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Here in Connecticut all of our schools have been closed indefinitely to stop the spread of Covid-19. Our spring breaks are definitely not happening and all other travel plans are put on hold.
I am a teacher, which means I am out of school with my kids and trying to entertain them and keep all of us sane. Plus I’m trying to figure out what to do about my wanderlust! How do we possibly stay home for that long and not travel? Well after a lot of thinking, I have come up with a plan!
How to travel the world from home
We are going to pick 2 countries a week to focus on and learn as much about them as we can. We are going to watch movies from the countries, make up sample itineraries, read books about them, do a craft that has to do with the country and make food from the country. Plus tons of other small activities.
New posts will be posted every 5 days and you can do them whenever you have time for them.
For those of you in the same situation, I invite you to join me each week as I show you what we have chosen to do and how you can do it too! It has really saved our sanity over the past few weeks and has given us some really great family time.
The countries we will be visiting over the next 5 weeks are:
Morocco- This one is live now!
New Zealand- This one is live now!
Costa Rica
Thailand
Equador
Germany
Greece
Supplies you will need for crafts
As stores are beginning to close and supplies are harder to come by I have a list of all the materials we will be using over the next 5 weeks. They can all be ordered on Amazon (by clicking the links below) so that you don’t have to run around town looking for them. (Many of these things you will already have at home!) Please order asap so you can join in.
Also, I have tried to pick things that a lot of families already have on hand, and have made crafts that will used these items again and again.
- acrylic paints in different colors
- paint brushes of varying sizes
- glue
- watercolor paints
- unfinished nesting dolls (you need at least one for each family member)
- fluffy pipe cleaners
- googley eyes
- craft feathers
- aluminum foil
- felt
- needle and thread
- pom pom
- decent scissors to cut out felt
- hot glue gun with glue
- hard setting clay like fimo or sculpey
- colorful cardstock (something that would look nice as an art piece)
- plain color yard of cotton fabric
- inexpensive frames (not a an issue if you don’t want to frame your art piece)
- wax (or a candle you don’t mind melting down)
- terracotta pot with no decoration(one for each child)
How to watch the movies for each country
We will be watching movies on Netflix and Amazon Prime. Both should be readily available. Amazon Prime is offering a discount which will help with your order as well. Click here to get the discount.
How to read the books for each country
Technology is our friend once again. We will be downloading books on our Kindles and phones. You can also order them. Some libraries may have them online. I will give you the names of the books for the next weeks country at the end of each new post. The book for Japan is
- HMH Books for Young Readers
- Takabayashi, Mari (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
The book for Russia is
- Berge, Ann (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 32 Pages - 01/01/2004 (Publication Date) - Picture Window Books (Publisher)
Activity Sheets for kids
There will be activity sheet bundles for each country. They will feature 4 pages that your kids can do on their own so that you can have some peace and quiet! They are $1.99 each and you only need one per family as you can make copies.
Japan activity sheets-
What to order for each meal
I will also send out the recipes for each week at the end of the posts of the preceding week.
Here is the recipe for Japan.
and for Russia
I am keeping in mind unusual ingredients so the cabbage from the Yaki Udon is used later in the week for Borscht. Most of these items you can find online. I will link to the less common ingredients below:
I hope that as we learn more about each country we also learn that people are struggling with this virus throughout the world. I hope we can become a little more compassionate, a little more full of love, and teach our children that we are staying home to help people around the world and in our community.
For those of you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, I totally understand. But we will get through it all and hopefully come out of it with fond memories of the time we spent with our children and they things we actually had time to teach them! Happy quarantine!
How to get more out of this blog series?
Subscribe to my blog to get extra ideas for fun at home! Pus when you subscribe you can join our Facebook group page that features more ideas for each country. Click here for the group and enter the email you used to sign up.
Last update on 2020-04-03 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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