Book Review: How to Build Your Own Country

I think most kids think about what it would be like to run their own country from time to time, and How to Build Your Own Country by Valerie Wyatt helps kids to do just that, whether their nation is their bedroom, backyard or even a corner of the Internet.

The best part? It only takes three simple steps!

First, you stake out your identity, including your country’s name, flag and other national symbols. You’ll learn how to attract a population, design a passport and make a Mad Libs-style national anthem.

Second, run your country by choosing the style of government (some of the choices are described in the book), holding elections, writing a constitution and making laws. It covers the services your citizens might expect from your government and why taxation is a popular way to make provide services.

Finally, you’ll meet the neighbors with some facts about nations (biggest and smallest, oldest and newest, etc.), different organizations of nations you can join and how to keep the peace in your nation.

Funny stories and cautionary tales are sprinkled in about tiny nations from around the world, voting mishaps, ridiculous laws and more. There’s a fact file for the fictional nation of Bathmatia, which you can use to develop your own information about your imagined nation.

This would be a fun book to read in class or at home and have kids develop their own nations, whether they imagine an undiscovered island to be their kingdom or start a new nation in the bedroom. Great for social studies classes or patriotic unit studies around national holidays.

Along the way kids will learn about the basic systems of government and the basics of what it takes to run a country.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Kids Can Press, suggested retail price $11.99.

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Learning about Bosnia and Herzegovina for Kids

I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]

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