*Schedule Updated 7/30/2008

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This year long program of geography, world cultures and english reading assignments is designed to be a junior high or high school curriculum that compliments WinterPromise's Children Around the World Program with extras and "gravy" for younger siblings. WinterPromise's program is designed for grades 2-6. I purchased WinterPromise's CAW program to use with my youngest child but wanted to include my two high schoolers in a combined family adventure of learning. Since WinterPromise's program is just too "young" (in my opinion) for them (except to supplement with), I decided to write my own supplemental program to start using in August 2008. Feel free to join us in our journey around the world!

I am in no way affiliated with WinterPromise. I am just a very happy customer who loves their materials but wanted to combine my children's studies. :-) I also tend to tweak and add to anything I use and the supplement portion of this schedule will reflect that with DVD ideas, websites, extra reading suggestions for my youngest son and more. This schedule is what I am doing with my own children so that ALL of my children can do the Children Around the World program together. I am sharing what we are doing with you.

I'd like to thank Michelle J. for sending me all of her personal work in scheduling and adding extras for younger siblings. Thank you Michelle for sharing with all of us your ideas and suggestions!

If anyone else has a suggestion to make this supplement even better or more comprehensive, please email me!

The following weekly schedules are suggestions only. For high schoolers the literature suggestions may require a fairly strong and steady reading rate. If you have your own English program that includes "readers", feel free to ignore this portion of the schedule. You can adjust the difficulty level by choosing to have a book last two weeks instead of the suggested "one" week. My 8th grader (as of this writing) is reading one novel a week with extra history readings on top of this (for Tapestry of Grace), so I know it can be done (at least for him)! You may want to vary your selections with a heavier "classic" followed by a lighter reading selection. For those in jr. high, you may wish to choose easier selections or assign book titles less frequently. Each week should have an average of three book suggestions. This will help you choose not only what is available to you, but also what is most appropriate content wise and reading level wise for your student(s).

Some of the literature selections will match the weekly topic, others were chosen for different reasons. Some are classics, some are just for "fun", etc.

This is a pick and choose / supplementary curriculum! Because there are so many different choices, I didn't make a "master list" of materials and resources. Check out the weeks, pick what you like and ignore what you don't! Please also use common sense with the website and video suggestions. PREVIEW all links before your chidren visit them. The Internet changes daily and some materials may not be appropriate for your family. Some of the video suggestions are for the younger crowd and others for older students. Preview or read the descriptions in the schedule and on Amazon.com to help you choose what's right for your students. I have marked some items with the notice: PREVIEW. These items may contain mature themes, require additional discussion or may have certain elements in them that some parents may find offensive or not appropriate for their children. That doesn't mean the materials themselves aren't worthwhile! Click here to read some thoughts about my philosophy on these items. Please use your personal discretion. :-) I will try to add specific warnings and/or thoughts as I continue to design the schedule, but I make no guarantees that they will be O.K. for YOUR family. Books that are specifically Christian or that contain strong Christian themes are marked with this symbol: .

Almost every week a video is included from UnitedStreaming.com. I have scheduled in way more videos than would be practical to watch. Just pick your faves. Be aware that you need a subscription to view these videos. In some states the subscription is free, otherwise it costs $199 a year (as of the spring of 2008). You will probably not need to view these videos if your local library is well stocked with travel videos but, for us, UnitedStreaming is convenient. I also like how many of the videos I linked to focus on the children of the various cultures we will be studying. It's one thing to read about children around the world - it's quite another to see them! We also use UnitedStreaming for some of our other subjects and because we don't have cable, this is a nice addition to our school week. You must be logged on to your United Streaming account to be able to direct click from the links in this schedule.

*Woohoo! United Streaming has added Globe Trekker (a fave of my big kids) to the videos they offer! These videos are now featured in the schedule. Please note that we have a United Streaming Plus account through our charter school. You can check to see if the titles that are available to us are in the regular home subscription here. If not, please check your local library for availability. I have also read that you can purchase additional "packs" for United Streaming to get the extra content (like a PBS pack) for an additional cost.

