Geography revision

I have decided to throw out the old plan for studying world geography and just go with whatever country Top Secret Adventures and Little Passports has sent us. We can build around the info we receive from them and also incorporate our Expedition Earth. We have not received out first Little Passports shipment (it should be arriving soon) so I can't say too much about it but we love Top Secret Adventures by Highlights. Mystery and adventure really appeal to Babalu and Rookie so it is a good fit.

We have several TSA packets waiting for us on the shelf. They are Australia, Mexico, Greece, and South Africa (we also have Japan which we have already done). One is also on the way. I gather from LP's Facebook page that Brazil will be arriving soon so we are set for the next few weeks.

Social Science planning

When possible I like studying world history and world geography together. When we study the Celts I want us to study Scotland (so excited for that week!), as an example. That isn't always possible because sometimes 2 or more topics take place in the same place and, aside from England, I don't want to study the same place twice because I want to introduce as many places as I can. I also managed to mostly arrange the geography topics by continent, just by luck. We will be reading books on each country and putting together lap books. Many of our geography materials are coming from a program called Expedition Earth and also from Continent Boxes. Some of the countries we plan to study are not included in the Expedition Earth so I have to search the internet to find materials. Hopefully it won't be a problem. As I've mentioned before our history comes from here.  
This is the list of what we are doing when-


     HISTORY                                                             GEOGRAPHY

1. Overview of the Medieval World                     Over View of World Geography
2. The Byzantine Empire                                      Turkey
3. Charlemagne                                                    Belgium
4. Monks of the Christian Church                         Italy/Vatican City
5. Islam/Arabs                                                     Iran
6. The Vikings                                                     Sweden/Norway
7. The Danes/Holy Roman Empire                       Denmark
8. The Normans                                                  France
9. 100 Years War and the Black Death               England
10. The Feudal System                                         Germany
11. Knights                                                           Wales
12. Castles                                                            Ireland
13. Medieval Villages and Towns                          The Netherlands
14. Christian Church/Medieval Architecture           Spain
15. Pilgrimages and the Crusades                          Israel 
16. Richard the Lionhearted and Robin Hood        England
17. The Celts                                                        Scotland
18. Burundians/Habsburgs/War of the Roses        Austria
19. The Mongols                                                  Mongolia
20. The Russians                                                  Russia
21. Africa                                                            Africa  *Africa is listed as it's own topic in history so I thought we would take 2 extra days during the week and study the entire continent at once. We will make time later to study each place on it's own.
22. India/South East Asia                                    India
23. China                                                           China
24. Japan                                                           Japan
25. Explorers                                                     Australia
26. Pacific Ocean Islands                                   New Zealand
27. Native Americans -North                             Canada
28. Native Americans- North                             Mexico
29. Central/South America                                 Brazil
30. Central/South America                                 Argentina 
31. The Turks/Ottomans                                    Peru
32. The Renaissance                                          Panama
33. More World Expansion                               Venezuela
34. The Mughals/Reformation/Counter-Reformation  South Korea
35. Elizabeth I/William Shakespeare                    Thailand
36. Middle Ages Keepsake Books                    Arctic/Antarctica 

Over our Winter Break I am planning a unit on celebrations around the world. We are mostly of German, English and Scottish extraction so I am planning to incorporate more of those countries traditions into our family celebrations (we have been celebrating St Nicholas Day for years and the boys always looks forward to having St Nicholas put candy and a toy in their shoes).