Geography

Homeschool World Geography + GIVEAWAY

Homeschool World Geography with Archibold Clutterbuck

Let’s talk about a fun and engaging way to teach your children world geography in your homeschool!

Learning more about world geography encourages children to grow into global citizens. As travel and communication become more advanced, our world seems to be becoming smaller! Understanding and appreciating cultural differences between countries breaks down the barriers of prejudice and racial divide, which is necessary in today’s world.

I was recently introduced to an amazing new website called The Worldly Adventures of Archibold Clutterbuck & Friends – yes, it’s a fun as it sounds! In this blog post I’m delighted to share my family’s experience with this Free online learning platform and some of their products.

We’re also hosting a GIVEAWAY! Scroll down to the bottom of the blogpost for more details.

Homeschool World Geography Archibold Clutterbuck

This blogpost was written in collaboration with The Worldly Adventures of Archibold Clutterbuck & Friends. They kindly gifted me the products in this review, and compensated me for my time. 

Why Teach World Geography?

World geography is one of the most fun subject to teach because there are so many ways to approach it. The world is literally your oyster!

World geography is important because children:

  • Learn to locate places on a map/globe
  • Understand cultural and physical differences in those places
  • Understand how human and physical processes have changed the world
  • Appreciate their place in the world
  • Become a better global citizens

Homeschool World Geography with Archibald Clutterbuck

How does Archibald Clutterbuck work?

The Worldly Adventures of Archibold Clutterbuck & Friends is a FREE online learning platform where children can come to learn about world geography and discover more about the world they live in.

The website offers free educational resources that parents can use to facilitate their children’s learning. These include:

  • Worksheets – Crosswords, Word-searches, “Where I’ve been” map, Colouring pages
  • YouTube channel – Numerous animated videos to start your child off on a self-directed learning journey. Videos include, “Top 5 – European Landmarks” and “Top 5 – Waterfalls” and many more.
  • Geographical facts The website offer a plethora of geographical information about the different continents, indigenous people, environments and flags
  • It uses entertaining animated characters and scenes to keep children engaged in their learning.
  • Shop – The website currently stocks a colourful world map in A1 or A2 size, a continents explorer’s journal, and stickers. Their products are high-quality, and compliment the learning material available on their website.

Homeschool World Geography with Archibald Clutterbuck

How can I use it  in my homeschool?

The Worldly Adventures of Archibold Clutterbuck is an open-ended learning resource that encourages self-directed learning. By utilising children’s innate curiosity about the world around them, these resources help children to develops research skills as they answer their own questions through independent research. Through the website, youtube videos, and worksheets, children are taught to be resourceful, looking for the information they need and deciding in which direction they want to take their learning.

Homeschool World Geography with Archibold Clutterbuck

We have used the Archibold Clutterbuck A2 World map and Explorer’s journal to compliment our study of world geography and prompt further exploration!. For example, in our last lesson, the boys began by watching a video about different world festivals on the Archibold Clutterbuck YouTube channel. Then they decided to follow that up, by watching another documentary about the Chinese New Year.

We looked at the A2 World map to identify China, and used the map to discuss its physical characteristics. We also had a look in an old atlas we have at home. Then the boys used the internet to learn how to say “Happy New Year” in Madarin, and wrote it in their Continent Explorer’s journal! It was so much fun, and the boys developed important life skills as they learnt about China and it’s culture.

 

Homeschool world geography Archibold Clutterbuck

Homeschool World Geography Archibold Clutterbuck

By researching and directing their own learning, with the gentle prompting from the Archibold Clutterbuck resources, the children are learning the skills they will need to be independent learners for the rest of their lives.

If you prefer screen-free learning, all the resources in the Archibold Clutterbuck Shop can be used with books and other learning resources you already have at home.

The Explorer’s journal has note-booking pages for the continents, landmarks, flags and much more. It’s a wonderful resource to encourage children to think more deeply about the world around them.

Another lovely idea would be to take the explorer’s journal with you when you travel with the children. They can fill in the sections as they witness the geography firsthand on their family holiday! What a great way to learn!


GIVEAWAY

I  am thrilled to be sharing some beautiful educational resources from The Worldly Adventures of Archibold Clutterbuck and friends for one of my lovely followers.
The winner will win ONE  EXPLORERS COLLECTION. This includes:
  • One beautiful A2 World Map
  • One Explorers Journal
  • Five Clutterbuck Stickers
Archiclutterbuck giveaway
The giveaway will run from Monday 3rd December 2018 until Monday 10th December 2018 at 12pm GMT.

This giveaway is OPEN WORLDWIDE!

All entrants under the age of 18 must have parental permission to enter.

To enter, visit my INSTAGRAM or FACEBOOK accounts, and follow the directions.
I’ll announce the winner on social media and contact them directly.
The winner has 24 hours to respond, otherwise I will have to select another winner.

For more information about The Worldly Adventures of Archibold Clutterbuck, visit their WEBSITE. You can also follow them on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

Happy adventuring explorers!

Peace and Love,

Living history curriculum islamic

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Awesome Volcano Experiment for Kids

Kaboom! Bang! Whooooooah!

I can’t begin to tell you how excited I was to do this experiment with my boys this week in our homeschool. Making a volcano is one of those science projects that I have always wanted to do with the kids and it was so much fun!

This volcano experiment is so simple and you with probably have everything you need already in your home. 

If you are interested in how we made our Erupting Volcano, please keep reading!

