Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.
This post contains affiliate links.
One of our favorite homeschool activities in the past has been taking a “staycation” to other countries. Food, music, culture, geography– we touch on it all. Unfortunately it’s been a couple years since our last trip. Even though the kids enjoyed the experience, it took a fair amount of effort to coordinate.
Fortunately we received two years’ access to Let’s Go Geography, Year 2 from Let’s Go Geography which is making the staycation process this year so much easier.
The Gist
Developed by a homeschool mom who was teaching geography at a co-op, Let’s Go Geography is designed to make a generally boring subject, geography, come to life.
Intended for K – 5th grade, Let’s Go Geography is divided into two sets (a third is in production). Both Year 1 and Year 2 each cover 20+ countries, and a few regions of the United States. Here’s the page with the handy dandy list of which countries are covered each year.
Each country “lesson” is actually a week’s worth of lesson plans. The 30 plus pages of content on each country are designed to take a whole week to cover and follows the same format: studying the map, flag, and music, exploring the sights, creating a craft, and completing coloring pages.
In Our House
My kids aren’t super excited about seat work. They like videos and doing hands on activities. And new food. We went through the list of countries included in Year 2 and made a list of the ones we didn’t want to miss. Since each lesson is stand-alone, it’s no problem to jump around and pick-and-choose.
We started out with going over the continents and oceans in The Continents (Part 1) and The Continents (Part 2).
Then after looking over our “must visit” list, we decided to dive in to France first.
Here’s how we worked one lesson. France, from Let’s Go Geography with kids ages 11, 9, 7, and 4 (and 2 and three months). We started with finding France on a map and discussing the geography questions included in the plan. Then we spent about 30 seconds looking at the flag.
We watched the videos linked to in the lesson, which include famous sights, music samples, a traditional dance, and a video on food.
Here’s a peek at the format of the plan:
We read through the text on the sights of France and looked at the included pictures.
The kids completed the craft, which involved painting little Eiffel Towers with forks to mimic the grid-like structure.
After fork-painting for bit, the kids decided to just fill in the whole tower.
The lesson plan includes the dewy decimal number for the country so that it would be possible to walk into the library and go to the exact location of all the nonfiction books on that topic. Considering how much research I did on finding books for our previous staycations, that shortcut is appreciated.
Overall the program is pretty open-and-go. All we had to do was pick up a some brie and croissants at Aldi and voila! Instant staycation. Really it was trying cheese with a rind (!!) that made the experience memorable.
At the end of our time in France, I asked each of the children to share some tidbit about France at our final dinner. We went from youngest to oldest, so that the littles could have the low-hanging fruit facts.
Bea (4): They speak French in France.
Moe (7): Versailles is very fancy.
Elle (9): It has the Eiffel Tower.
Cee (11): France is known for being very fashionable.
And I shared that I didn’t know that France receives more tourists than any other country.
Conclusion
Geography includes so much more than mountains and capitals. Let’s Go Geography helps kids discover new places in our world and develop an appreciation for how people live differently.
Flexible
The flexibility of the plans is a huge strength. It would be possible to spend a week following the recommended activities and reading books from the library. Or it’s doable to spend a couple days like we did. It’s possible to cover each country in the order listed, or to skip around and only choose a few.
Affordable
There are several geography themed subscription boxes out there that promise to include everything needed to explore a particular country. Although I’ve been intrigued– especially by the all-inclusive aspect– the cost is prohibitive, especially for a family who requires materials for several students.
A Let’s Go Geography digital subscription costs significantly less than just ONE country “box” with other programs, but allows instant access to videos, printables, and crafts for around 30 countries! It’s also possible to print out materials for our whole family with one subscription.
Wide Appeal
I was impressed with how easy it was to use with all my children, ages 11 down to 4. Any time we can work on a subject together, it’s a win.
Although designed to be a homeschool geography curriculum, I would also recommend the program as an excellent option for all families (even in traditional school settings!) for summer enrichment or just a way to do something fun together. It would also make a great backbone for a co-op class.
My only suggestion would be an additional page with some easy recipes, products readily available in stores, or even just foods for which a country is known try from each country. Trying brie, croissants, a baguette, and coq au vin were a highlight for our kids, but we did have to spend time researching French food and then figuring out what our local stores would have.
Let’s Go Geography offers a great value for the price, and my family is grateful to have been introduced to it. After a hot debate, Russia will be our next destination.
Visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog to check out more reviews of Let’s Go Geography.