Pretend Passports:Our adventures around the globe

This week we started a Social Studies project that we will continue for the rest of the year and maybe even beyond - we made passports :) Every time we study a new place (any place, even ones we wouldn't need a passport to get to), the kids will be able to add a new "stamp" to their passport. I found the printable passport here and some cool printable stamps here. I even purchased some clearance stickers with city names on them at Hobby Lobby. Our first areas of study? Georgia and Africa.

I decided to start with Georgia and just go over some basics - the state flower, bird, Capitol city, etc. I integrated in some map skills with a couple of worksheets, new for Sydney and as a review for Nicholas. It was nice to see Sydney raise her working level to try and meet with Nic's, and to see him step up and help her when she needed direction. Both kids made a GA collage, pulling images from magazines that could be found in the state.

We spent some time on the couch for the Africa unit, watching Youtube videos about the cultures and animals in Egypt, Kenya, and South Africa. A new kid safe browser that I downloaded,Kidzui, helped us find safe videos quickly - and it's free to download! A printed traditional African fable made for a great story-time with us all piled on the couch. Later on they branched into separate directions, Nicholas playing some African puzzles and trivia online and Sydney making a safari picture and paper doll in traditional Kenyan clothing.

I'm really enjoying this project so far and hope that the kids are too. My time isn't split between the two of them when we study together, so I am looking for more ways to bring them both to the table at the same time :)