Travel Around the World {3 Times In One Day}

We aren’t traveling this season, but wish we were!   Here is an activity we created so that we could travel around the world – from the comfort of home. Recently we took a few trips around the world, three to be exact, all in one afternoon. It was pretty awesome.

Travel Around the World

ANIMALS: The first trip was to each continent. We identified animals from around the world using Montessori’s matching and sorting to seven continents approach. I downloaded these handy cards from Montessori Print Shop, printed them on color and laminated them individually for safe keeping.   I presented the activity to my son with the cards in a basket and the continent sheets in a pile. I reviewed the simple black and white continent outlines with him first. We went over each continent. Then I pulled out the continent sheets that include the color images of the animals. This is when things got really exciting. He was really happy and knew the direction of the activity. He jumped up and showed me on our wall map to show me the location of the animals.

World Travel

OLYMPICS: The next trip we took was identifying the Olympic Host Cities and Countries. A book we recently read that perfectly introduced the Olympics to my son included an index of every modern Olympics game and the location of each game. I purchased these adorable 1 inch by 1 inch stickers from Amazon, pulled out our world map (courtesy of Little Passports) and we went down the list of cities and countries. I didn’t worry about replacing the map. Adding the Olympic rings stickers added character to it and it’ll be fun to reference. CHILDREN: Then we looked at children from around the world with these great Montessori three part cards I purchased off Ebay for less then $10. The cards came all laminated but not cut individually. Honestly, that worked well for us. I didn’t cut up the cards and instead used the 8 x 10 laminated sheets as a guide and reference with my son as we talked about the children and where they live in the world. In the near future, I plan to cut them individually and work on sorting to countries and continents. Coupled with these cards is a lovely memory game by Eeboo called, I Never Forget a Face. Since my son is only 3 years old, we sorted mostly. In order to successfully play the memory portion of the activity, I had to present fewer pairs to him. That approach worked well. Again, he jumped up to his wall map to show me where each child lives in the world. So there you have it. Three wonderful ways to explore the world’s geography, animals and culture.

Kids Things to Do:

These are some fun ways to travel with kids without leaving your home.   Check out these other great posts for some more global inspiration:

• World Crafts – Learn about Ethiopia
• Learn Map Reading Skills with a Snack Map
• DIY World Map Mural
• Dollhouse Geography Lesson
• How Traveling Parents Effect Children