Monday, November 2, 2009

Africa, oh Africa


So Sean's plan in studying the seven continents was to begin with the African continent, and in typical "follow the child" fashion, we started with Africa.
Here are a few of the things we've done so far.
I bought some maps way back (feels like a year ago now, but only a couple of months ago really) and he has traced the African continent and labeled it.
We watched "Born Free," which I LOVED as a kid and he totally enjoyed as well. And at the end he yelled out, "This was a true story!"
We went to the library and checked out a bunch of books on Africa.
I bought a CD online for a great deal called, "Acoustic Africa." This CD was available in his Primary room at the Montessori school and he mentioned it often. I was happy to find it. He frequently chooses it for the CD player.
His interest now is with snakes and as he reads his snake books from the library we find out where there homes are, and some are found in Africa.
Here's where this turns a corner.
I bought a set of African continent cards through an eBay seller. This pack includes pictures of kids, animals, instruments, landmarks, etc. They're nice. Not laminated, not three-part cards either which bothers me now, but nice.
Sean couldn't give a rip. He hasn't shown the slightest interest in these cards, except when he was listening to the CD. I had all of the cards on the floor and he recognized one of the instruments as one that was used in a song on the CD.
I have been printing and cutting like mad, and let me just say, I have a JOB and I WORK and at some point the clicking and downloading and printing and cutting just gets to me. So I decided it was worth it to buy a few things.
SO GLAD I DIDN'T BUY CARDS FOR ALL 7 CONTINENTS!
It would have cost me $100, and I almost did it. I know NUTS. Luckily I decided to sample them by starting with the African cards.
Maybe other kids love these things. Not Sean. He just doesn't have any interest in them.
I'm going to try one last African continent work this week before we move on. I printed out all of the flags of Africa, but I am going to make them into three part cards and see if he goes for it. If not, I'll just put it all in the box and have it for next year. Maybe he'll suddenly have interest.
His taste seems much more sophisticated. He wants to plan a trip to Africa. He believes that would be a good idea. And of course I do too.
South America is next, he says. Stay tuned.

2 comments:

  1. Hi! I'm a first time visitor to your blog, but I wanted to let you know about the Usborne Books Flag Sticker Book. It is AWESOME. Has every flag broken down by continent and cross referenced to a map with the date the flag was adopted included.

    It was only 9.99 or something like that- totally worth it! I have heard some people buy two and make 3 part cards.

    Heidi @ Work & Play, Day by Day
    Home of the Homeschool Highlight Reel

    http://notahomeschooler.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the tip about the book Heidi, and thanks for visiting my blog.

    ReplyDelete