Continent Box Videos! Yes-I have them all completed now

OK-for those of you who enjoy seeing the items-head to my YouTube channel to watch them all!  I hope to also get a video done in the near future showing the Montessori Sorting box I have a whole long (actually a few) posts on.  You can read about that project here.

Visit my YT channel and be sure to subscribe, as this is where I will be updating and posting reviews, chatting about homeschooling, planning (planners), crafting and so forth.

My YT playlist for the Continent Boxes

Continent Box: North America

Here is my final box to showcase.  I am still working on building this one up, but I do have a good start.  I have decided to create a separate box just for the United States to help keep this one less cluttered and more about the other countries.  I do have a few state related items in here tho (for now) because they represent Native American tribes or unique (harder to visit) places such as Hawaii.

Contents for the North American Box:

*Coins and stamps from Ebay

*Postcards: various sources, some from post card exchange

*Mexican Items:  gifts from my oldest daughter to several of us-

including the bracelet, ball/cup toy, woven mat, coin purse (woven square thing), gecko key chain, lovely vase from Oaxaca Mexico (she also gave her sister a little cat statue made from the same material, but I didn't show that)

*Canadian Items:  gifts from my (second) daughter's friend who lives in Canada-  including the 10 cent paper money, the "Loonie" dollar coin, and the candy boxes

*Honduran Coffee bag:  gift from my husband's client (they own that coffee plantation)

*Wooden turtle box from Aruba:  Goodwill find

*State Items: 

Kukui nut bracelet and little Hawaiian token man (from our trip there),

the Alaskan pin (part of a giveaway I won a few years ago from Cosmopolitan Cornbread -check out   her channel on YT!  She's fun to watch), the two woven baskets (gift from a client of my         husband, just cannot recall which Native American tribe it is from) and the Hopi pin from AZ (purchased during a visit).

*Safari Toob animals/buildings/places:  North American Wildlife, River, Exotic Birds and a few from the Around the World and Landmark sets 

I will be adding more as I find items, hopefully some fun ones from Central Am. If I do-I will be sure to add another pic and description for you.  Be sure to check your local thrift shops, Goodwill and Salvation Army for some trinkets as well as Ebay.  HTH

Continent Boxes: Europe

Like all the other boxes, we add in what we have about the home. Europe is a pretty easy one to build up because more people visit those countries.  I look at the local Salvation Army and Goodwill stores for little knickknacks to add into my boxes (simply because those tend to be the things people get rid of first)....

I also didn't include hats or shirts we picked up when we went to Portugal/Netherlands.

I didn't purchase the Montessori cards like I have for other boxes.  My son is too old-but I definitely recommend them to others who have younger kids.  You can find them here.

*Postcards-thru postcard exchange, received from relatives and purchased

*Coins-Ebay and from visiting there

*Stamps-Ebay, from my own collection from over the years

*Landmarks cards-from set found at Target dollar section

*Ads and brochures-from visiting and relatives who had visited (Germany, France, Portugal, Netherlands)

*Poster Tube from El camino de Santiago trail (a friend gave us this to transport our Roman poster-but he had traveled part of the trail, which does run thru Portugal). This hangs on our classroom wall.

*Chocolate bar wrapper (very good chocolate I might add)-from our Portugal visit

*Tea towel, Rooster, book mark and magnets-from our visit to Portugal

*Roman Mosaic Poster-from visit to a Roman village in Portugal (very awesome place to tour)

*Rosary and charm-Fatima, Portugal visit

*Doll-from grandparents when they visited Germany and Switzerland

*Templar Knight figurine-from last church/castle built in Portugal

*Stein-from husband's parents when they visited Germany

*Dutch porcelain shoes-we bought in Amsterdam

*Horses and Pig-Schleich's collection

*Different buildings and landmarks-Around the World Safari Toob and World Landmarks Safari Toob

Goodies from Greece

Our oldest daughter went on a trip to Italy and Greece.  When in Greece she purchased the lovely smelling soap for her sister, the medallion for our son and the beautiful little vase for us. Apparently, they use an exact picture from an original vase from thousands of years ago to then reproduce on the little ones.  So this is a pic of something you'd of found from way back when.  It is beautiful. These will not go in the box, we have them out to admire.  :)




*Links are to the manufactures' websites, these are not affiliation links.

