All Lady July - Guest Post by Katy from Finding Home talks about learning about the world through her homeschool journey!

All Lady July: Let’s Learn About The World!

 

I’ve been following Jamie Martin’s blog, Simple Homeschool, for a couple years now, ever since we made the decision to start teaching our children at home.  The blog covers all homeschooling styles and provides really practical advice but also those “deep thinking” posts that remind you why you’re doing what you’re doing, and that it’s okay to mess up sometimes.

So when I saw that Jamie was coming out with a book, I figured I would probably get it from the library at some point.  But I kept hearing about this book on different sites and podcasts and then Jamie wrote this post about how she met Levar Burton (of Reading Rainbow fame)  and he ended up endorsing her book.  And after the announcement of the Read the World Book Club  this summer, right when I was feeling like we should do something educational before school officially starts again, AND the book was half off on Amazon, I bought it.

Give Your Child The World  is one of those books that’s going to be a guide for homeschoolers.  It’s along the same lines as The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease and Honey For A Child’s Heart by Gladys Hunt, which explain how important reading aloud is for kids, and then give specific lists of quality books broken down by age group and topic.  That’s how this book works too.

Jamie separates the world into regions, and gives books for four age groups in seven regions (plus a multicultural chapter).  I also love the index lists in the back of the book.  If you want to look at the books chronologically, she’s got you covered.  If you want to focus on a specific country, she makes it easy to find.  Lists and organization are my happy places, so that’s perfect for me.

Included with the book lists are random quotes from families answering the question “How do you give your children the world in your home?”  I was making my way through the book when all of a sudden I got to a quote on page 90 that sounded awfully familiar.  I had forgotten I had submitted a quote and it made it in the book!  Little bit of a geeky moment for me there.  I posted a picture on Instagram and Jamie actually responded to that picture, so that was fun for me.

But above all, I love that Jamie reminds those of us reading of how awesome books are.  We know this, but we sometimes forget that if we want our kids to feel the same way, we have to show them.  “Creating a family culture of books means our kids have the chance to live a thousand lives before leaving our home. Isn’t that incredible?”

And my other favorite quote:

“Story takes center stage and problems fade.  I connect with characters who remind me of life’s bigger picture.  I walk beside them in their struggles, learning from their successes and failures.  I’m reminded that I’m not alone.  I fall in love with this good earth again.”  This is how I feel about books as an adult, and these feelings are what made me fall in love with reading in the first place.

There’s been a lot of really heavy stuff in the news lately.  Terrible things are happening, but amongst the tragedies, there are still people finding the good.  People looking for the helpers.  Jamie’s goal with this book is to introduce as many different cultures and peoples and regions to kids as we can, so that they can learn about them, and understand them, and see what we all have in common instead of what divides us.  If you don’t have the resources to be a world traveler, this is a good place to start.

“My prayer for you, now and forever:

that the world will never lose its wonder,

that you may always have an open book in hand,

and an open heart within, to learn and apply its lessons.”  

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are Katy’s affiliate links.  That means if you purchase through these links, she gets a bit of a commission.  Thanks for funding her coffee consumption.

Katy blogs about food (especially the gluten free kind), homeschool, parenting, and home management over at www.findinghomeblog.com.  She also drinks large amounts of coffee in an effort to keep up with her four kids and her pastor husband.