news broadcasts sway our thinking of an entire people group. They never share the good things happening in a country after all. Soooo anyway...back to geography...

Our goodies this month are the Squinkie set shown above and a Children's version of Arabian Nights.

I also found this show that is free to watch with Amazon Prime, Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations which has an episode on cuisine from Saudi Arabia. We will probably have to watch the Disney Aladdin too.

I would love to hear what you added to your Saudi Arabian studies this month! Just share in the comments.

World Travels: Ireland

Hello!

The wind blew us to Ireland this month! We landed at the Cliffs of Moher. The cliffs overlook the Atlantic Ocean. There were so many birds! The sea birds make their homes in the cliff face.

While we were in Ireland we learned all about Saint Patrick. He was brought to Ireland as a slave, escaped, and then came back to share his love of Jesus with the Irish people. It is an exciting story from the history of Ireland and Christianity. 

We had a lot of fun exploring this beautiful island and found a lucky four leaf clover. We look forward to sharing our next stop with you too!

If you are sharing with your kiddos this month, it is perfect timing! Ireland is a great topic for March and learning about St. Patrick. Here are some things we will be doing to add depth to our letter...

The Cliffs of Moher has a fantastic website, complete with virtual tour. I plan to do that with little guy and this is the address: http://www.cliffsofmoher.ie/default.aspx

I am ordering a fun clover cutter as his special gift. At $8.63  (on Amazon) it is still far less than the $15 I was spending on Little Passports, in case any of you are keeping track. We will use it to make quesadillas for St Patrick's day with green tortillas, of course.

We will be reading about St. Patrick in I Heard Good News Today which was a part of our Sonlight curriculum. We use this book sparingly as Little Guy doesn't like to read it much.

Man V Wild has an Ireland episode, SCORE! We did one of these with the Guatemala lesson and  Little Guy still talks about Guatemala. It really brought the lesson to life for him, so I will use these as much as I can!

I hope you are all enjoying my World Travels series so far! We certainly are. If you would love to see a favorite country or share a country you have visited, let me know in the comments section. The next 3 months are covered and then any locale is fair game!

World Travels: The Netherlands

Hello!

We flew to the most amazing place this month! I said, "Delbert, we have to land there and see what that is!" Below the ground was striped with every color of the rainbow, reds, blues, yellows and more. What could have possibly caused these fantastic stripes?

When we landed, Delbert and I saw that they were giant fields of Tulips. The were so beautiful and there were so many! In the distance we could see a tall windmill. It did not look like the white, sleek windmills we are used to in the USA. We had landed in The Netherlands. The family that runs the farm brought us a picnic lunch with tasty Edam cheese and homemade bread. Yum! 

We will talk to you again next month!

Image via pintrest. Original link: http://katieinluxembourg.blogspot.com/2011/04/saturday-1530.html

This month is all about The Netherlands, mostly because little guy wants to know more about the place we are considering making our home. There are some really amazing shots of the fields if you want to share more with your kiddos, on pintrest. Just search: The Netherlands Tulips.

I am ordering this windmill kit as our gift from Delbert and Dinah. Cost is  currently $9.56 which is way under the $15 we spent on Little Passports before. I got it here: http://www.amazon.com/Green-Science-Windmill-Generator-Toysmith/dp/B0016PBH9Q/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1360375777&sr=8-7&keywords=windmill

Burt Wolf Holland and Belgium is a very nice tour of the area and is available on Amazon Prime. I recommend  previewing any documentaries you show your kids before showing them. Amsterdam is very well known for it's less family oriented virtues, but this video shows all there is to truly love about the country, including some interesting history. 

e2 design Season 2, Ep. 5 "Adaptive Reuse in the Netherlands"

is another interesting Documentary about architecture. We won't be watching it again with little guy, because e2 is just not his cup of tea.

World Travels: Guatemala

Hello!

Dinah and I enjoyed our first trip on the hot air balloon so much! It was amazing seeing the earth from so high up. We floated through the sky for a very long time, going wherever the wind blew. When we were ready to touch ground we found a perfect break in the trees. 

We couldn't believe where we landed! There were old stone buildings all around us. Lots of people were walking around looking at them. A girl named Nicole came to see our balloon and told us we were at the ruins of a Mayan village in Guatemala. She showed us around the ruins. We climbed many, many stairs and saw lots of carvings in the rocks too. The Mayans even had a ball court because they liked to play sports too!