Homeschool Volcano Experiment

Since a young age, my boys have been obsessed with dinosaurs. So much so, that it had taken over my house. Dinosaur toys, stickers, books, bed sheets….it was driving me CRAZY

Thankfully, this interest has now evolved into an interest in fossils, geology and volcanoes.

As I try to encourage the kids to explore their interests, we decided to make this a part of our homeschool, doing an experiment/project on this topic, once a week.

We have been using the book Rock & Fossil Hunter for our experiments, It’s full of different activities that kids can do, using materials that you can easily find in the house. 

This blog post will look at the first two experiments: 

– The Erupting Volcano
– On the Lava Trail

Check out this VIDEO we made of our experiments:

As you can tell, they had so much fun doing these activities! I’m sure your kids will too!

Awesome Volcano Experiment

homeschool volcano experiment

Materials Needed:

Small plastic water bottle
Water
Measuring jug
Tray
Sand
Dessertspoon
Bicarbonate of soda
Red Food Colouring
Washing-up liquid
Vinegar

  1. Place the bottle in the middle of the tray, and pile up the sand around it, to look like a volcano. If the sand is not sticking, dampen it a bit to help it hold in place. The decorate the outside of the volcano however you like…obviously in my home that meant with dinosaurs!
    homeschool volcano experiment
  2. Pour enough warm water into the jug to fill the bottle 2/3 full. Then add 2 dessert spoons of bicarb, 1 dessert spoon of food colouring, 1 dessert spoon of washing-up liquid to the jug.
    homeschool volcano experiment
  3. Pour this mixture into the bottle.
  4. Then get ready for the eruption…..it will happen quickly!!!

       Pour 100ml of vinegar into the bottle and jump back!

Don’t worry, it’s not explosive….just very foamy! Perfectly safe for little kids!

Homeschool volcano experiment
homeschool volcano experiment

This could also work for a chemistry experiment if you have older kids. It’s a simple acid-base reaction.

Why are volcanoes different shapes?

This is the second experiment from the book Rock & Fossil Hunter.

It aims to illustrate how the temperature of lava affects its flow and the ultimate shape of the volcano

The cooler the lava, the slower it flows, resulting in conical volcanoes. 

The hotter the lava, the faster it flows, leading to flatter (shield) volcanoes.

Materials Needed:

2 tins of treacle
2 plates
Heat-proof pan
Boiling water

  1. Put once tin of treacle in the fridge overnight.
    Homeschool Lava Experiment
  2. Put the other tin into the heat-proof pan, and surround it in boiling water. Leave it to warm up the treacle for thirty minutes. 
  3. Open both tins, and pour onto separate plates. 
    Homeschool Lava Experiment
    Cold Lava

    Homeschool Lava Experiment
    Hot Lava
You should find the cold treacle piles up on the plate, like viscous cool lava would.
The hotter treacle will spread out to form a wider puddle, like runny lava.
Both of these experiments should be done under the supervision of an adult and are suitable for child aged 4+.

Are your children interested in volcanoes? 
What volcano activities have you done with them?
If you have any great resources on the subject, or if you have written a blog post on the topic, please share it in the comments below.

Thank you so much for stopping by, and reading this blog post.

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In need of your duaas.
Peace and Love.

Vikings Homeschool Unit Study

What is it about Vikings?!?… Kids love them!
In this blog post, I will show you what Resources we used to teach our Kindergarten (Year1) and Preschool kids about Vikings, and hopefully give some ideas about how to teach this unit study in your homeschool.
Vikings Homeschool Unit Study
As my eldest is only 5-years-old, I do not include too much written work in our unit studies. Instead the focus is hands-on learning and literature. However, if your children are older, you could certainly add in notebooking, lapbooks or even creating a poster of what they have learnt.
This is how we taught my Year 1 (Kindergarten) student about the Vikings:

1. Library Books

As with all our unit studies, the first thing we did was head to our local library to see what they had on the subject. We found this great book of World History by Dorling Kindersley. 
Vikings Homeschool Unit Study
I  encouraged the boys to look through the relevant pages, and read aloud anything that intersted them. This is an old edition, but this History Book by the same publishers looks great too!

2. Day at the Museum

Another thing I always try to incorporate into our unit studies, are field trips to museums or historical sites. Our local museum was holding a ‘Viking Day.’ The boys got to try on a replica Viking helmet, look at maps and art work featuring the Vikings, and make these awesome Viking helmets: 
Vikings Homeschool Unit Study
Vikings Homeschool Unit Study

3. Map Work

My son has a ‘thing’ for maps! So I used this interest in maps and world geography to help him learn about the Viking conquests. This FREE printable we used can be found HERE

Vikings Homeschool Unit Study

4. Literature

We also try include some children’s literature to go along with our unit study:
Vikings Homeschool Unit Study

My eldest son read the easy reader Viking Adventure from the Oxford Reading tree. I love this series and would recommend it for any children who are learning to read, but are not ready to tackle chapter books yet.
Also, during this week, I read to the children from the book Viking It and Liking It (Time Warp Trio)
It’s incredible how much information children can absorb from stories and books. At this age, there is no real need to TEACH ….only to READ!

5. Online Resources

The BBC has compiled an excellent collection of video clips and resources that we looked through. The videos of the VIking ships really captured my boys imagination! You can check these out by clicking HERE

If you have any Viking Resources for children that you would like to share with us, please leave a comment below! 

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For a daily look into our homeschooling day follow me on InstagramTwitter or Facebook.


In need of your duaas.
Peace and Love.