This content comes from a summer book club I led in our Introverted Moms’ community for members and their children, and I have redesigned it so that you can use it anytime throughout the year.
It’s an experience designed to teach your family about over 25 countries and regions. Check out the full list of countries here.
The basis for this club is my book Give Your Child the World: Raising Globally Minded Kids One Book at a Time, and you’ll get the most out of this program if you have your own copy!
It contains over 600 of the best multi-cultural book recommendations for every area of the world, making it a useful learning resource.
So before you get started, order your copy, then print out your book log and map printables!
This program consists of three parts: Read, Watch, and Respond.
1. Read
Choose an area of the world to get started! On the Read the World Book Club Home Page, you’ll see the order we went in originally, beginning with Australia, Oceania, and the Polar Regions and ending with Multi-Cultural week.
However, any order will work! Once you’ve chosen an area, flip to that corresponding chapter in Give Your Child the World, and choose books to read from that region for the ages you have in your home.
Request them from your library or order as you choose! Give Your Child the World contains book recommendations for ages 4-12.
** To see a few suggestions for teens as well as family read-alouds to get you started, click here for a quick-start book list.**
Once you have your books in hand, you’re ready to get reading! You may want to also use this helpful guide from National Geographic to introduce each country before reading about it with your kids.
2. Watch
For each area of the world, I created a “Tour the World Itinerary,” featuring carefully curated YouTube clips to watch, as well as other fun links to help you learn more. See a sample here.
There’s something for all ages, and you can stream them around the breakfast/dinner table or use them in whatever way works best for you!
On top of these curated clips, we had three special events during our club that you can enjoy as a family:
- an interview with author Caroline Starr Rose of May B. (a family read-aloud for North America),
- an interview with author Mitali Perkins of Rickshaw Girl (a family read-aloud for Asia), and
- a Multi-Cultural Global Tour, visiting ten families on six continents (see pic above)!
Each area of the world also has a complementary movie list, which you can use anytime. Just look for “Watch the World Weekend” in every location to find those! See a sample here.
3. Respond
Once you and your kids have read and watched, you’re ready to respond!
Here are a variety of response options to choose from (no, you don’t have to do them all!):
Option A – Find the country on your map printable of that region and color/label it to track your personal tour around the world!
For students in middle and high school, you could take this one step further and have them memorize the countries on each continent, then complete one of the blank map printables as a quiz.
Option B – Have younger children color in flag pages for each country you visit/learn about. Crayola has free coloring pages for all countries!
Option C – Pray your way around the world, using the global prayer prompts from Operation World.
Option D – Use the “Taste the World Feast” (sample here) recipes from each region to cook and enjoy a multi-cultural menu!
Option E – As a family, complete my Heal the World Challenges, working to create a family culture that focuses on others and giving back.
Option F – Create a passport book for your child using this free template from Makes and Takes. Your kids can keep track of each place they have visited, and even add a few facts they’ve learned about each country!
And there you have it – I hope Read the World is a blessing to you and yours!