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How to use Give Your Child the World in your homeschool

September 26, 2016 //  by Jamie C. Martin

How to use Give Your Child the World in your homeschool
Written by Jamie C. Martin of Simple Homeschool 

What a beautiful ride it’s been since Give Your Child the World came out a few months ago!

Thank you, thank you for all the support. I can’t tell you how much it’s meant to hear that so many of you find the book useful and inspiring, exactly what I hoped for during the five years I worked on it.

Some of you have written with another question as well:

What’s the best way to use Give Your Child the World in our homeschool?

Glad you asked! I purposely made the book so it could be used several different ways, and I’d love to describe those for you here. (And for anyone wondering: Yes – the print above is THE Eiffel Tower I mention about in Chapter 2 that meant so much!)

What’s this all about?

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Photo by Luke Price

Give Your Child the World: Raising Globally Minded Kids One Book at a Time is a reading treasury that guides you to the best global children’s literature (over 600 hand-picked titles!), allowing your family to read your way around the world. Perfect for the book and travel lovers among us.

All the hard work has been done for you, so you can get right to the fun part! I organized the reading lists by region, country, and age range (ages 4-12). Each listing includes a brief description of the book, its themes, and any content you might want to have a heads up about.

For the cost of a single paperback, the book gives you a geography/history/literature resource you can use for up to 8 YEARS with multiple kids. Read an excerpt here.

Check out the three main ways I imagine families putting it to good use:

Option 1. The Informal/Unschooling Method

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I wanted both homeschooling and non-homeschooling families to be able to use Give Your Child the World, and I wrote it with that intent. If you decide to use the book informally, just follow your heart in choosing titles that interest your family most.

Does your child find China fascinating? Flip straight to the Asia chapter, look up your child’s age range, and dive in.

Are you heading on a road trip soon? The North America chapter has you covered!

Did a global topic arise in current events? Head to the country index in the back of my book and find all the titles to help you learn more about that part of the world.

I even heard of one family who flipped the book open at random to decide where they were going to study and “visit” next–so fun!

Option 2. The History Method

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Did you know that Give Your Child the World has four indexes: Author, Country, Historical, and Title?

And in case you think a publisher has someone assigned to make indexes (like I once did), think again: I made all of them! When I came up with the idea of creating a historical index, I knew it would be worth the extra work. It opens up an entirely new way for readers to easily use the book.

I painstakingly went through every title included in the reading lists to figure out which time period in history they come from, then organized it all for you in this index. So if you have a history curriculum, you can use my book to enhance your studies with other living literature picks.

This means Give Your Child the World isn’t another thing to fit in, but instead adds extra value to what you’re already doing. Love that!

Option 3. The Geography/Social Studies Curriculum Method

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You can also use my book as your full geography/social studies this year in a more formal/structured way!

I didn’t realize this until after I finished the book, but check out how it covers the school year so perfectly:

October – Africa, Chapter 6 of GYCW

November – Europe, Chapter 7

December – Do a Christmas Around the World study, take the month off for the holidays, or choose from the Multicultural Chapter 5 (which could also be used in September for an earlier start!)

January – Asia, Chapter 8

February – Middle East, Chapter 9

March – North America, Chapter 10

April – Latin America, Chapter 11

May – Australia, Oceania, and Polar Regions, Chapter 12

This is the method I plan to follow this year in our own homeschool. Depending on how much time you have in any given month you can dive in deep or shallow with this idea.

Still need to get a copy?

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If you don’t own Give Your Child the World yet, order yours today for less than $10!

Then head here with your order number to get your FREE bonus Give Your Child the World Adult Coloring Book (a $10 value). 

I’m so proud of what an affordable resource this is for you and yours–definitely the cheapest around the world trip you’ll ever plan! Enjoy your family’s travels this year, and I hope you’ll share on Instagram all about the journey.

How have you decided to use Give Your Child the World in your homeschool?

Category: curriculumTag: geography, give your child the world, jamie, jamie's books, read the world

About Jamie C. Martin

Jamie is an introverted mom of three, who loves books, tea, and people (not always in that order), and avoids answering the phone when possible. She co-founded SimpleHomeschool.net in 2010 and began IntrovertedMoms.com in 2020.

Jamie is the author of four books, including Give Your Child the World (reached #9 on Amazon's Top 100 Best Sellers list), and her latest release, Introverted Mom (an ECPA bestseller). Her work has been featured by LeVar Burton of Reading Rainbow, the Washington Post, Parents, Today Parenting, and Psychology Today.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Caroline Starr Rose

    September 26, 2016 at 9:56 am

    You are just plain wonderful. xo
    Caroline Starr Rose’s latest post: Wisdom from ANNE OF WINDY POPLARS

    • Jamie Martin

      September 26, 2016 at 7:12 pm

      Thank you, friend.

  2. Amanda

    September 26, 2016 at 3:01 pm

    Yes, I LOVE your historical index. It doubles the value of the book as far as I’m concerned!

    • Jamie Martin

      September 26, 2016 at 7:12 pm

      I’m so glad it’s been helpful for you, Amanda!

  3. Shonda Knowlton

    September 27, 2016 at 1:14 am

    Fantastic! I’m probably more excited than my kids. I’m a history lover and I just started reading books you recommended and I’m hooked around the world. We did the summer book club and it did make an impact. I bought some scrunch maps and we pull them out daily. Thanks for all your work in making this a very friendly resource!

    • Jamie Martin

      September 27, 2016 at 7:28 am

      Thrilled to hear that you and yours are enjoying it, Shonda!

  4. Daksina

    September 27, 2016 at 6:32 am

    I looked through the sample chapters and would love to buy it. But I just tried to search for about 16 different books on our library database and none of them are available. So gutted! But it looks fab so well done!!

    • Jamie Martin

      September 27, 2016 at 7:30 am

      It looks like you are in the UK, right, Daksina? So sorry about that, but I do think that the books available in each country vary widely. You can still use the same concept and different books though, the read the world page would be a great help if that interests you: http://simplehomeschl.wpengine.com/read-the-world-page/

  5. Brynn

    October 5, 2016 at 11:57 pm

    I’m so excited about this book! Just got my copy in the mail today. 🙂

  6. Jessica

    February 27, 2017 at 2:12 pm

    Our curriculum for next year (My Father’s World) is Exploring Countries and Cultures. I’m so delighted that I have this book at add extra books for our book basket time each day. We read some of these books with your summer reading program and loved them. Thanks for this great book!

    • Jamie Martin

      February 28, 2017 at 4:54 pm

      You’re welcome, Jessica–so glad to hear that! I’d be so grateful if you’d leave a review on Amazon when you can: https://www.amazon.com/Give-Your-Child-World-Globally/dp/0310344131/

  7. Ruheena Razvi

    May 24, 2020 at 2:44 am

    Hi Jamie! Thrilled to have found this book. I’m really interested in using it as our Geography curriculum next year, but the course page link here doesn’t seem to be working. Is the unit still available? Thanks!

    • Jamie Martin

      May 24, 2020 at 7:21 am

      So sorry, Ruheena, but this unit isn’t currently available. Thanks for mentioning it so I could update that older post!

      We will be having a Read the World Summer Book Club as part of my Introverted Moms’ community this summer, if you’re interested you can put your email on the waiting list here: https://introvertedmoms.com/join/

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