Books: Countries of the World

Angola, Brunei, Cambodia, Dominica, Eritrea, French Guiana, Ghana, Honduras, India, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Oman, Peru, Qatar, Russia, Singapore, Tajikistan, Uruguay, Vietnam, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zimbabwe...

Moving on from the study of the Periodic Table, we've been going around the world from our armchair, learning about the countries of the world, just for the fun of it.

These "studies" at home come about organically — no rigid schedule, no "lesson plan", no lofty goals, no pressure, and no set time-limit –  typically guided by the younger one's current interest. It starts and stops on its own, and progresses at its own pace.

Are there any volcanoes in Iceland? Does Madagascar have mountains? What language do they speak in Brunei? Why does the map show Turkey in Asia and Europe, like Russia? What do they eat in Myanmar?

When a lot of questions get asked about a particular topic, it seems like a wonderful window of opportunity has opened up to further our understanding of the world...

One continent at a time. A few countries by region/sub-region till all UN-listed countries are covered. A few facts about each country - where it is located on the map, what language(s) do they speak, any famous landmark(s) there, what is their favorite food, is it hot or cold there?

"Go find Cambodia on the map - it is in Asia" would start off a weekend morning with wonderful destinations. A reasonably-sized world map hangs on the wall in the kids' play room and the younger one loves to go country-hunting on that map.

What better way to help us learn than make a book ourselves? Book-making has always been a passion at home. And that's how these books were created— adding a handful of pages at a time, continent-wise/sub-region-wise - thanks to the World Wide Web and some wonderful books from the library. Speaking of which–

1. The Cultures of the World series of books by Marshall Cavendish has a good amount of information, geared towards older kids. We bring home a handful at at time from the library, and read a few pages at random.
2. Rookie Read-About Geography series by Children's Press (an imprint of Scholastic) is a huge hit with Og as it is just his level and easy for him to read on his own. They have States (in the U.S), Continents, Countries, Bodies of Water...
3. Though not a book, TMBG's Alphabet of Nations song is a huge hit with both the kids; and the whole Here Comes A,B,Cs Music CD by TMBG is the current obsession with Og
4. The Italy ABCs, France ABCs, Australia ABCs and so on by Picture Window Books (Capstone) were good read as well, though the information for some letters of the alphabet seemed contrived
5. Two books on Egypt that enjoyed repeat-reads in our house: Count Your Way Through Egypt by Haskins & Benson, illustrated by Sue Rama; We're Sailing Down the Nile by the Laurie Krebs, illustrated by Anne Wilson

There are way too many good books on this topic appealing to all age groups and reading levels...

From searching with me online (and offline), to getting the good-to-go pages from the printer; from assembling the page with the relevant content to gluing them; from coloring the outline map to indicate the current country of interest to arranging the pages to laminate, the younger child was completely involved, while the older one just detached herself from the project and waited till the book was done to read it at her own leisure.


First stop was Asia.

The Countries of Asia book was made listing the countries, alphabetized by sub-region, with a small map and a few facts for each, until all the recognized countries in the continent were represented in the book.

Next we went to South America - which was a quick day trip.

With only fourteen countries, it was the easiest and quickest book we made so far. Rather than a pre-colored map, I printed out outline maps with countries and had the little guy color in the country for each page. And then assemble the papers and glue them on to black card stock to make the sturdy book.

Then came Africa which seemed daunting at first with about 58 countries, but, turned out rather easy as we worked our way through each geographical sub-region, starting with North African Countries.

Of course, none of this happened in a flash. Over the course of several weeks since Halloween, we've been learning a little at a time, finding small pockets of time to make a few pages of the book on evenings and weekends.

I am sure the Puzzle Maps in his school is getting worn thin by the kiddo's daily use, but, it seems to have sparked and reinforced his love for the world and the people in it.

