Last Friday, we participated in our homeschool group's Around the World Day. This is our 3rd year to participate in this fair, and it's always a lot of fun. Looking back over our 3 ATWD projects, it's amazing to me to see how my children have grown and matured.
Two years ago, the children chose China as our project. Many of the ideas were theirs, as was some of the work itself, but a lot of the work was mine. I recall that we included some Chinese fairy tales in our display because that is the one thing we learned about China that interested my girls the most at that time.
Last year, they chose Australia. They did more of the work on the Australia project, but I was still very involved, and sort of "directing" the whole project. I wanted to encourage the kids to do what they were capable of doing for themselves, with help from me to include all that they wanted in the display.
This year, the girls decided they wanted to do seperate countries. I agreed to this, but I told them that the ONLY way we could make this work is if they were willing to display things that they each could do almost entirely by themselves.
Well, I have to say, they did it, and I am so proud of them! My 9yo chose Italy, and she did a great job. She included a salt dough map of her country, several pictures with interesting facts on them that she cut out of some old encyclopedias, did several drawings, and even did a poster about Christmas in Italy. She even painted her own version of the Mona Lisa! My only contribution to the project was to help her find information, and to do some printing for her because she was afraid people might not be able to read her handwriting. Our displays always include a food from our chosen country, and she made chocolate chip biscotti almost entirely by herself! I thought it was delicious, and it must have been pretty good because we didn't have any left to bring home!!
My 7yo chose to study and do a display about Panama. She is fascinated with Panama because she has often heard my parents and my 2 sisters share stories of the time they spent living there. They were there from 1967 to 1969 because my Dad was an Army MP in the Canal Zone.
My daughter did all her own work for her display, again with the exception of some handwriting work. She made posters, drew the Panamanian flag, and did most of the work involved in making her VERY yummy Panama Canal Cake!
My girls displays were not elaborate by any means, but they were "theirs", fully and completely, and I think they enjoyed this ATWD more than the ones they've done so far.
Incidentally, we HAVE decided to go back to having the whole family do just one country next year. We are, Lord willing, planning to visit Disney World this spring. So, we've decided to study one of the countries represented at Epcot. This will give us a chance to actually meet and speak to someone from that country, and to bring back some items from the country. Unless they change their minds, the children have chosen Morocco for next year's study.
I"m so thankful to the Lord for leaing our family to homeschool, for making it possible for us to follow His leading, and for giving us such a great homeschool group that provides opportunities like this for our children.
Also, I have to say that EVERY display at ATWD this year was GREAT! All the food was good, and at EVERY booth I visited, the children were eager to tell me what they had learned and answer my questions, and they all did a fantastic job!
Blessedbeyondmeasure
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