Painting, crafts, ABC's, 123's - that's usually what you think of with preschool. Although we do a little of that, one of our big focuses is Geography. Yes, you read that right, Geography.
Sponsor a Child
Another thing our family does is support a child through Compassion International. About a year ago, we started sponsoring a little boy in Bangladesh that is the same age as Buddy. They even share the same birth-month. This has been fun because we've been able to talk about what life is like in Bangladesh and even correspond with him. We hope to soon sponsor another little boy about Button's age so that they can "grow up together." Buddy likes to write to his friend and ask him questions. They draw pictures for each other. It's just a great way to be a part of what is going on elsewhere from here.
Other resources we have are mostly for reference. We have a globe which comes in handy not only for geography but also for Buddy's endless questions about the sun and the moon and how they all work together. We have a Children's Atlas and some Top Secret Adventure Books. Probably for Kindergarten, we will use Expedition Earth by Confessions of a Homeschooler which we own and looks amazing.
Geography is one of my favorite parts of our preschool time. We are already a global-minded family since we have a lot of missionaries in our families, and both Phil and I have traveled a lot. We want our children to have this same global mindset as we did growing up, and to be able to love the entire world. My mother-in-law gave me a book called Becoming a World Changing Family where it talks about raising Great Commission Kids, i.e. kids that want to change the world for Christ.
I try to incorporate Geography into our preschool a little every day. We are very flexible with this, but even being only three weeks into our school year, I'm seeing that Buddy is getting a better grasp of how big the world is and even knowing where different parts of the world are.
Geo-Puzzles
One of my favorite resources we have is our Geo-Puzzle. We got ours from Timberdoodle, and we have been so happy with it. We have both the U.S.A. Map and the World Map. So far, we've mostly just been working on the world map. Buddy has almost all the continents down now, and we talk about the countries as we put them on the board. We talk about where we know friends or missionaries or where we know people have spent time. We've talked about the Olympics and the Autobahn. He's learned where most of the big countries are on the map and is familiar with their names. I can't wait until we get the other maps made by Geo-Puzzle. They have one for each continent.
One of my favorite resources we have is our Geo-Puzzle. We got ours from Timberdoodle, and we have been so happy with it. We have both the U.S.A. Map and the World Map. So far, we've mostly just been working on the world map. Buddy has almost all the continents down now, and we talk about the countries as we put them on the board. We talk about where we know friends or missionaries or where we know people have spent time. We've talked about the Olympics and the Autobahn. He's learned where most of the big countries are on the map and is familiar with their names. I can't wait until we get the other maps made by Geo-Puzzle. They have one for each continent.
Operation World
Operation World is a fantastic resource, but it's not something that my boys can use. Thankfully, we've found You Can Change the World which is an out-of-print book written to help children pray for other nations (you can still find it used on Amazon). It was actually written by Jill Johnstone, the wife of Patrick Johnstone who authored Operation World. It has a different country to pray for each week with 7 different ways to pray for them if you want to do it every day. We read the stories of the country or people group and find them on our globe (and later our Geo-Puzzle). Then we pray for them. Buddy's been surprised to learn that some of the things he takes for granted here are not things that happen everywhere (like access to food and clean water or even having parents).
Operation World is a fantastic resource, but it's not something that my boys can use. Thankfully, we've found You Can Change the World which is an out-of-print book written to help children pray for other nations (you can still find it used on Amazon). It was actually written by Jill Johnstone, the wife of Patrick Johnstone who authored Operation World. It has a different country to pray for each week with 7 different ways to pray for them if you want to do it every day. We read the stories of the country or people group and find them on our globe (and later our Geo-Puzzle). Then we pray for them. Buddy's been surprised to learn that some of the things he takes for granted here are not things that happen everywhere (like access to food and clean water or even having parents).
Sponsor a Child
Another thing our family does is support a child through Compassion International. About a year ago, we started sponsoring a little boy in Bangladesh that is the same age as Buddy. They even share the same birth-month. This has been fun because we've been able to talk about what life is like in Bangladesh and even correspond with him. We hope to soon sponsor another little boy about Button's age so that they can "grow up together." Buddy likes to write to his friend and ask him questions. They draw pictures for each other. It's just a great way to be a part of what is going on elsewhere from here.
Other Resources
Other resources we have are mostly for reference. We have a globe which comes in handy not only for geography but also for Buddy's endless questions about the sun and the moon and how they all work together. We have a Children's Atlas and some Top Secret Adventure Books. Probably for Kindergarten, we will use Expedition Earth by Confessions of a Homeschooler which we own and looks amazing.
Although definitely not one of the "core" preschool subjects, I've found that this is something that I personally want to focus on. I want my children to be Great Commission Kids that love the world that God made and to have His heart for people everywhere.
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