Happy Mendez Academy Spring Break to all of you! That is the wonderful thing about homeschooling, you can take a Spring Break week WHEN YOU WANT TO. I have been waiting oh so impatiently for it to actually BE SPRING so we can have a real Spring Break! It’s finally sunny and warm-ish enough here, and I plan to spend as much of this week as I can just sitting outdoors! (After doping up on the necessary amount of allergy meds of course.)

I am enjoying this beautiful Sunday afternoon, and decided to catch up on some of my blogging work. And I realized I have over 50 “draft” postings that I started but never completed! Oops. So today, I thought I would get a little bit caught up!

We’ve been “notebooking” our way through World Geography for a semester now, and having THE BEST TIME.  We have just left Europe finally, and will now spend a few weeks studying Russia! I’m not sure how much further we will get before
“school” ends for us for the summer – I really didn’t expect to spend months on Europe. But oh, we have had a blast! Be sure to check out my posts for more details!

If this is something you’re considering as well, I wanted to share with you some “world geography” resources I’ve found that might be helpful! Oh, and FREE (mostly).

First, when we start a new country, I Google it! I can’t imagine homeschooling without the Internet now. For example, I might search by “homeschool unit study”, or “__(country)__ notebooking homeschool”, or  “__(country)__ lapbooking homeschool”. I might throw in the word FREE in there as well. Instant resources right at your fingertips!

And I’ve always loved homeschool bloggers, but now I LOVE homeschool bloggers, because they are so awesome and share everything they do, including their resources! Really, how great is it when others have done all the work and you can just copy it???

Case in point: The Homeschool Helper: New Dimension Media Educational Films on Amazon. We use this resource now ALL THE TIME! Plus, it opened my eyes to the possibilities of resources through Amazon Prime. Which we already pay for, so heck, more FREE homeschool resources! Isn’t that awesome???? And all because of a homeschool blogger sharing!!

Then I check my running book list, put holds on the library books that I need, and then make a trip as soon as they are available to pick them up! While there, I tend to grab a librarian and start asking random questions, or try and track down certain tangents that popped in my head.

For example, we’re beginning to study about Russia. I had made a note to listen to Tchaikovsky months earlier when we got to this unit. He composed many of the most famous classical ballets. My girls are currently taking ballet, and love watching the Barbie movie versions of these. The Russian Ballet is one of the best and most famous in the world. Hmm, wouldn’t it be great if the girls could watch a video of the Russian ballet performing one of these particular ballets? So, I start trying to check resources at the library! Depending on how cool your particular librarians are, they can also be great at suggesting some out-of-the-box resources as well. (Unfortunately in this case, they are not that cool, and also don’t have any videos of the Russian ballet available. Hmmph. I’ll prevail, I just have to look harder elsewhere.)

Can you see why it’s taking us so long to get through World Geography now? I will have to do a bit better at this next year, or we’ll spend the next three/four years trying to complete it!

But in addition to all of that, here are some fabulous world geography-specific resources that I’ve come across as I began to research online resources. I hope it’s helpful!

WORLD GEOGRAPHY RESOURCES
Read Around the World
National Geographic – Countries A-Z
National Geographic Education
“Memphis in May” – Poland Curriculum
A Moment in Our World (Great Country Homeschool Units!)
Worldwide Culture Swap
1+1+1=1 Continent Boxes
Free Geography Resources for Homeschool
Time for Kids: Around the World
Education World: Women’s History Month Lesson Plans and Activities
National Women’s History Museum