My Father’s World Exploring Countries and Cultures Year End Review
My Father’s World Exploring Countries and Cultures
It’s the end of the homeschool year and we are gearing up for summer break. Through my numerous social media posts, youtube videos, and blog posts, I’ve talked quite a bit about My Father’s World and Exploring Countries and Cultures. I want to go through a big year end review of this wonderful curriculum and talk about what we loved most, and offer some words of wisdom to parents going into this curriculum.
My Father’s World ECC Teacher’s Manual
For reference, we used this homeschool curriculum with our 4th grader. This is the 2nd time we used this curriculum (we used it for our 8th grader when he was in 4th grade). We did things a little differently this time around, tailoring it to our son and his strengths and weaknesses.
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What’s inside Exploring Countries and Cultures
My Father’s World curriculum is more of a boxed curriculum, which means that it’s an all-in-one. You can purchase almost every subject you need right on their website. For Exploring Countries and Cultures, you’ll be getting science, geography, Bible, art, music, read aloud books, and reading, (and you can add on math and language arts).
We loved the maps that came with this curriculum. Maps, games, music…it was all so much fun!
This year, my son really flourished. We saw much progress with him after switching to My Father’s World. His education really seemed to come alive with this curriculum. With a focus on geography, this curriculum is very colorful, interesting, and rich in information.
Math and Language Arts
We chose not to use My Father’s World math and language arts with this curriculum. We used IEW for language arts, and Teaching Textbooks for math. Once those two subjects were added, our homeschool curriculum was just about complete.
This Canada cake was SO much fun…and really yummy.
Tips for using Exploring Countries and Cultures
1. Don’t skip the food! In many countries you “visit” in this curriculum, you’ll find that you have a recipe or day where you’ll eat a food from this country. Don’t skip this! Adding a feast day for each country was one of the most fun parts of My Father’s World! We made everything from decorative cakes, to entire meals from different countries. We tried many foods we otherwise wouldn’t have ever had a chance to eat.
2. You can use whatever language arts or math you’d like. Don’t like the options they suggest? Use whatever you like!
3. Plan a week to a month ahead. To get the most out of ECC, I would always plan weeks ahead. This allowed me time to order/check out books for the book basket, art materials, and food needed for the coming weeks ahead.
4. Utilize the teacher manual. The teacher’s manual is your friend, use it! It gives you a list of materials needed ahead of time, shows you what is coming, and has so many tips in the pages after the weekly schedule to help you. The manual also has ideas to help students above or below the suggested grade so you can school more children with the same curriculum.
5. Enrichment ideas are everywhere! There are so many ways to expand upon lessons. We used Youtube videos, missionary documentaries, books, and more to learn more and go further with each lesson. There is a plethora of information on Pinterest as well! There is no end to expanding your lessons, so if your learner is craving more, GO FOR IT!
6. Play the geography game! When we started the school year, my son couldn’t name any of the countries and really struggled with the pretest in week 1. By the end of the year, he knew almost every country by heart! It was amazing to see his end of year evaluation! Don’t skip playing the geography game when it calls for it in the teacher’s manual. You’ll be amazed at their geography skills at the end of the year.
7. Laminate the maps. There are maps that go with the geography game inside your curriculum. I highly suggest laminating them for durability. You’ll be using these throughout the year and the last thing you want is for them to get ripped or something to spill on them. This is the laminator I use.
8. Use the Appendix! At the back of your teacher’s manual is an appendix with a lovely list of books for each week! I loved this part. I added books to my book basket each week from this list.
The book basket! I kept a stocked book basket throughout the year to learn more about each country.
9. Invest in a good binder system! We bought a sturdy binder with divider tabs for this year and it held up well. You’ll be using this binder daily, so I suggest not getting a flimsy binder. At the end of the year, our binder was pretty full. I suggest a 1” binder with divider tabs and a pocket for your passport and geography game pieces. Watch the video below to see how I set up our binder.
10. Organize your Student Sheets. You’ll get a package of loose sheets with your curriculum. These are the student sheets that go with your curriculum. I made a file box that worked really well. My kids were able to use this on their own and get the week’s sheets out without my asking. I labeled each tab with the the week number, so it was easy to follow. You won’t want to loose these, so make sure you have them handy. You can see the video below on how I organized ours.
