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
- If You Were me and Lived In... Mexico
- If you were me and lived in... France...
- If you were me and lived in... South Korea...
- 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
Blessings
Chareen
