Children's books like those written by Carole P. Roman can be such a fun way to explore history, or culture or even practice reading. We received 3 more books from the Carole P. Roman books and collections to add to our home library. We really do love Carole P. Roman when we do our history and geography work, so I am excited to share three more tittles from the Carole P. Roman books and collections.
Last time I reviewed books, our focus was on the historical side - ancient civilizations. This time, we got to explore the world culture books from this collection.
We received and read:
- If You Were Me and Lived in . . . Mexico
- If You Were Me and Lived in . . . Egypt
- If You Were Me and Lived in . . . Australia
These books were specifically written to introduce children ages 4-8 to other cultures around the world. Younger children can listen as they would to a story, and it can be used with older children because you can ask them to do more research or read more about the country. Our current geography program focuses on one country at a time, so I chose three books that fit right in with what we're doing. The girls both loved looking at the words in the other languages, and we were thankful the pronunciation is in the book too! You get some basic facts about the country and capital, and then you get into the culture. What your name might be, what food you might enjoy, what you might be doing in your free time. They aren't a thorough history, obviously, but they pique the interest to learn more about the country. Madison loves working these facts into their play time - suddenly their play dance competitions have turned international! These books were definitely within the reading level of a second grader, and I love when I can have Madison read one to Reagan.
Favorite facts? A bunch!
For Egypt, it was all about the holidays. Sham-al-Nessim was fascinating to them. They made comparisons to how we celebrate Easter, and thought it was very interesting that holidays can be about different things but still share ideas of celebration.
For Australia, the discussion centered around how things are on the other side of the world! Summer in January? Winter in July? How does that happen? What a great way to show how "normal" is completely influenced by where you happen to live in the world!
For Mexico, the girls loved learning about Chichen Itza! They recently had a friend take a trip to Mexico, and were confused when she told them about chicken ease-a, so this cleared that up a bit. Now they want to go too!
There are so many of these books to supplement an elementary geography study. We could spend a whole year using these books to take us around the world and learn about what life is like for the young people living across the globe.
Carole P. Roman writes so many wonderful children's books on so many topics. I loved reading about what other crew members got to read, and now our wish list is growing! And check out more about Carole P. Roman and all of her books on her website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
