Explore the Continents - History and Geography AN UPDATE!

 

Back in September I introduced how we were starting the CHC Explore the Continents program for our Geography and History lessons.  Now that we are 4 months into the program we are loving it even more than when we began!  I thought I would give you a little update!

 

We finished North America at the end of September and really enjoyed it.  I was surprised how much our children knew about our Continent and also how many amazing new things that we learned!  We spent a lot of time exploring animals at the zoo, studying great Saints and reading about famous places.  We truly hope that homeschooling will, in time, allow our family to also travel to many of these places together to study them in real life.

 

Here are some of the stories we read when studying about North America:

 

Winter on The Farm  - My First Little House Books

Going West - My First Little House Books

Prairie School by Avi

Buffalo Bill and the Pony Express by Eleanor Coerr

The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett

The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward

Armadillo Rodeo by Jan Brett

The Lady of Guadalupe by Tomie dePoala

 

Next, we started studying South America and had just as much fun!  We learned a lot about the Amazon Rainforest, Andes Mountains, and so much about the animals and people of South America.  We studied so many incredible Saints including Martin dePorres, Peter Claver, Teresa of the Andes and many more.  We also used the booklist included in the program about South America and also added some extra books of our own choice to add to our learning experiences.

The books that we read for this unit included the following:

The Umbrella by Jan Brett

On the Pampas by Maria Cristina Brusca

My Name is Gabriela by Monica Brown

Pele, King of Soccer by Monica Brown

Tonight is Carnaval by Arthur Dorros

Up and Down the Andes by Laurie Krebs

South America by Libby Koponen

South America's Most Amazing Plants by Michael Scott

Animals in Danger in South America by Richard Spilsbury

Spotlight on South America by Karen Gibson

We're Roaming the Rainforest by Laurie Krebs

The program moves onto Australia next, but since it is winter time we decided to jump ahead to Antarctica!  Also, since there are no Saints and not as many historical places and events from Antarctica it is a great unit to work on during the Advent/Christmas season when we are focusing more on other activities.

Our books for this unit study so far include the following:

• Here is Antarctica by Madeleine Dunphy
• Penguins, Penguins, Everywhere by Bob Barner
• Spotlight on Antarctica by A.R. Schaefer
• Antarctica by Mary Lindeen
• Eve of the Emperor Penguin by Mary Pope Osborne
• Penguins and Antarctica by Mary Pope Osborne

 

Also, although we have been having a very mild winter so far we did get ONE day of snow so far and we enjoyed the few hours that it was on the ground thoroughly!  Our kids decided that they think it would be really cool to live in Antarctica where there is ALWAYS snow!