Welcome to the first post in my five-part series:
5 Easy Steps to Bring World Culture Into Your Home Permanently
In this series of posts, I will give you five simple action items that will begin a journey of world exploration for your family right from your very own home.
As you go through each step, challenge yourself to carry out each call to action knowing that the end result will be a wonderful gift you are giving your family.
Each step is simple, very attainable, and so much fun!
When you complete all 5 easy steps to bring world culture to your home permanently, you and your family will have gained a much broader view of the world – I promise – with little effort and a whole lot of learning!
I hear so many parents saying, “I wish my kids knew more about the world,” or “If only we had time to travel, my kids could learn about the world.”
Well, here is a simple solution to welcome the world in!
These 5 easy steps to bring world culture to your home permanently are unlike anything your kids will learn in school, guaranteed. Everything is hands-on, engaging, and like I said above, FUN!
There is no better time than now to get started!
STEP 1 – BUY A WORLD MAP!
You have a refrigerator. You have a TV. You have beds, couches, utensils, and tools. These are all necessary items needed to get by, yes, but do these items INSPIRE your family?
Do they make you dream of faraway places?
Do they tell a story of your family or ancestors?
Do they prompt questions you can research or discuss as a family?
Do they showcase adventures?
No? Let’s change all that!
It takes one simple step: GET A WORLD MAP!
GET A WORLD MAP.
GET A WORLD MAP.
GET A WORLD MAP!
Folks, you’re crazy if you haven’t provided your family a world map!
1. Buying a World Map
If you need a simple go-to for ordering a map, here is the one I bought for both of my kids’ rooms. I like it because it is colorful and inviting, not to mention easy to read for kids of all ages.
I ordered a bulletin board frame to mount our maps on. I used a spray adhesive from Michaels to do this. I think it makes the map look a bit more complete and decorative, and having a bulletin board backer enables easier push-pinning, which is important – and FUN.
2. Hanging Your World Map
Hang your world map prominently at a level where all family members can see and touch it. Let all countries be within reach!
Put it in a room where you frequently gather as a family.
The picture above shows our most coveted map. This beautiful relic we inherited from my husband’s grandmother (my kid’s *great* grandmother), Mama June, who passed away at the age of 96.
Every single one of those pins represents places she traveled with her family back in the day before the internet and other modern trip-planning tools.
It is the first thing we see when we walk into our house. It is our inspirational masterpiece!
In addition to our kids’ rooms and our entryway, we also have maps in our kitchen and my office (we are slightly map-obsessed).
And by the way, that is a painting of our dog, Fritz. It might be the only thing in our kitchen we love more than our world map. : )
3. What to Do With Your World Map
Get out those push pins and begin pinning – EVERYTHING!
If you don’t have push pins, then put that index finger to work and locate EVERYTHING!
HERE ARE A FEW FUN WAYS TO GET STARTED:
Starting with one color, pin the places you have traveled to as a family and then spend some time talking about these places, Re-living a few memories as you go.
We like to play a game we call “Trip Trivia” where we ask each other questions about our trips to see who remembers the smallest of details. It is such a fun way to keep family travel memories alive.
Locate all the countries you flew over to reach your destination. It’s easy to lose a sense of how far you’ve traveled when flying in a plane. Compare time you spent in the air to the distance you see on the map.
Locate the capitals of the countries you have been to and the places you visited within each country.
Next, have each family member choose a different color and pin the country they want to travel to or learn about next.
Have them pin their top three choices – this is what we did. It is so fun to see what everyone comes up with. In fact, the Sri Lanka pin above is my “wish list” pin and guess what? We are headed there for Christmas this year! Thank goodness for frequent flier miles!
By creating a wish list like this, it plants a seed of inspiration and maybe one day you will get to change the color of your pin from “Where we want to go next” to that of “Where we have been”.
This game was made with the entire family in mind. From the categories of New 7 Wonders, Famous Structures, Natural Wonders, Inventions, Famous Events and Just for Fun, players take turns locating and pinning countries on the map. For some, this is a challenge and for others, it’s not, but working together as a family, you are sure to finish the game and learn a lot in the meantime!
As for other ideas, the sky is the limit!
For example, if you go out for Indian food, locate India on your map. Better yet, ask someone at the restaurant where they are from within India and then locate that on your map.
Maybe you have friends with a different ethnicity. Locate their family’s origin on your map. This would probably mean the world to them and may prompt you to ask your friends further questions about their culture.
You’re in Starbucks and you notice your coffee is from Ethiopia, Guatemala or Columbia. Go home and have your kids locate these countries on a map!
You hear it’s the Chinese New Year. Locate China on a map! Day of the Dead? Locate Mexico on your map!
There are SO MANY opportunities to learn about our world EVERYWHERE so complete STEP 1 now and BUY YOUR FAMILY A WORLD MAP!
Tell me a story about your world map in the comments box below, and be sure to check out Step 2 – How to Cook One Foreign Recipe Per Month, the next blog post in our five-part series: 5 Easy Steps to Bring World Culture Into Your Home Permanently!
Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive a small affiliate commission. Regardless, we give our promise that we only recommend products or services we would use personally and believe will add values to our readers.
