Geography and cultures - Homeschool Humuhumu

A Japanese structure, brightly painted red with a peaked roof, overlooks a manicured garden.

A trip to the Japanese Tea Garden

Golden Gate Park's Japanese Tea Garden is now free to San Francisco residents, so we learned about Japan and took a field trip.

Curriculum

Exploring the World through Story

First impressions of Exploring the World through Story, a literature-based curriculum.

Painted background scene from a Disney animated Mickey Mouse short, showing L'arc du Triomphe in Paris.

Geography and cultures

Impromptu France

How an unplanned "trip" to France took shape—without disrupting our daily routine. Too much.

Tinkerbell hovers next to the front of a pink and red Christmas card with the words "From All of Us" in white.

Fun stuff

A day of Swedish Christmas, with Kalle Anka

You know Kalle Anka better as Donald Duck, and a Swedish Christmas isn't complete without him.

Wanda, wearing a Santa Lucia crown, with our Christmas tree.

Geography and cultures

Holidays around the world, via Acorn Airlines

Wanda and I yust go nuts at Christmas. We spend each December learning about how the world celebrates, with our very own fictional airline.

Wampanoag chef Sherry Pocknett, sharing a meal with Padma Lakshmi

Media recommendations

Taste the Nation, Thanksgiving episode

Wanda and I just watched the Thanksgiving episode of the new "holiday edition" of Padma Lakshmi's show Taste the Nation (available on Hulu), titled "Truth and the Turkey Tale." Each episode of Taste the Nation spotlights a culture in America—mostly immigrant cultures and also Indigenous—and through that culture's

Curriculum

Free homeschool curriculum

There are outstanding free educational materials available to homeschoolers, including many aligned to common core standards. I've collected a list.

History

If You Lived During the Plimoth Thanksgiving

A new, outstanding, Native-authored book about what really happened at Plymouth in 1621 is a welcome shift in teaching about Thanksgiving.

Title card for American Veteran: Keep It Close

Civics

Stories for Veterans Day

We spent the morning of Veterans Day discussing the meaning of the day, and hearing the stories of five American Veterans.

Geography and cultures

Happy Diwali!

We celebrated Diwali today, the Indian festival of lights. I'm a sucker for a light festival. We took a trip to India on Acorn Airlines (our fictional school airline, it's totally Pinterest-barfy, I'll post about it someday in case you need some text-based ipecac). The in-flight entertainment included a 18-slide

Two hardcover books: Vincent's Starry Night, and 30,000 Years of Art

Art

Art and history for kids: Vincent's Starry Night & 30,000 Years of Art

When we have an open squishy slot in an afternoon, and I want a little something to fill it, one of the things I'll reach for is the book Vincent's Starry Night and Other Stories: a Children's History of Art, by Michael Bird. This full-color, 336-page book contains 68 short

Man standing and smiling alongside a satellite view of New Zealand and the New Zealand flag.

Geography and cultures

Boosting our world learning with Geography Now!

We use the popular YouTube channel Geography Now! in our homeschooling as an introduction to the countries of the world.

Book recommendations

Ancestor Approved

Wanda and I have been reading Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids, an anthology of short stories written by Native and First Nations authors, and I highly recommend it. Graphic showing the characters in the stories, and where they're coming from.Each of the fictional stories is about different Indigenous

Wanda pointing to a wall map of the world

Geography and cultures

Mapping movies onto the world

When we were first getting started with geography at the beginning of first grade, I wanted to help Wanda start to construct her mental map of the world. To kick-start that process, we used the stories she was familiar with, and talked about which part of the world each one

Open books in front of a window with a view of evergreen trees

Curriculum

Our curriculum

By far, the number one question I get asked about homeschooling is what I use for curriculum. It’s not an easily answered question, so I’m writing it all up here. Given the current state of things, I thought some folks might find it relevant. This is what I