Using Try the World’s Gourmet Food Box as your World Geography Curriculum

Remember in my previous posts I kept raving about Try the World? Here’s a reminder:

Backstory: We were so BLESSED to receive a one-year gourmet food subscription from Try the World as a gift from the boys’ uncle (he gives the most thoughtful gifts!). Every two months we get a new box with food from a specific country and an enclosed culture guide with recipes. I use this to create my own Unit Study approach to learning Geography. I really want my kids to experience the world but since we don’t have an international travel budget, then this food box helps us do just that!

We’ve gotten a few boxes since. For the holidays we received a bonus holiday box with treats from 8 countries! Yes, 8! To help us get back into the groove of school, we decided to kickstart our Spring semester with a Unit Study on all the countries in the box and of course when we were done we ate ALL the food!! Here’s our Try the World Holiday Box Unit Study.

 

What is a Unit Study?

I’m so glad you asked :). A Unit Study is an in-depth study of one topic integrating multiple subject areas. The in-depth part is truly up to you, the teacher. We typically spend a week on a Unit Study and have gone as in-depth as 3 weeks. This “holiday box” study we did in a day because that was our only focus for this entire school day. If you’re creative enough, you could spend a whole year on a Unit of Study! What I love most my boys learning in this way is that they understand and retain more because it’s multi-disciplinary and multi-sensory.

You can use anything to create your own Unit Study  and it can be as basic or detailed as you desire. The sky’s the limit. The more time spent and the variety of multi-sensory activities included, the more the kids learn and retain. Honestly, I could do Unit Studies all day long. I love ’em and they give me the creative freedom that I crave!

The Basic Tools We Used

• Operation World
• Smart Globe
• Google/YouTube
• Books
• World Map
• Printer
• Binder/Notebook for Scrapbooking

 

Here’s How We Did It

• Pray for the needs of each country
• Talk about and gather information
• Record information in scrapbook
• Eat the food (yum)
• Extend the learning

For each Try the World Unit Study we try to get some facts and information on each country using the enclosed culture guide, books, our Smart Globe talking globe and the internet.

The Food Line-up: Each box typically contains a selection of teas, a sweet treat or two, an oil, a sauce, a spice or seasoning. Everything in this box was really good!

The sky’s the limit with Unit Studies although we completed this box in a day (we were eager to try all the treats!) – with 8 countries to study it could have easily been an 8 week study!  We keep all our findings in a scrapbook so we can always revisit each country and add more information. We decided to keep it simple for this one. For each country we gathered the following information.

• National anthem
• Flag/meaning of flag colors
• Leader
• Language spoken
• Currency used
• National dish
• Religions practiced
• Capital
• Population
• Location (Continent and nearby countries)
• National bird
• Fun facts (famous people, notable places)

The Smart Globe was very helpful for most of the above information, especially listening to the National Anthem. We used books and Google for the rest. We covered Bible, geography, music (listened, sang, danced to the National Anthems), history, math, language arts (spelling & reading), social studies.

Extend the Learning

We didn’t do any of these things for this holiday box, but, you could:

• Visit the international aisle of your local supermarket or go to an international food store to look for more goodies.
• Visit the country’s embassy, a museum or cultural institute in your area
• Look online for more recipes from each country and make them with the kiddos
• Book some tickets and travel to the country!

Where to Buy

• Have your own amazing adventure, go ahead…Try The World (SUBSCRIBE AND GET A FREE BOX!)

We ALWAYS have a great time with all our Try the World boxes. It has really changed the way we study Geography, its even added to my kids food repertoire – my little one loved the buckwheat/Soba noodles we received in our Japan box so much that they are now a staple on our grocery list.

Want More Unit Studies?

I first got introduced to Unit Studies when the boys were much younger using this site (by Amanda Bennett). It’s still one of my favorites, with everything ready for you to download and go learn!

Stay tuned, I’ll be sharing more of our Try The World adventures….Japan, Argentina and Spain are coming!

How would you use a Try the World food subscription box?

Disclaimer: I am not being compensated by any entity mentioned in this blog post. This is simply my way of sharing a little of our home with you. 🙂 Now, go Try the World!

Wendy, xoxo