Expedition Earth - Europe - Russia

This week Luke and I made our 5th stop on our trek across the globe. We went to Russia. It was a great country to visit and we learned so many interesting things.

The first day we stamped our passports and found Russia on our map. Luke colored the map of Russia and we wrote down some key things about Russia.

Each week we look up words in each language. The language of Russia is Russian. In Russian, "Luke" is "Luka Lukey (last name)", "Hello" is "Privet", and "Thank You" is "Spasibo."

Luke colored the flag of Russia. It has three equal stripes - red, blue, and white.

He made a lapbook for Russia and put his favorite thing about Russia, that it is the largest country in the world.

We made nesting boxes, a popular thing in Russia. Here are pictures:









The most important thing we do each week is pray for the people of the country each day. We specifically prayed for missionaries, lost people, and for Christian growth.

This weekend we plan to make Russian apple pie and watch some of The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky, a famous Russian composer.

Next Stop: United Kingdom

Expedition Earth - Asia - Israel

This week Luke and I made our 4th stop on our trek across the globe. We went to Israel. It was a great country to visit and we learned so many interesting things.

The first day we stamped our passports and found Israel on our map. Luke colored the map of Israel and we wrote down some key things about Israel.

Each week we look up words in each language. The language of Israel is Hebrew. In Hebrew, "Luke" is "Luke", "Hello" is "Shalom", and "Thank You" is "Toda."

Luke colored the flag of Israel. It has blue and white stripes (middle white stripe bigger) and a blue star (the Star of David).

He made a lapbook for Israel and put his favorite thing about Israel, playing dreidel.

We made a dreidel and played dreidel and adras (sort of like tic-tac-toe). It was so much fun. We are taking the games to the beach to play more.

We made Regulach pastries to eat.

The most important thing we do each week is pray for the people of the country each day. We specifically prayed for missionaries, lost people, and for Christian growth. We prayed for God's people, the Israelites. We prayed for countries that support Israel and for those who don't.

Israel was our last stop in Asia. Next continent: Europe.

Expedition Earth - Asia - India

This week Luke and I made our 3rd stop on our trek across the globe. We went to India. It was a great country to visit and we learned so many interesting things.

The first day we stamped our passports and found India on our map. Luke colored the map of India and we wrote down some key things about India.

Each week we look up words in each language. The language of India is Hindi. In Hindi, "Luke" is "Luke", "Hello" is "Namaste", and "Thank You" is "Dhan ya vada".

Luke colored the flag of India. It had orange, white, and green stripes with a blue wheel in the middle.

He made a lapbook for India and put his favorite thing about India, doing the stone mosaic.

Here are pictures of us Luke making the stone mosaic:

We bought a kit - I am not that artistically advanced.



Luke stirring the cement - it said to not breathe it in. He took me literally.

Luke and the mold filled with cement.

Outline of our butterfly. I bet you are shocked that we did a butterfly.

The finished product - well it still had to dry.

Luke and his tile. He is a ham.

It actually turned out great and we put it on our front porch.

The most important thing we do each week is pray for the people of the country each day. We specifically prayed for missionaries, lost people, and for Christian growth.

Next stop: Israel

Expedition Earth - Asia - Japan

This week Luke and I made our 2nd stop on our trek across the globe. We went to Japan. It was a great country to visit and we learned so many interesting things.

The first day we stamped our passports and found Japan on our map. Luke colored the map of Japan (sorry, I don't have a picture) and we wrote down some key things about Japan.

Each week we look up words in each language. The language of Japan is Japanese. In Japanese, "Luke" is "Ru ku", "Hello" is "Kon nichi wah", and "Thank You" is "Arigato."

Luke colored the flag of Japan. It was a nice, easy one. It is white with a red-filled circle in the middle.

He made a lapbook for China and put his favorite thing about Japan, doing Origami.

We made carp (fish) necklaces. We colored each fish a different color and talked about what each color was in Japanese. Here are the necklaces:


Here is the Origami we made - Yellow Butterflies (how appropriate):

Luke and I went out on a mommy-son date to a Japanese steakhouse this week. Here we are all dressed up and ready to go:


The most important thing we do each week is pray for the people of the country each day. We specifically prayed for missionaries, lost people, and for growth as well as safety from the volcanoes and tsunamis.

Next stop: India

Expedition Earth - Asia - China

This week Luke and I started our trek across the globe. Our first stop was China. It was a great country to visit and we learned so many interesting things.

The first day we stamped our passports and found China on our map. Luke colored the map of China (sorry, I don't have a picture) and we wrote down some key things about China.

Each week we will look up words in each language. The language of China is Mandarin. Here are the words we looked up in Mandarin:

Here is the flag of China: (the red represents the revolution, the big yellow/gold star represents Communism, and the 4 little yellow/gold stars represent the classes of people)
Here is Luke working on his lapbook entry for China:

Luke playing tanagrams (a popular game/craft in China):

Here is Luke making a Chinese fan: (he is drawing Chinese numbers on it)

I think it turned out great. :)

Here is Luke making a Chinese lantern:

Again, I am pleased with how they turned out:

Luke with his Great Wall of China:

We gave Luke a red envelope filled with lucky money (AKA video game bucks) as is a custom in China.

The most important thing we do each week is pray for the people of China each day. We specifically prayed for missionaries, lost people, and for growth despite the Communist government.

We also read some great books related to China including: The Story of Ping, 5 Chinese Brothers, Stone Soup, Panda Kindergarten, and The Runaway Wok.

He also played Chinese checkers with Lee. We plan to go out for Chinese food this weekend.

Next stop: Japan

Kindergarten Curriculum - Geography - Expedition Earth

Kindergarten Curriculum - Geography

What We Are Using: Expedition Earth

How I Found It: I love reading blogs, especially about homeschooling. I stumbled upon Erica's blog (http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/) and I LOVE IT! She is Super Homeschool Mom. She seriously needs a cape. LOL! She puts a ton of what she does with her kids on her blog (lots of pictures) as well as curriculum she has created. I found Expedition Earth on her blog and saw some of what she had done with her kids and thought it looked great.

Why I Chose It: I think it is really important that kids (and people) know about the world and not just the tiny area they (we) live in. This is great because you journey around the world, hitting all 7 continents, The Arctic, and tons of countries.

What Will We Do? We will read about each country, color the map, color the flag, do a lapbook, do arts and crafts, make or go out for food, and most importantly, pray for the country.

Overall I think it will be a great curriculum for Luke. We may not get to do everything for each country, but I think all in all he will realize the world is a much bigger place than just Holly Springs or North Carolina or even the United States. I will be learning a lot also.