"If I visit Namibia, I can talk to them because they do speak English there, Mama!"
"When I go to Argentina I would not want to try to climb up Mount Fitz Roy, it is so steep!"
"Did you know you could talk in Tamil if you visit Réunion, you'd be so happy, Mama!"
"Papa, look! This is the coolest! In Uruguay there is this sculpture called Hand in the Sand, and guess what? It is a huge hand in the sand!"
"Burkina Faso is such a strange name. It is right here in Western Africa. See the map, Ana!"
"Why is there no X country? Is there only one O country in the whole entire world?"

Of course, everything is more fun when we turn it into a game.

Starting with simple clues like
"Name an A country anywhere in the world"
we move on to
"I am an archipelago country made up of more than 7000 islands. What am I and which continent can you find me in?"

The usual, "I am thinking of a country..." game with 20-questions style clues has been the dinner time game for the last few weeks. Before that it was the Periodic Table of Elements. And before that it was all about Harry Potter books... and we usually default to animals.

And, as far as games go, a surprising hit was Professor Noggin's Countries of the World trivia game. There are 3 easy questions and 3 hard questions. Kids can progress at their own level. The idea is to win as many of the country cards as one can by answering the questions correctly. But, the first few days we just played it for fun to get to know some facts and reinforce what we know...

We are just wrapping up our North American tour, after which we will be visiting Europe and learning a little more than the usual Eiffel Tower/Leaning Tower of Pisa/Neuschwanstein Castle/Big Ben/Stonehenge...

Of course, the 7 yo prefers not to do the same topic as the little guy's current interest, and prefers to be left alone to do what she chooses. Which is great as I can progress at the pace that he is comfortable with.

In all this, I learnt quite a bit as well. Not just countries and capitals, but a little about the history, culture, resources, and nature beauty unique to each part of the world. Now, will I remember most of it a month from now? Perhaps not. Did I enjoy the process of discovery with the kids? Absolutely.

It seems like my posts are getting tediously long these days, but then, since I manage only about a handful of posts each month, it seems to work out all right...

The Periodic Table

Quite unintentionally, a sudden interest in the various chemical elements that make up our world found us knee-deep in books and supplementary materials embarking with gusto to learn as much as we can about the Periodic Table of Elements.

Well, not exactly sudden as the spark was ignited with TMBG's Here Comes Science CD+DVD.

The obsessive phase started when we bought Theodore Gray's Photographic Elements deck of cards after browsing The Periodic Table website and checking out The Elements book from the library.

The younger child got into it with the intense passion that characterizes his style of learning, completely immersing himself day-in and day-out on a single topic that catches his fancy at the moment. The older child likes juggling multiple areas of interest without being consumed by any one of them at a given time.

The deluxe set of cards in elegant 5-inch square format with stunning pictures got laid out on the floor patiently and enthusiastically. First we concentrated on the standard IUPAC arrangement, learning the names, atomic number, and chemical symbol, before attempting the other suggested layouts.

We played several games once all the cards were laid out on the floor:
calling out one card at a time with its atomic number;
calling out by its atomic symbol;
and as we got more familiar with the properties, calling out by some characteristic and a combination of clues
and picking up the correct card off the floor and making a separate pile.

From something as simple as 'an element found in bananas', 'element used in atomic clocks', 'radioactive element(s) discovered by Marie Curie', the clues we gave each other started getting progressively involved. Like, find 'a Lanthanide named after Ytterby, Sweden, with the highest atomic number'. (There are 4 elements named after Ytterby quarry in Sweden where they were first found.)

The cards also have many of the properties listed on the back of each element. So we started learning about solid/liquid/gas states and density and melting point, man-made vs. naturally occurring, radioactive and toxic/poisonous ones... peeling the layers and delving deeper as long as it interests the learner.

The most-enjoyed game was, "I'm thinking of an element..." along the lines of 20-Questions - only not 20, but just up to 5 questions/clues allowed.

Og: I am thinking of an element. Guess what it is!
Me: Is it a metal?
Og: Yes.
Me: Does it have more than 50 protons?
Og: No. it has more than 20 but less than 30.
Me: Is its atomic number greater than 25?
Og: No.
Me: Is it Chromium?
Og: No. It is used in making white paints.
Me: It must be Titanium!

