If You Were Me And Lived In ... {Review}

This year Sir N and I have decided to recommence our Expedition Earth Journey.  It was such a blessing when a month ago Carole P. Roman mailed me four beautiful books from her If You Were Me and Lived In ... series.  I received the following four books

1. If You Were me and Lived In... Mexico
2. If you were me and lived in... France...
3. If you were me and lived in... South Korea...
4. If you were me and lived in ... Norway...

All four of these books are beautifully written and aimed at an elementary age range of pre-K to eight.  All the books follow the same  format which Sir N found engaging and I found a pleasure to read out loud to him.  These books are as the series title states an introduction to the cultures of different countries.  As a South African born New Zealander now living in Australia I can appreciate the subtle differences in culture and Carole has done an excellent job in helping children see that even though people are people all over the world there are certain things that make a country and it's people unique and that is their culture.

Inside each book

• The country is introduced by way of a map with the capital city clearly marked.
• Where it can be found in the world 
• An interesting fact or two about the country or it's capital city.
• The different names of boys and girls
• An introduction to the language and money
• A significant landmark
• A common cuisine
• Children's games
• Historical fact
• Pronunciation guide 

Here is a YouTube clip with a sneak peak of the inside of If You Were Me and Lived In ... Mexico


What we did
Each book follows the same format so  I will share what we did with one country as we did the same with all four.

• I gathered some extra book resources from the library.
• Filled in our passport
• We read the book once each day and talked about a different aspect of the culture we had learned about
• I had some minute books we filled these in with information from the book
• When we read about the food eaten by the french, we read up in a children's cook book and then made some of our own.
• We coloured in a French flag
• Labeled a map of France finding the  Bay of Biscay and the capital city of Paris. The book had a full page map of France with a star indicating the capital of Paris.  I liked the map because it was not full of the normal clutter of maps. We did find reading the labeling of the map a little hard as it was a dark colour on a dark background.  I think this could be eliminated by using a more contrasting colour like white or bright yellow in order to see it clearer. 
• Filled in a fact sheet about France

Details

If You Were me and Lived In... Mexico
Paperback: 26 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (March 22, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1480209627
ISBN-13: 978-1480209626 
Kindle $ 0.99
Paperback: $8.99

If you were me and lived in... South Korea...
Paperback: 28 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (June 14, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1481062344
ISBN-13: 978-1481062343
Kindle $ 0.99
Paperback: $8.99

If you were me and lived in... France...
Paperback: 26 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (May 2, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1481032003
ISBN-13: 978-1481032001
Kindle $ 0.99
Paperback: $8.99

If you were me and lived in ... Norway...
Series: A Child's Introduction to Cultures Around the World
Paperback: 30 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (September 12, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1481979949
ISBN-13: 978-1481979948 
Kindle $ 1.99
Paperback: $8.62


All in all we really enjoyed these books.  I found the pronunciation guide very handy and Sir N loved how each book had it's own unique symbol on each page. You could use these books independently with very young students to introduce them to the country.  If you were reading these to slightly older students they would make an excellent spine to your study.  You could use each double page spread as a theme of the day and expand the lesson with extra books from the library or information from the internet. Sir N's favourite item in our shipment was the inflatable ball globe that arrived.  He loves finding the countries on it.

Connect with the Author

• Carole P. Roman Blog
• Twitter
• Good Reads
• Pinterest
• Facebook

Blessings
Chareen

Our Rhythm - Year Round Schooling

One of the things that home educating families struggle with is knowing that they do NOT need to follow school terms. For some reason most families I meet feel they need to follow school terms in order to know they are doing enough school. You have the freedom to schedule your year to best suit your individual families needs. Successfully homeschooling starts with a plan.

I've been on the home education journey now for 15 years and one of the best decisions we made as a family was to switch to a five week schedule (4 weeks of school followed by 1 week of rest) about eight years ago.  We had switched to doing ATI which follows this rotation and after the first five weeks as the saying goes we never looked back.

One word of caution when making a schedule.  Take a calendar and mark it down.  Plan it. Mark it. Then, Follow it.  I once tried winging it without scheduling it and that led to no rhythm and us falling a little behind in our school work and then we ended up on the other extreme with schooling too long and becoming burnt out.

School terms were not a problem.  We let the neighbour hood children know they could only come over to play after lunch.  During school holidays we made sure we were done by then.  It was a great incentive for the children.

Benefits

• 7 weeks of holidays at the end of the year
• A 36 week school year breaks down in to 9 five week rotations totaling 45 weeks of the year.
• Homeschool burnout became a thing of the past providing I practice Mother Culture
• The week off provides time to unwind/rest.  It's long enough to rest but short enough that the kids do not 'forget' what they've been learning. I found it easy to get going again with our weekly rhythm.
• I find that children are not left with super long holiday breaks that provide ample opportunity for boredom
• Four weeks of school is long enough for the children and I to put 100% into our school work without running out of energy.  I do confess though I am well and truly ready for a rest after those 20 days of school. Our energy levels are never stretched to it's limit because we take the opportunity to rest regularly.
• The 7 extra weeks gives us enough time to have two, two week breaks after each 12 weeks of school (three 5 week rotations) followed by a full 5 week Christmas break. 
• The Flexibility to choose our schedule.  One that suits our needs, I am able to look at the big picture. Paul works as a public servant and therefore has to work most public holidays depending on his schedule.  (6 days at work 3 days at home) We also like taking our holidays when school is in session and make use of term discounts.
• Here in Australia schools run from February to December so my schedule works well.

Consider

• What are the legal requirements in your country (Australia)?
• What are the ages of your children ?
• Health concerns ? Dr appointments ? 
• New Baby coming ?
• Planned holidays ?

Else Where on the Net

• Pinterest Homeschool Planning Know How
• Pinterest Homeschool Planners & Record Keeping
• How to Schedule Your Homeschool Year over at The Pistachi.  This is an excellent post with a great summary of different rythems.
• A Year-Round Homeschool Schedule over at Simply Convivial
• Creating a Homeschool Schedule over at Simple Homeschool

Blessings

Chareen

This post is part of the Homeschool Help series brought to you by a group of homeschool Mom's from around the globe.  Do not forget to visit and read their inspirational insight.

This week

• Bernadette   School year round or not on your Life
• Julie  School Year Round?
• Savannah shares 
• Lucinda  How We Learn More By Taking Breaks- Why Year-Round Homeschooling is Not for Us 
• Nicole  Summer: Repair and Prepare

 ---ooOoo---

Home Made Bread {THM Style - Crossover }

My Mom's has been trying to create a bread to use on plan with Trim Healthy Mama.  This bread had a lovely full flavour and good texture.  It was easy to slice and took less than five min to make.

Ingredients

• 1 cup rye flour 
• 1/2 cup oat meal flour
• 1/2 cup flax meal 
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil 
• 2 eggs 
• about 1 cup fat free yogurt 
• pinch of salt

Method
Mix all together mixture to form a soft dough if not add more yogurt.
Bake at 180c for about 30 minutes.

My mom added garlic powder and onion flakes for a savoury taste

Blessings
Chareen