Continent Boxes: South America

Here we are, having moved across the ocean to study S. America.  But wait-you may be wondering what happened to Europe? Well, here's the thing.  We will be studying the Medieval/Renaissance time period for history next year (2016-17)-so I decided to waylay the European study until then.  So we jumped across the great Atlantic to land on the S. A. shoreline.

I didn't have a lot of time to gather more goodies since I was not going to cover this until next year-but that is how things go.  So a better planned continent box stuffer would probably have a few more trinkets and things to look at.  This is what we have (so far) as I will continue to find things to pop into it (for perhaps future grandchildren).

Contents for the South American Box:

*Easter Island Statues:  From the Safari Toob World Landmarks 

*Easter Island Monument Dig kit:  This is actually a part of his archaeology unit but once done he can toss this into the box too (Amazon)

*[Venezuela] Wooden Chocolate Box:  gift from a friend (yes, we have some awesome friends who understand our need for chocolate)

*[Brazil] Trinket Box:  gift from sister-in-law who is from Brazil.

*Animal Cards:  from the animals card set from Target

*S.A. landmark cards:  Landmarks cards set from Target

*Postcards:  from my sister-in-law

*Stamps:  mostly from eBay

*Coins:  from eBay

*We also have access to a gorgeous travel bag my sister-in-law gave our oldest daughter (for graduation) that was hand-made in Puru (out of llama or alpaca wool-just cannot recall which)

*Bat:  there are many bats to be found in S.A.  so I thought I would throw this dude in (probably from the dollar store)

*Birds:  from Safari Toob Exotic Birds set

New goodies:

 *Chullo Hat from Peru  (made from Alpaca wool): purchased from Ebay

*Handmade purse from Brazil:  gift from my daughter (she recently traveled there for work)

**The turtle box was not suppose to be pictured in the SA box-apparently Aruba is a part of NA even tho it sits right off the coast of Venezuela.  

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I could purchase the Rainforest Safari Toob too.  I still may do that.  Just haven't had the time to really add more to this.  Plus, I plan on hitting the Goodwill and Salvation Army to look for souvenirs from here as well. That's all we have in our box for now-hope it helps you out for ideas. 

Field Trip Idea:

We are going to go to dinner at our local Rainforest Cafe.  Just to enjoy the (albeit fake and noisy) ambiance of the S.A. landscape-well and the food and the mist that drizzles here and there near the displays. LOL

Continent Box: Africa

Our African Continent box is a bit lighter than the others.  I decided to not purchase/print any more of the food cards (for Africa, Europe and S.A/N.A) I was purchasing from the Montessori Shop.  I will do that once I have younger kids to teach. My son's age makes it so he doesn't really look them over, and although they are about $3 to download, there is also the ink/print fee and the laminating cost to consider-so it adds up.  For now I will just bank that into my memory "must dos" until I have more littles who will be much more enamored with said cards. Anyway-here is what we have in ours:

Contents for the African Box

*Animals from Scheich (found at various local stores).  

*3 Pyramid figure from the Around the World Safari Toob

*Sphinx from the World Landmarks Safari Toob

*Egyptian Sarcophagus Dig kit from the Dollar Tree  (you have to just keep your eye open for these little chip away the plaster kits-finding them is very random, they are not always available)

*Elephant and Lion pins found locally at garage sale

*African wood box via Ebay

*Coins via Ebay

*Stamps via Ebay and various collections

*African Animals cards: Target (dollar section) Flash Cards Animals of the World by Bendon

*Landmark cards:  Target (dollar section) flash cards by Creative Edge

*Postcards-given to us by friends

**I still need to build this box up-I want to add the African Village Safari Toob, and more trinkets from the various countries.  This is a work in progress.  I will def. add any updates once I have them.

We also have a nice place mat set and a gorgeous, hand-woven art piece (made by some local tribal women) my father-in-law brought back from S. Africa (just months before he passed away, so it is very treasured here) in 1998.  We spent a bit more money to have it framed in lovely African wood as well.  I will have those out on display for him to enjoy during our study.

Continent Boxes: Asia

Asia is quite a big continent to cover.  Many countries are represented, so you could conceivably have a huge variety of goodies for your box.  I looked on Ebay and various other sites that sell more oriental type trinkets and such.  I could have bought a lot more but needed to watch the budget. Also, with his age and no other munchkins following his footsteps, it made little sense to go on a spending spree for items. My sister/brother-in-law spent ten + years in China so we have some nice items from there.  I don't have many post cards right now-which is fine. I could also add many more animals and would if I had younger kids. Because our lives have been upside down for several months, this is not high on my priority list.  

