Review: Brookdale House

10/19/2015

Over the past few weeks my son and I have been working with Brookdale House, reviewing a geography curriculum called "Drawing Around the World: Europe". This curriculum uses mapping to teach where countries are located. We've had some fun.

Brookdale House is a company that publishes educational materials to help the home-educated student, as well as public and private schools. It was started by a homeschool mom, who searched for the materials she wanted but was unable to find, and thus a new company was formed.

The Outline of Drawing Around Europe

As laid out this is meant to be a four day curriculum.
Day one: Trace the outline of the country and draw it, find some pertinent information out about it. Find the country on the map.
Day two-three: Locate and label each new country onto the dashed, black and white
map.
Day Four: List, from memory, the countries studied thus far.
Using the blank textbox, draw, also from memory, all of the countries
you have learned.

If you want to help children retain their information you can do timed drills as well.This can add a fun element for the children as well.

How we Used it.
My son rebelled.   That's all I can say. When it came to HOW we were supposed to use Drawing around the World: Europe my son simply rebelled. "I DID THAT YESTERDAY!!" was his comment of dismay.

So I did what home educating parents do. You stop and re-examine things. What exactly do you want your child to learn? I wanted my son to know the countries of Europe and engage his creativity at the same time. I had thought the drawing would be enough, but alas...he wanted, no indeed, he craved something more.

Ergo.. let's draw the country but add things to the mix.   We added music, videos, and food. We added, can you find the country on our globe?   Oh you can??? What if I toss it over to giving it a spin, can you still find it??   (We have a balloon type globe).   OH MY.. can I say how much my picky "I don't want to eat that food" boy has changed. HE LOVES the food. :) He thinks it's so much fun to gather folks in and together we cook a meal. Sometimes he's the recipe reader and other times he had his fingers in the mixing bowl himself.

And VOILA!   We have a curriculum that we have enjoyed and used. :)    It's a great way to learn about mapping Europe.    We will continue to use it as well. :)

An example of the country touring we did:

And the music: Don't you think learning the music of a country just adds to your knowledge of it? Just so you know another in the series is for the USA. Wouldn't it be fun to discover music from all over the United States?

And the FOOD... oh my. :) We invited friends and family to enjoy this time with us. We sampled breads, pancakes, fish, apple pie, wraps and so much more. :)

All told, Drawing Around the World: Europe made an excellent base of study for us, to the point when my son is asked to draw a given country I don't get complaints, but rather "Mom, what are we going to do this week? Can we make something interesting? What is the music like of that country mom?" Isn't it good to have questions asked? Isn't it great to have something that is SO easy to use as a springboard to going deeper? I think so. :) Good job Brookdale House.

Product Details:
Received: Downloadable PDF.
Title: Drawing Around the World: Europe
Vendor: Brookdale House
Price:$22.95–$25.95 depending on format
Series: Geography Drawing
Grade Range: Grade four and up

Click below to read the reviews of this product and more from the vendor:
Drawing Around the World: Europe
Drawing Around the World: USA
The Fun Spanish
The Grammar Workbook Set
and the Writing through History Series.