(Zinc ³⁰ is also used in making white paints.)

Of course, some can be guessed more easily than others, but, it helped reinforce some facts we picked up reading books.

Speaking of which... It's Elementary! by Robert Winston is the most-enjoyed, much-read book at home by the children. In the edition we have, Oggie found a major typo! On page 84 showing Group I elements, Francium is listed as atomic number 67, whereas it should be 87.

The Elements by Theodore Gray was captivating to the kids for its pictures, the text of course is aimed for an older audience, so the adults in the family enjoyed it more than the kids.

The Periodic Table, Elements With Style (Basher/Dingle) had fun facts but did not engage the kids as much at this time, possibly because  we were already hooked on the Photographic Elements cards with gorgeous pictures. We'll be revisiting it and a few others by Adrian Dingle that seem like fun.

The book I enjoy reading, as much for its content as its ease of presentation is Nature's Building Blocks - an A-Z Guide to the Elements by John Emsley. At any given time, it is fun to turn to a random page and read: Think pink, think Erbium - at least when it comes to art glasses and goggles for glass-blowers... Erbium can be mildly toxic by ingestion...

Of course, Tom Lehrer's song, plus a few youtube videos at random came in handy.

One of the games/activities that the 7-yr old likes to play is the Elementary Words! using the Periodic Table Code as we call it. The idea is from Theodore Gray's cards. Spell the word using the chemical symbols.

Example:
Sir Nicholas = Sulphur Iridium Nitrogen Iodine Carbon Hydrogen Oxygen Lanthanum Sulphur = 16-77-7-53-6-1-8-57-16

I have a running list of words that we think up in our spare time - some are easy, they reinforce learning of certain elements based on their atomic symbol; some can be decoded in more than one way.

Example:
Phone = Phosphorus Hydrogen Oxygen Neon = Phosphorus Holmium Neon

And, of course, Harry Potter books 1 and 2 being somewhat of a recent study, the 7-yo liked to make up names like Bilius and Colin, tried very hard for Harry, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, Dumbledore, Albus, McGonagall...

The best of all was Og's amazing teacher making up a Periodic Table "work" so children can work on it at  school if they choose to! I am blown away by her creativity and dedication.

Since Book-making is a favorite activity at home, a couple of books got made, with the older child working according to her ideas and the younger one collaborating with me, dictating extempore while I put on my Scribe hat and jot it down fast.

The books are works in progress - as we think of something to share in the book, we add a new page.

The five weeks of feverish frenzy has given way to a gently placid pace of study, possibly gradually tapering off to nil, making way for us to explore a new area when ready.

Getting to Know Georgia O'Keeffe

The name Georgia O'Keeffe is probably not unfamiliar to many today. Her large arresting flowers in bold colors and immaculate detail is what my mind has come to associate with the name, along with a few now-famous bones.

For the kindergartner in residence, I thought it would be educational and fun to gather a few related books on a chosen topic and read them one after another (interspersed with other books, over a couple of weeks) to make it a sort of study without any pressure or expectation.

And to keep things interesting, I don't tell her the topic in advance. I borrow the books from the library, wait till the short-listed few on a topic are handy, then release them one at a time for Ana to read.

It is a joy to see her connect the related books and point out similarities among them and extract a few essential things from each to form a comprehensive picture.

There are no doubt many wonderful books on any given topic and knowing which ones to choose for the study is not easy. But I don't sweat over it. This is not an end-of-term research paper. This is more to introduce the fact that many books can present the same person/place/thing/animal and yet have an array of information to offer. And, also to reinforce the fact that different books on the same subject do in fact have some common core information.

One such recent study was artist Georgia O'Keeffe.

My Name Is Georgia: A Portrait by Jeanette Winter
by Jeanette Winter

We started with My Name is Georgia. The title was arresting enough and caught Ana's attention.

