Here I share what we plan to do on each day of a typical homeschool week. My son is 12 turning 13 this year, but this could be easily adapted to suit children of other ages.
Each week we will focus on one country (like Kenya) or region (like West Africa). This year-long unit study includes geography, people of the world, literature, and the arts.
Book of the Week
There will be a special book chosen for that week to be read from each day (divide the number of chapters or page numbers by five to finish in a week). Many books are available as audiobooks, and some have junior reader editions, so if you have a struggling reader you can use those resources. The books I will be listing are "middle grade" which is fancy for saying the target age is 8-12, and the protagonist is twelve. If it suits you, a longer book could be stretched over two weeks.
If you have younger children, there are many picture books available (probably at your local library!). Do a quick Pinterest search, or use the book Give Your Child the World as a reference.
While you're picking up your focus book, I recommend getting a few nonfiction books about the country (or animals native to that country) for your reading basket. There will be time each week for him to choose books from the library basket to read more about the country.
MONDAY: Mapwork
We begin the week by reading any corresponding pages in The Cities Book. This book has 2-page (and occasionally 4-page) spreads for 86 cities all around the world. It is a rare week that a country we are studying will not have a city featured in this book. If you don't want to buy a book, explore the city on Google Earth.
Next is an atlas page. I'm sure I could have found worksheets to kill the joy out of our year's study, but instead he will be making his own atlas. What do I mean by that? I printed blank maps (mostly from Printable World Map online--they're free). I bought a 1" binder that I filled with sheet protectors. His job is to take the blank map and fill it with important geographic and political details. How do we know what to put there? A quick Google search should answer that question, but our nonfiction library books about the country will likely have a map with major cities, mountains, rivers . . . that sort of thing.
TUESDAY: Reading More
There are two kinds of reading for Tuesday: Worldwide Church and Library Basket.
Worldwide Church
I have been researching articles from our church magazines (Latter-day Saint) that are set in places all over the world. While I have been compiling them into a binder, they are all available online for free. With no ads. Whatever article(s) we have for our country-of-the-week will be assigned reading, then he can move on to the library basket.
I have also been admiring the biographies of famous missionaries (Christian Heroes Then and Now) that I've seen online. I haven't bought any yet, but I've been thinking about it.
Deseret Book has pre-orders (though no publication date) for Standout Saints: Church History Heroes from Around the World. This book features pioneering Latter-day Saints from all over the world. I look forward to seeing the published book so I can see which countries are represented. Judging by the sample pages, it appears to be for youth in the middle grades (8-12ish).
Library Basket
This should be fairly self explanatory. The idea is to select several library books--nonfiction country guides, books about animals, a short biography, maybe even a picture book or two. Due to COVID, I have been running solo library trips, but if not, I could give him a short list of books or topics and let him go find the books. As it is, during reading time he can pick and choose any of these library books to look at or read. He is not required to finish any of them. I will not even require a book report or worksheet. One of my biggest goals this year is to encourage my son to read more books.
WEDNESDAY: Poetry, Art, Music
While I plan to have a poetry snack/tea time each Wednesday afternoon when the school day is done, the other subjects will not each happen each week. We could loop them, but I think which subjects we do will depend on the resources I am able to find for each country.
Poetry
We absolutely love The National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry. Gorgeous photographs of so many animals, and a great range of poetry--from the serious to the silly. This is one book the whole family will enjoy.
After school will be our family poetry time. Read about Poetry Teatime here.
Art
I had originally hoped to find an art appreciation packet for each continent. I imagined myself posting an art print on the chalkboard each week. Unfortunately, most art appreciation resources out there overlook Africa, Latin America, Australia, and much of Asia.
This is taking more effort than I expected, but I am finding resources. Many museums have a strong online presence, allowing you to look through their collection digitally. The library has art books. There are more resources for Western art, but some effort should bring other options to light. Amazon also has art books that focus on different countries or continents. Be careful, as some of these are old text books with black and white images and inflated prices. I have a couple in my cart that I might purchase if I feel the library/online combination is not serving us well.
Music
YouTube has many music videos. When in doubt, preview before sharing with your children. The Piano Guys have been creating a series of music videos filmed at what they have chosen to be the "Seven Wonders" of the World. From the Colosseum to the Great Wall of China, these are beautiful videos that show the world.
If you want to keep your schooling offline, The Thinking Tree as an album of music "inspired by" different parts of the world, called Around the World in 14 Songs.
THURSDAY-Documentary
Whether you are using PrimeVideo, Disney+, or (to a lesser extent) Netflix, there are many documentaries available. If you are not subscribed to any streaming service, I suggest looking for travel vlogs or tourism videos on YouTube. Every self-respecting country promotes themself with a tourism video, and some adventurous individuals have made traveling the world their career.
FRIDAY-Puzzle and Current Events
Puzzle Map
We purchased the GeoToys puzzle maps of the continents. So far we have been using the Africa puzzle, and it has really helped with my recollection of where the various countries are in Africa. For school, I plan to set a stopwatch and graph how my son does each week, as we will spend multiple weeks on each continent, and I think it would be a practical application of graphing as well as encourage him to race against himself.
If those puzzles are cost prohibitive (I won't deny that I hesitated an entire year before I purchased the entire set) there are other options. Print a blank map and see how many blanks can be filled in before peeking. Or buy a laminated map of each continent and let them use dry-erase marker. Find a geography app (if you have a recommendation, please share below) and use it weekly. Have an old-fashioned "Geography Bee" where your children compete to be the first to point at each country you name.
Current Events
A quick search through the World section of a respected newspaper should yield recent news to read and discuss about your area of study. I would like to remind parents that dramatic world events which children enjoy studying through history lessons can become anxious and nightmare-inducing when they are studied as a current event (you don't know how it might turn out and if it might yet affect you or people you know). During the middle grades, I believe it is still prudent for parents to preview and help select the less anxiety-inducing news articles.
EXTRAS
Sometime during the week I might prepare a dish from the country we are studying (Kenyan mashed potatoes as a side dish for dinner, for example).
There are so many good documentaries, but there are also movies either produced by or set in our country of study. Our family already has expectations about Friday's movie night, so I have to offer these movies at another time, such as Sunday evening or as an option for days when schoolwork finishes early.
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