Learning with the Amazing Race

  We needed a good geography study again.  A few years back, we utilized our enjoyment of the tv show The Amazing Race.  We would make a lapbook and do crafts associated with the countries they visited.  It went really well.  We gave it up when during one episode they were in Vietnam and they had the teams sing a Communist propaganda song.  As a daughter of a Vietnam veteran I took extreme offense to such a thing and we boycotted it.  But, it is an effective tool to use for a curriculum base. It's entertaining:  The teams' challenges reflect local customs; It's quick paced: at an episode per week you have to keep moving with it, there's no putting it to the back burner; It's multi-media: you can incorporating, reading, art, music, geography, dvds, etc... all within one subject.  So, The Amazing Race was on again!
  This time around, our schedule is such in the evenings that we don't always have a chance to catch the Race on primetime, so we accessed an older season with our Amazon Prime membership and scheduled an episode per week.  That's enough of a spread to get some good crafts in and keeps the kids temporarily at bay when they are begging to watch the next episode ;)
  Watching on primetime requires a trip to the library each week to gather resources.  This time around, I can browse the episode descriptions and plan out our library gatherings a couple weeks in advance.  Things we check out are things like this...

This is part of our selections for the England/Scotland leg of the race.  For the Viking craft, we created our own Viking brooches too.  We found instructions for them over at : angelicscalliwags.com

We read aloud Paddington by Michael Bond too.  The kids really enjoyed it!  Bubby absconded with it and finished it in short order and the other two listened with rapt attention during each chapter.  We made our own Paddington bear as a craft.

We used a cork for his body, then puff balls, pipe cleaners and puffy paint.  The adorable hats we found at Hobby Lobby.
  We amped it up a little bit for the big kids and I am having them do lapbook parts on World Governments thanks to a Hands of a Child lapbook I had on hand.
   This might become our winter project each year.  Something that is a lot of hands on when its too cold to want to get outside!