The schedule will likely be worked on each week, until it is hopefully completed before August of 2008 since that's when *I'm* going to start using it!

Click here if you want to take a look at the schedule for the college level geography/cultures book I chose to go along with this study for my "as of next year" senior in high school. I want this curriculum to be rigorous for my two older children, but will make sure it is totally adjustable for others to be either light or heavy!

I make "heavy" use of the Enchantment of the World series of books because they have beautiful photographs and oodles of info on the different countries without being overwhelming or exceptionally dry. They also contain a brief history component for each country that I find to be beneficial. If you try them out for younger students, you may want to summarize the material and focus more on the pictures and captions. They are expensive, so I don't recommend purchasing them. If your local library doesn't have them (or some of them), feel free to substitute with any other appropriate book or material on the Internet.

Please note that as we go along with this study for the year, I may add in certain books or take out other selections depending on whether I find them to be appropriate for my family or not. I will also add to this schedule when I find extra goodies, even after we are finished with it. The date at the top of this page will let you know when extras were added.

Don't underestimate the value of the books scheduled in the younger sibling supplement section! I have chosen a lot of those books for their visual components or easy to digest info. Your older students may wish to read those books as well. Since they are intended for younger students and many have fairly simple text, they shouldn't take much time to go through.

In addition to this schedule I also created a homeschool science curriculum that is tied in to this year as a separate item. I thought since we would be studying people around the world, why not study people for science too!

Click here to check out our homeschool human body science study!

This schedule is intended to be used with the WinterPromise Children Around the World program. If you don't have their program, you will be missing out some really fun and special activities like the weekly cultural gatherings and books like Material World (an absolute gem). My high schoolers will be reading and listening and participating in most of the CAW program. It will be the "fun" part of their year where we as a family will be making lifetime memories! You will not see any of the WinterPromise materials referenced in this supplement. Check out WinterPromise's program materials and a sample guidebook page to see what the program is like and the components you can purchase. Please note that the "extras and gravy" for younger siblings section is NOT intended to be a stand alone program.

Click below to join us in our journey. Choose a week that corresponds with the Children Around the World program to see what is scheduled.

*New - Questions section:

Question 1: Why take a year to study geography and cultures instead of focusing on history?
Question 2: Why do you use that book or those materials? I'm not sure I'm comfortable with my teen reading/knowing about some of those topics.

*Note: As of right now I will not be offering a PDF or Word document for this schedule as I had originally planned. Since I'm going to use the week-by-week pages online, I can't justify the time it would take, right now, to create anything else. If you'd like to make a schedule and donate it, I'll be happy to post it with credit!

I've created a notebook cover to go with this year's geography curriculum.
Click here for the cover that I made to go with CAW.
You can also download a version that says Geography and Cultures instead of CAW.

Check out our free
country and cultures lapbook pack!

 

This schedule is still a work in progress. I will be tweaking it as we use it. ;-)

Leave a comment!
If you are using this schedule, please take a minute to let me know and leave a comment.

Weekly Topics:

Week 1 Introduction

Week 2 Europe

Week 3 British Isles

Week 4 Ireland

Week 5 Switzerland and the Netherlands

Week 6 Spain and Portugal

Week 7 France

Week 8 Germany and Poland

Week 9 Russia

Week 10 Romania

Week 11 Italy

Week 12 Greece

Week 13 Christmas in Asia (2008 Week of November 24th)

Week 14 Christmas in Europe (2008 Week of December 1)

Week 15 Non-Western Christmas (2008 Week of December 8)

Week 16 Christmas in America (2008 Week of December 15)

Week 17 Americas

Week 18 U.S.A.

Week 19 Canada

Week 20 Mexico

Week 21 Brazil

Week 22 Peru

Week 23 Africa

Week 24 Libya

Week 25 Kenya

Week 26 Cameroon

Week 27 Zimbabwe

Week 28 Asia

Week 29 Saudi Arabia

Week 30 Iraq and the Middle East

Week 31 India

Week 32 Japan

Week 33 China

Week 34 Thailand

Week 35 Pacific Islands

Week 36 Australia