Central America: Mexico

Our 2009-2010 School Year would take us around the world with the My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures curriculum! (We are enjoying the journey so much that we have extended the curriculum into this school year.) To catch you up on our adventures we will take you with us one Continent & country at a time.

To increase our learning and make the journey extra fun, we play "the Geography Game" to reinforce the country names and locations with each continent we visit. We also listen to "Wee Sing Around the World" folk songs from different countries and especially love the CD/workbook of "Geography Songs: Sing Around the World" by Larry & Kathy Troxel. We catch ourselves singing these songs as we drive around or whenever we hear a name of a country on TV. Fun!

For each country we "visit", we pretend to fly in a plane (one of the kids is the pilot and the other the gate agent), get our passports stamped, then dress in the native costumes while eating traditional meals and listening to the region's music. We "immerse" ourselves in the country for the whole week or two during our "visit". We read tons of books, fiction and non-fiction, which help us learn the richness of each country. It is so much fun!

We began in North America learning about Canada, Greenland, and the USA. (that will have to be another post because I cannot find the photos yet)

Next we went to Central America with a special stop in Mexico!

We studied about how people in Mexico live, eat, dress, celebrate, worship, speak, and so much more. We learned about the Mexican flag and a little of it's history.

We had gone to Disney World earlier in the year and saw the Mexico section of Epcot.

(Look for the tiny sombreros!)

The building was a replica of a temple in Mexico

Our oldest, Obi-Wan, decided to climb the stairs... from the outside!

Inside were stores, crafts and information about Mexico

The kids got their passports stamped and signed in Spanish!

At home, we wanted to really experience the culture so we planned a Mexican Fiesta for our friends and family. The kids made the decorations for the party and even planned a craft for the attendees to do (make paper flowers).

We visited a Mexican grocery store in our town to feel and smell all different kinds of produce and items offered there. The manager was so nice and gave the kids a BINGO type game to play at the fiesta with Spanish words and symbols on it. He said the children always play it in Mexico during celebrations. Some of the shoppers also helped us by telling us about the different foods. (We bought a cactus leaf but never got the nerve to cook it to eat. We just played with it for awhile. ha ha) The highlight of the trip was finding the perfect Pinata... it looked just like Nemo!! The kids had fun filling it with Mexican candy & treats.

We set up a display in the dining room with some of the fun things we collected from Mexico and borrowed from our friends. We had an authentic guacamole/salsa bowl which can also be used to grind grain for homemade tortillas. We had a metal tortilla press and a straw sombrero in addition to maracas, puppets, and more! The kids made their very own ponchos to wear during the fiesta.

We had our dear friends, the Gonzalas', come to speak about being missionaries in Mexico. We learned so much, played, made paper flowers, broke the Pinata, ate, and FIESTAed!!!
A great time was had by all!

To wrap up our study of Mexico, the kids presented a student display to our homeschool group during the Fall Family Fellowship dinner.

(They also played the piano for the talent show that night. What little entertainers!)

We aren't finished with Mexico yet, because we are sponsoring a little boy named Octavio, who lives in Mexico. We are learning Spanish so that we can communicate with him. The kids use some of their English and Handwriting time to write him letters and send small gifts. This is a great way for them to really connect with Mexico and the people.

Stay tuned for our next country adventure!!