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As I focus on Dream Destinations for the Online Book Club theme this month, I've already shared posts about two geography curriculum books that we've used. There's another homeschooling resource related to geography that was a long-time favorite of ours. We used it over several years in different settings, and it makes a very versatile accompaniment to other curricula, or can be used on its own.
This favorite resource is the book Geography Through Art by Sharon Jeffus and Jamie Aramini. (You can find out more in one of my long-ago posts: My Favorite Geography Resource.)
This book offers over 100 art projects using various media and techniques. The projects are organized by continents and the country that is the inspiration for each project. Also, there are projects for a range of ages and skill levels. Students are given instruction on sketching animals and landmarks from around the world; and on projects such as sculpture, painting, paper-cutting, print-making, collage, and carving. The book includes maps of each of the continents, along with a summary of the geographical features of each. Several famous artists are briefly profiled. One feature I particularly like is called "Cultural Connection". These tidbits throughout the book highlight how different cultures are related to each other in the folk art techniques. For instance, paper-cutting from China, from Poland, and from Mexico is discussed and the question of why paper-cutting is a popular art form across different cultures.
I've used this book to explore art from around the world in both our homeschool and at a homeschool co-op, and alongside several other social studies curricula. When we were using the Cultural Geography textbook, we didn't have a great deal of time to spend adding art projects to our school days, but since my daughter enjoyed art, adding the sketching projects was very doable, and occasionally something a bit more involved would appeal to her as well. And she remembered many of the projects from previous years.
The photo collages below feature projects by both Kennady and Landon over the years - sketches of Big Ben, Easter Island heads, pyramids, Greek Columns, and other landmarks; an "ivory" chessman sculpture, hieroglyphs, Chinese calligraphy and papercutting, and other projects; and various sketches of animals, both realistic and stylized.
One year when she was much younger, Kennady worked very hard on a Retablo Art project from Peru, and displayed it at Christmas.
Another favorite project was Australian Aboriginal Dot Painting. This and some of the other projects were also done during the co-op class a friend and I taught using Geography Through Art.
For more details on some of these projects, you can check out these posts from my archives:
Another way we've enjoyed exploring Dream Destinations is by trying foods from other cultures! We were able to have a lot of fun with this type of project some years, as you can see in my blog post series Eating the Americas and A Taste of Europe.
Some of the best cookbooks we found were: Eat Your Way Around the World, Holidays of the World Cookbook for Students, International Cookbook for Kids; The 2nd International Cookbook for Kids; Emeril's There's a Chef in My World; and Passport on a Plate.
Have you explored the world by trying art or food from other cultures? What are your favorites?
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