Summer is upon us.

Did you just cringe when I said that, or shout for joy?

I tend to sit on the fence with this reality.  I am one of those mothers that neither loathes summer time when the kids are home all day, or absolutely loves it.  It has it’s perks and it’s challenges.

One thing I do enjoy about having my school kids home with me, is the chance to be a bit more pro-active in their learning.  They LOVE LOVE LOVE when I take off my “clean-your-room” hat and put on my teaching hat.

So, in the spirit of winning “Summer-Mom of the year award”, I’ve made some big plans.  I’m here to share them with you so we can all be awesome this summer.  This post will include ideas to cover 3 months (or 12 weeks) of activities and lessons you can do with your kids at home, to teach them of the world around them and share a love of global learning.

Consider it a summer of world travel – without ever leaving the comforts of your own home.

If you know my blog at all, you know my kids and I are obsessed with subscription boxes for kids.  I’ve written a whole bunch of reviews of our favorite ones, HERE.  This summer, we plan to make good use out of our Little Passports subscription box, which takes your kids on a global adventure full of fun and learning.  (Read my full review on Little Passports, HERE).

We are using our Little Passports as a guide and starter for our Mommy & Me Summer School, but you can just as easily implement the ideas I’m about to share with you without the subscription.  If you do decide to purchase Little Passports (for just $11.95 a month + 15% off), I will share how you can tie the products they send into your summer school.

As for a heads up, if you purchase Little Passports just for the summer months (or your first 3 months) you will get the suitcase, passport, map, and other introductory activities the first month.  The second month they “send” your child to Brazil, and the third month your child receives a package from Japan.  My daughter and I have been so grateful to Little Passports for sending us all 3 of these packages for the purpose of this review.

Once we received them, I sat down with my 8 year old daughter to brainstorm a tentative schedule for our mommy and me summer school – all 12 weeks of it.  Feel free to copy our ideas (in fact – please do!), or change and adapt the schedule to fit your home life.  Either way, this will be a summer no one will forget!

Month 1:  Introduction to the World

This month, open your child’s eyes to the great big world around them, and get them excited to discover new things on the globe.

Week 1 

• Set-up a spot in your home suited for your summer school.  Display a map and any other world materials you might have available to you.

• Fill out the passport and other pamphlets included in Little Passports, or make your own creative passport.
• Little Passports includes a boarding pass to several online activities, which you can enjoy this week (and forever).  Or you can simply get online and research facts about the world near and far.
• Visit a library and check out any books related to global learning.

Our whole family loves this World Atlas book, (amazon affiliate link) and ended up buying it so we can reference it whenever we want.

Week 2

• Choose 1, 2, or 3 countries around the world and complete a brief research online, or in books, or in a library.
• Gather a list of fun facts about the places you have discovered.
• Have your child give an oral report to family or friends on what they learned about each country.

Week 3

• Select an adult family member or friend who has been to another country.
• Have your child come up with a list of questions to ask them about the place they have been.
• Set up a time to interview that person and ask them to show your child any souvenirs or treasures they brought back from their visit.

Week 4

• Plan a dream vacation with your child.
• Select a place around the world you would like to visit some day, and explore online the things you can do when being a tourist for another country.  Explore cost, transportation, foods to eat, museums available and other tourist attractions.
• Have your child create a simple book or journal with the things they hope to do while there.

Doesn’t all that sound so fun!  I almost can’t wait to get started!  The dream vacation was all my daughters idea 😉

Now onto the second month.

Month 2:  Brazil 

(Or choose any country of choice which they want to explore in great depth).

Week 1

• Explore all the activities provided in Little Passports that month about Brazil.

• Add the location to their passports book, with a possible drawing of the postal stamp.
• Locate the country on the map and talk about distance from home and surrounding areas.

• Draw/Create their own flag to represent that country.

Week 2

• Complete the online activities provided in the Little Passports boarding pass for Brazil, or do your own research online and in libraries about that specific country.
• Have your child write a list of all the fun facts they learned while exploring this country.
• Discover what life is like for children in that country.
• Have your child share their new found knowledge in the form of a report, poster, book or any other creative choice.  (I plan to have her write a creative story of the life of a child in Brazil).

Week 3

• Discover art and forms of art in this country.
• Get crafty and create arts and crafts that are common in this country.  Kids love to create!
• Display their creations around the home.

Week 4

• Research what celebrations/festivities/holidays that are common in Brazil/their country of choice.
• Plan a celebration!  Incorporate traditions and other things to be expected at the celebration of choice.
• Plan what kinds of foods, decorations, events, and clothing is to be expected at their celebration.
• Make the celebration come to life in your own home.  Keep it simple on a family level, or send out invites to friends and neighbors to join in your unique party.

Month 3:  Japan

(Or any country of choice your child wants to explore in depth).

You can easily copy the same schedule I wrote for month 2, and for any subsequent months you receive Little Passports.  You may want to adapt it to spend more time on the activities they enjoyed the most, or switch up activities they didn’t particularly enjoy – if any.

Here is a quick recap of each weeks focus, to do the last month of summer vacation.

Week 1 –  Activities from kit or country exploration.

Week 2 – Country specific research.

Week 3 – Art and Crafts

Week 4 – Celebrations

The Little Passports Japan booklet provides some great information and ideas on celebrations and crafts.

Did you know Japan has a day to celebrate children?  How cool is that.  My kids are going to love our mock Children’s Day celebration!

I hope I have provided you with some useful ideas to enjoy some quality learning time with your child this summer.  My kids are so excited for their world adventure.  I would love to hear any summer plans you have with your kids to keep them entertained and learning at the same time.  We all know how challenging that can be sometimes!

If I have managed to convince you that you need Little Passports for your kids this summer (yay), you’ll want to know about this promotion they have available for only 2 days.  Use the promo code “READY15” to save 15% off all subscription purchases.  But you have only from May 19th-May 20th – so head right over to their shop HERE, and pick a 3, 6, or 12 month subscription.

Fine print: **Offer valid on new subscriptions only and cannot be combined with any other offers and/or applied retroactively to previously placed orders. 15% discount is applied to the first month only on Monthly Plan subscriptions. Offer excludes shipping and taxes. Offer valid from May 19th, 2015 at 8:00AM EST to May 20th, 2015 at 11:59PM EST.

*If you are interested in other subscription box choices, be sure to head to THIS post where I have reviewed several more, which I am sure your kids will like as well.  Most of them give some great discounts come summer time.  And most of them are time sensitive – so hurry over HERE and see which one is best for your child this summer!

**All links provided in this post for Little Passports are affiliate links.  This means, if you click on my link I will get a small percentage of sales at no extra cost to you.  It is very much appreciated!  P.S.  Even if you were my best friend, I would still recommend Little Passports any day!

***Linking up to these parties, HERE.