Nicole was a tourist visiting Guatemala  She had seen many markets and had even gotten to see were they grow coffee beans, bananas and cocoa beans. She even gave us some of the bananas she got straight from the tree! She shared some fresh chocolate with us too. Our trip to the Mayan ruins was incredible, and we made a new friend too! We'll write to you again soon!

Photo of Tikal from Nicole

We are going to work this into our geography/history study of the mountains. I am going to put a banana and a bar of chocolate in his package this month. I downloaded Google Earth, so we will check out Guatemala on there. We will be reading the mountain section of the book Wild Places.

Also, we'll be watching several videos about Guatemala and the Mayan people that are available for free on Amazon Prime Instant Video.

Guatemala Episode

Lost King of the Maya and Maya Lords of the Jungle

Passport to Adventure: Guatemala's Dramatic Lake Atitlan Region

DIY Little Passports

Adam came up with the idea first and I loved it, then stressed about it, then hated it, then it really grew on me... I'm confusing, I know! We have been getting little passports in the mail for a few months now and Little Guy just loves it. We like it too, don't get me wrong, but for the $15 we are paying each month for the 2 year subscription we feel like we could do better. So the idea was this, let's make our own! I loved the idea, because we could do much cooler souvenirs and relate them to people that we know who have been there too. We could also go anywhere and better form them to what we are learning about. The part that stressed me out was that it meant doing a ton of research and writting the letters on top of everything a homeschool mom already does, I did not like that at all. Today I realized that I know a lot of people who have been to other countries. With their help I would have a launching point to write the letters and any kind of idea what kind of souvenirs to put with it.

So here is the grand idea I have come up with today! With the help of friends, family, and anyone who wants to collaborate on this, I will right the letters and share them on the blog. Anyone who wants to print them out and make their own for their kids can do that. I will have to come up with the story line, ect. because I don't want to outright steal the work of the Little Passports people, they do a great job. I'm not sure where it will lead at this point, but I am excited to get into it!

Oh What a Week

Sewing his pouch pocket

A fun week, that is! Our school week has been just great. We did an especially large amount of hands on activities this week and that may have been a part of it. We learned all about living in medieval times, castles, bathrooms, food and the like. He always wants to know about the bathrooms each time period uses and he has yet to be disappointed by the information. Jayne even got to try his hand at swing his own pouch (pocket) like they used to wear.

In science we spent a lot of time learning about the ocean. We learned about waves, the tide, and coasts. Jayne saw a glimpse of how waves work when we made a wave bottle. He also got to see how things freeze and melt. We put some fun stuff n the ice tray in the freezer and some ice cubes insulated and not insulated mugs.

The wave bottle

Our little Passports came in this week too. Sam and Sophia went to Japan this month. Jayne got a little sushi eraser and an origami set. We made a book all about Japan and spent a lot of time folding paper.

Origami galore! You can tel which is mine by drawing ability only.

This week we finished reading Th Hundred Dresses. This book did not keep Little Guy's attention like the last 2 books did, but t did teach some great lessons that we have already been able to apply in real life. We will be reading The Family Under the Bridge next. This should be good! I just hope it draws him in better than the last one.

K Week 2

Still having a blast here! A certain someone, I'll let you guess who, has been quite a bit less attentive the last 2 days because his daddy has been home during school time. We still got everything done including some fun projects. We are both enjoying the curriculum a lot and I don't think we will be making many changes next year. I'll share a bit of what we did this week...

The first part of the week we continued to learn about the first people. We made these coracle boats out of wiki sticks and plastic bags. They did not take on water, but I certainly would not have wanted to ride in one!

Jayne "leveled up" in reading and was so very proud of himself. Leveling up on anything that is real (not a video game) is very exciting because he didn't realize you could level up for real!

History moved to ancient Egypt this week. Jayne is painting an ancient Egyptian gold collar. That has to sit and dry for the next step.

We are still learning about air and weather this week. Today we made a snake and  and held it over the heat of the oven. Adam had to force himself to bake a cake to make the heat worth the time. He will be especially sad to have to eat the cake, I'm sure. The snake spun and excitement was to be had.

Here is the finished collar, thank you foamie shapes, the fantastic snake, and out first country marked on the map, Egypt!

It is fun to see what really sticks. He asks me questions about stories he tells me because, "well you know, you ask me questions about The Boxcar Children!" He also is aware of new words in the real world. They mentioned the atmosphere during the weather on the news and Jayne asked how they new about the atmosphere. I love that he thinks our home holds all the secrets to the universe. I'm glad he think he has a great teacher at least.