Little Passports Makes Geography Fun

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T has never been all that interested in Geography. When he was in primary Montessori school he did have a short period of time when he was tracing the puzzle maps that he was quite interested in learning all of the countries of South America. He actually still remembers them all, but he rarely wants to pull out his puzzle maps or review countries. I've noticed that our geography studies have been lacking just because he isn't all that interested. We are part of a geography club in our homeschool community and that helps but it doesn't really get T interested like I hoped it would.

I had heard about Little Passports before and visited their booth at a local homeschool expo once but I kept telling myself that I could put something like that together myself. Here is it nearly 2 years later, I haven't put it together myself. One of the best things about Little Passports is that they do all the work for you. You don't have to pick the countries, research the countries, collect postcards/pictures, souveniors, and flags for each country. You also don't have to come up with the fun activities for each country that will get your child engaged. There is just so much to do as a homeschooling parent, especially if you are not using a pre-planned curriculum. I love that my kids got excited about geography without me having to spend so much of my time putting it all together. Then there is the added thrill of getting mail address to them. Our package came with both of their names on it so they were both very excited.

Little Passports has two options, the first is their original World Edition where you receive a package containing one country each month. The other option is the USA Edition where you receive a package containing one state of the USA each month. I think both are great options, but I think the World Edition fits in nicely to the Montessori method because of the emphasis on world peace. Montessori thought that if we got to know how people around the world lived we would grow closer to one another and peace would follow. Not only would it be a great addition to geography study and continent boxes, but also in the cultural/peace study as well.

If you would like to learn more about the different options and what you get in each please check out the Little Passports website. They are even having a 15% off sale until 4/8!

Here is what arrive this afternoon at our home:

Brazil

Here is what comes in the package: a letter from Sam & Sofia describing their adventure in Brazil, a postcard with an animal from the letter, a piece of amethyst (also from the story in the letter), a sticker to place on the suitcase, a Brazil flag sticker for the passport, a push pin sticker to place on the wall map, an activity sheet (2 sided) and a boarding pass with a code for online activities.

The first thing T did when he heard the package was about Brazil, was he pulled out his South America puzzle map and took out Brazil to show B.  Then they looked over their goodies.

T read the letter to find out about this month's adventure. I think the reading level is around 2nd grade but there are some words that may be a bit difficult because they are names of animals or names that are common for that country.

The story in the letter described rescuing a rare monkey by hiding him in an amethyst mine. They included a postcard with a photo of the red uakari monkey and a small piece of read amethyst. The kids LOVED this amethyst!

T spent some time working on the activity page while I put B down for her nap. He was searching for animals in the rainforest.

As if that wasn't enough geography for the day, T hopped on the computer to see what activities were waiting for him. There was Trivia, a soccer game and an interactive map of Brazil. He really enjoyed reading about different animals, landmarks, sports, food, etc from Brazil. There were several beautiful photos online as well. There were several parts where things could easily be printed and used later offline.

Finally, I had to tear him away from his geography work to go to his track practice but he has planned to start tomorrow morning with more study of Brazil.

Little Passports is having a Birthday Celebration. They have been in business for 5 years and are offering 15% off new subscriptions , use the promo code HAPPY5 thru 4/8/14. If you have been thinking about trying it, now is a great time. 

**I am an affiliate of Little Passports. I was given this package at no charge in return for my honest review. All opinions on the blog are my own and I would never review a product that I had not used personally. If you click on the links in this post and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting our home school.