Explore the World with Your Kids, By the Book

Growing Book By Book is a fantastic website for encouraging a love of reading, and I think her idea for an Around the World Family Book Club is fantastic.

Each month this year she has picked a book from a different country and then at the beginning of the month she shares other books related to that country and culture and conversation starters related to the topic. There’s also a themed menu, a table craft and an idea for a family project you can all do together.

So for example for May the country is Japan, the book is A Peace Tree from Hiroshima by Sandra Moore; the meal from Chef Sarah Elizabeth includes miso soup, vegetable tempura and sushi; and the table craft is a Zen garden from Sunny Day Family.

Check out the whole year so far and what’s coming up. Instead of doing one a month, you could do one a week over the summer, or just cover the ones you are particularly interested in.

I think this is a great idea for learning about different cultures and trying new foods.

What country would you like to explore?

Lacing is a great fine motor activity, and most kids go through a phase where they enjoy working with lacing cards. It helps promote focus and is a great quiet activity for kids to do in the car or to fill time in the classroom. And of course knowing how to lace is the beginning of knowing how to sew, which is great for all kids to learn (more on teaching kids to sew here).

There are lots of ways to make your own lacing cards. This one is just a pin but it’s easy to make lacing cards with any shape a child is into using cardboard and a nail to poke the holes. This could be fun for letter and number recognition or spelling the child’s name. Or try this version from Hey Azka, which uses a hole punch to make bigger holes so you can lace with shoe laces.

You can also just do lacing cards with paper, but it’s a great idea to print them on card stock and/or laminate them to make them sturdier for little hands. Homeschool Share has a set of alphabet lacing cards, which are free with email signup. Deceptively Educational has a set of number lacing cards with numbers 0 to 10.

Picklebums has some basic shape lacing cards, too.

Living Life and Learning has a bunch of cute printable lacing cards, including back to school designs, shoes kids can lace and learn to tie and ocean themed lacing cards. She also has tips for making your own lacing cards.

A Rose Tinted World made their lacing cards with craft foam, which makes them a little more durable than paper and you can cut it more easily than cardboard. They used a die cutting machine but you can also cut shapes by hand.

I also love the cat and mouse cards from Seam Whisperer. They also have some spring themed designs. So cute!

If you want to make lacing cards that are more open ended, check out this tutorial form Pretty Life Girls to make lacing cards that are more like geo boards. Theirs are made with wood but you can also do this with cardboard, craft foam or card stock.

Have you read?

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