Contents for the Asia Box:

*These items were gifted to us by my hubby's sister:

*Stone, hand-carved stamp with the characters for my husband's name (with ink but I did NOT put that in there b/cuz that stuff is so stainy and messy!)  I took it's picture individually so you could see the detail. 

*Delicate bowl (probably for rice)

*Soapstone Elephant 

*Tigers (by Schleich.  Can be found in most stores where toys are sold.)

*Orangutan (no idea where or how this toy came about around here but we have it so I added it to the box)

*Russian Stacking Matryoshka dolls (Ebay)

*Chopsticks (local restaurant)

*Coin purse from Vietnam (gift)

*Japanese Samurai Doll (I think it was originally a necklace-where it came from?? No clue)

*Taj Mahal, Great Wall of China and the Buddha of Lantau (from the Safari Toob Around the World and World Landmarks sets)

*Asia Traditional Foods cards (Montessori Print Shop)

*Asia Animals and Landmarks cards (Target dollar section. I suggest looking during back to school time for these, or check Amazon/Ebay). The Montessori print shop also has cards for landmarks, musical instruments, animals, and more to purchase. There is a whole Asia set you can buy to make your life easier.

*Postcards -still need to add to this section 

*Stamps-for sorting in Montessori box (Ebay)

*Coins (some from Ebay, China coins/paper money were gifts)

Additional Items:

I have many books from the varying countries in our library book bin next to the Geography center.  I also put our Klutz Chinese Jump Rope book/rope (I see it as being available on Amazon thru some sellers, but there are nice rope substitutes for sale as well) into the basket on top of the center. Not sure if it is truly a 'Chinese' jump rope but hey-it's fun to do so I have it there. 

I included the Treasure Chests: Ancient China by Running Press we have too. This is a part of the older version of the Sonlight 5 history program.  I see a few are available on Amazon, you'll just have to do some searching to find one.  This has a fan, coins, ink and activities for the child to do. [images from Amazon.com]

We are putting flags onto our notebooking pages that we are doing for our Mapping the World by Heart program, so I do not have individual flags for the box. And because we really like Asian food-we have been frequenting our local Thai and Chinese restaurants.  I would love to find a Russian one but that may require quite a long drive.  My oldest daughter has friends from Pakistan and so we have had that type of food too (delish), so actually we are quite familiar with most of those foods.  

     

Continent Box: Antarctica

At first, some may think that there are not enough things available to create an Antarctica box. Don't let the seemingly sparse items deter you.  Actually there are some unique and fun goodies you could add to your box.

Now granted there are no countries there, but many have staked claims to parts of it. That opens up a great opportunity to learn about those research posts. Maybe having printed cards with pictures of various sites can be added.  Also, you can find a lot about those brave explorers who went there. Maybe you could find stamps with pics of them, or put a small flip book/lapbook in the box highlighting them.

The wildlife is mostly centered around the oceanic critters, but it is also where many of the world's penguin species are found.  Think of all those movies [March of the Penguins comes to mind] that could accompany this study!  So one can add pictures and miniature toy animals to the box. I looked through my Safari Toobs and see there are a few seals and sea lions and even a walrus.  Sadly, not one of those species are found in Antarctica, and I do not want to buy the penguin one (which has a lot of them found there), so I won't have as many critters as I would like. That said, I do want to mention that I have noticed a few folks who have innocently placed polar bears in the Antarctica box. But please do not put them in as they are not found there.  They live in the arctic polar regions of the north and should go in the N. America box, and yes-even in the Europe and Asia ones.  I have seen way too many people add animals when they do not belong there.  OK. There, I feel better.

Contents for the Antarctica Box

*Stamps (Ebay) -I looked for countries that have or have had stations there.  

*Postcards (Ebay) 

*Fire/Rescue patch (Ebay) -I let my son pick which one he wanted.  

*Animal Cards (Target dollar bin area) -see the Australia post for a pic of the card box. I also just laminated a picture from an encyclopedia on the animals found there.

*Antarctica Territories Cards (made myself using Word images and Wikipedia then laminated them and put each area on color coordinating paper to match the control card).