The book has bold illustrations and simple text. It presents Georgia's life in a condensed and compact way, highlighting her birth, childhood and later years.

But, unlike typical biographies, by selectively quoting Georgia's words directly, the book turns into a first person narration letting us see how the artist saw things. There is an indication of time passing and Georgia growing.

She painted small things large so people would notice them. This stuck in our head. The book might not be quite engaging in and of its own for the typical picture book audience but it certainly started us off on a good path.

Georgia's Bones
by Jen Bryant
illustrated by Bethanne Anderson

Then, a few days later, she noticed Georgia's Bones strategically placed on her car seat on the ride from school. As she read it, she pointed out, "These are the same bones from that other book, Mama! Is she the same Georgia? She looks different in this book..." Sure enough, this opened up a new door for us to talk about.

The illustrations are beautiful in this book. The double-page with the huge Ram's Head caught Ana's attention.

Text is simple enough for elementary level, combining quotations and third person narration, but is packed with poetry. Talking about Georgia's fascination for bones that she collects from the desert

She didn't know why they pleased her so.
Perhaps it was the quiet way they did their work - the years of being invisible, and then, when everything fell away, they appeared, pure and beautiful.

The book again reinforced a handful of facts about the artist's life. It also brings out the artist's attraction to natural and everyday objects in which she found shapes, and she viewed them in unusual ways.

In the woods around her father's Wisconsin farm, she collected shapes: flowers, leaves, sticks and stones. She put them in her pocket and took them home.
"Such common objects," said her brother.
"Why do you bother?" asked her sister.
"Because they please me," Georgia replied.

However, it also showed how Georgia looked at things differently.

The holes in the bones pleased Georgia, too.
They made frames and windows through which she glimpsed a piece of the sky,
or a tiny corner of a mountain.

The book ends with Georgia painting the bones in her New York City studio.

Through Georgia's Eyes
by Rachel Victoria Rodriguez
illustrated by Julie Paschkis
Then came Through Georgia's Eyes, which sneaked into the stack of few books Ana had chosen to read at bedtime one night.

Again, she wondered why Georgia looked different in the pictures in this book, compared to the other two. She noticed that the book talks about the same yearning Georgia has for the wide open spaces, the same night sky she sees over open desert, the same determination at 12 when she declares 'I want to be an artist', and the attraction for common objects around her.

Season melts into season on her family farm. Georgia struggles to show on paper what she sees. At twelve she takes painting lessons. She tells her friend, "I am going to be an artist."

This book is in third person narration. The illustrations are beautiful. Ana particularly liked the double-page spread that shows people flitting like butterflies over gigantic flowers that Georgia paints.

Flowers delight her. She paints them as giants. People stop to stare. Georgia's flowers make them feel like tiny butterflies, flitting through the universe of her garden.

The book closes with an invitation to the readers.

Open your eyes...
...and walk along.
See the colors? Hear the shapes singing?
No need to hurry.
Lean in... look closer.

Presenting a biography, knowing which aspects of the illustrious life to showcase, and to do it in a short picture book format sounds like a Herculean task. But the three biographies above (regardless of how accurate they are historically) gave us a good picture of the artist, the person.


Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

Highlights From The Collection
by Barbara Buhler Lynes

To seal it, we looked at the reprints in Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Highlights From The Collection at the Santa Fe Museum.


Finally, inspired by all that we've read, we did an art project.

Bones, or Landscape, or Flowers? Which one shall we choose?

We settled on flowers.

I found an old photograph of the Bleeding Hearts in our garden. I created a small frame to focus on just the details of one flower.

And we sat down side by side. Studied the shapes, light, colors within the small frame. Then, Ana tried her hand at representing what she saw using shapes and color pencils.

[Disclaimer: I am not an artist. I don't even pretend to be one. I am fascinated by artists and creative souls in general. And, I do a lot of art exploration projects with my kids in the hope of educating not just my kids, but myself as well.]

[image sources: goodreads.com, author Jen Bryant's website, author Rachel Rodriguez website, amazon.com, wikipedia]