give your child the world

We have been enjoying the resource Give Your Child the World, a wonderful book list (and more) of titles for children, by age, from around the world. This summer, shortly after the book was released, Jamie Martin, the author, launched a read along through her site, Simple Homeschool. We joined the challenge. Now, there is a link up for those who want to share. While we followed the challenge, reading a book from one particular region each week, I am not going to share the list of books we read for the challenge, simply because we didn't give it the depth we could have (and because I just want to share other favorites from each region). The book is full of amazing titles; many we have read, but so many more we have yet to explore. Thank goodness for the library! The book would make an excellent guide to an entire year of literature, cultural, and geographic exploration. (That is a hint for those who homeschool!)

For the link up challenge, a little about us, using the questions Jamie posted.

– Tell us about your family.
We are a family of 4; Mamma, Dada, 11 yr girl, and 8 yr boy. And a chicken. (Yup, just one. She is the last left of our small original flock of 6. She might be joined soon by some chicks and a rabbit, but only time will tell.) Our immediate extended family all live nearby, as well!

– Tell us about where you live and how long you’ve lived there.
We are in Northern California and we've been here forever. I (Mamma) started in the general area, moved elsewhere, and moved back. Everyone else has been here their whole lives.  As for this specific city and home, the kids have known no other!

– What do you think is unique and special about living where you do?
Where we live has incredible diversity. We are blessed with diversity in our population and diversity of people, who come from all around the world, and share a variety of cultural and lifestyle viewpoints. We love this.

– What languages are spoken there? If it’s different from English, can you help us learn a few common phrases?
So many languages are spoken here! English is the primary language, but no one looks twice if you are speaking Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, and variety of Indian dialects. Russian can also be heard here. European languages such as French, Italian, and German are a little less common here.

– What are some traditional foods there?
Diverse cultures, people, languages, and...foods! Where we live is known for excellent food. One can get good food from just about any culture, but this area is known for its amazing local farms, fresh produce, local cheeses, and wine.

– Tell us about the climate where you live.
It's varied here, so the weather should be no different! Because we are along the coast, with coastal mountain ranges, a change of a very short distance can mean the temperature varies. Our seasons are mild (no snow), but are noticeable. They are a little backwards, though, with dry, foggy, cool weather happening in the summer. 

– What does school look like for the majority of kids where you live?
For the majority of kids,  school is public school, 8am-ish to 3pm-ish, Monday through Friday, September through the middle of June. Schools are grades K-5, 6-8, and 9-12.

– What does school look like for your family?
We homeschool, so school looks like us! We are a Waldorf inspired family, but we put our own spin on it with a little Brave Writer, Charlotte Mason, and interest lead learning. We are wholistic learners who are supported by a wonderful charter school. (You can read more about our homeschooling here and here.)

– Are there any special festivals or traditions you’d like to tell us about related to where you live?
There are a number of events that happen in our urban area; there are tech events, Pride parades, coastal native historical celebrations, and more. Our family keeps it simple. I suppose we like events that celebrate with food and nature; harvest, apple, and butterfly festivals!


– If you ever had to move away from where you live, what do you think you’d miss most?
I think it would depend where we move, but things we would miss include family, friends, diversity, good food, ability to grow good food, access to amazing museums of all types, and more.  We (parents) would not miss the traffic, the cost of living, drought, and the inability to have a bigger garden/property.

– Do you have a favorite book that takes place in your region/country?
There are so many good books! We have some favorites for the United States (American Girl series, Laura Ingalls Wilder's series, and A Pioneer Sampler come to mind), for California, both kids love G is for Golden, and for the area of California we are in, both our kids really enjoyed Adopted by Indians, by Thomas Jefferson Mayfield.

We have really enjoying exploring the world through books this summer, we love to travel vicariously through family, who share their tales of travel and work in every continent, we look forward to diving deeper into other cultures in the coming months and years, and we really enjoyed sharing a little about ourselves!