*Landmark cards-just found a couple different ones online, printed and laminated them.

*Animals (Safari Toobs:  Baby Sea Life and Oceans. Purchased at JoAnns using 40-50% off coupons)

*Large Killer Whale-that is an old tub toy we had still.  He has been sitting by the Ocean Box we are working on for his science.  He doesn't go in the box, he just wanted to be included-LOL.

*Antarctica Game (free download from Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop)  This is too big for the box so it goes in the basket on the top shelf.

**I don't have the Antarctica map printed/laminated yet.  That is for his reference for various mapping activities and such. That will go into the basket on the top shelf.

Additional Ideas for your box:

I have done a lot of Pinteresting and have seen many a posts on continent boxes.  I see some ladies have mentioned a few of the following sites listed below.  I  really don't need these but many of you may.  Keep your eyes open for other neat add ins.  I would love to find a mini-replica of Shackleton's ship or even a model of a scientific center [you know that doesn't cost a fortune and actually exists] to add to our box. Anyway, check out these resources too.

Who's Eating Who? book download (free)  There is also a bunch of other activities/info on that site (which we will visit a lot during our study) **Just keep in mind the cost of either printing this at home or thru an office supply place. It is very colorful!

Montessori Print Shop-Antarctica materials

Antarctica Transportation download

You can purchase Antarctica bank notes (Ebay) too-I believe it is issued by different countries


And there you have our Antarctica box.

Continent Box: Australia

I was so excited to stumble across the Continent Box idea a whilst back.  Sadly, I didn't think of them. Nor had I heard of it prior to just this past year-so my older kids totally missed out.  But alas-I have one student who can benefit from it.

I will be doing a whole geography series (of posts) as we move through the various continents, but for now-here is what we have in our box.  For more (and awesome) ideas, just search Pinterest for Continent Boxes and Geography Boxes.  A ton of pins will pop up.




Our boxes go on our Geography shelf.  The current continent (box) to be studied sits right next to the Montessori sorting box on the second shelf. Extra things go in the basket on the top (in this case, the boomerang) that do not fit inside the Ikea box.

Contents for Australia/Oceania Box:

*Boomerang (purchased on Ebay)

*Australia and New Zealand coins (Ebay)

*Australian postcard (received via postcard exchange)

*New Zealand Kiwi keepsake (Ebay)

*Safari Toob: The Land Down Under (JoAnns-used 50% off coupon)

*Little koala bear (I believe that was from a McDonald's      Happy Meal promo from way back when. I just bought that toy not the meal)

*Pez Tasmanian Devil (grocery store)

*Map (Homeschooling in the Woods Olde World Style Maps and I also have the Bright Ideas Press WonderMaps I can use when need be)

*General Info on Australia/landmarks of Australia [free] (Montessori Print Shop)

*Australian Food (purchased from Montessori Print Shop)

*IKEA box (Kassett 2 pk 6.25 X 10)

*Australian/Papua New Guinea and New Zealand Stamps (Ebay)

*Australian animal and Landmark cards (Target: dollar bin area. Pictures of them to the right.  Look during the back to school time or hopefully, you can find these or something similar)

We also checked out a ton of books from the library on Australia, New Zealand, Fuji, Tasmania, the Aboriginal peoples and the Maori peoples.  I also grabbed some arts and crafts books so that we can do some activities that relate to the area.  

If I had more kids coming up behind him, I would have purchased more stamps to sort but what I have is sufficient for him. I probably would have bought the Montessori musical instruments, people and animals cards as well, but since my student is now 13-it just wasn't necessary. I only used/laminated the cards that have all the info (not the 2 part matching ones) on it. 

I do not have any flags in the box because the Homeschooling in the Woods map set has notebook sheets [to fill in various nuggets of info for the region/countries] with an area for a flag. The only thing I won't print are the flags, in order to save on ink since it can be spency. I am purchasing some stickers that he can place there instead. These notebook pages will go into a Countries of  the World binder we will build over time.

BTW:  I could have labeled this the Oceania box but since our kids were taught that Australia is one of the 7 continents, not Oceania, I didn't want to change it. Obviously, you can label it as such. I really don't like how they keep changing things, like the Antarctica Ocean to the Southern Ocean and Pluto being nixed as a planet. I mean leave it alone already.  Sheesh.  LOL.