Xapa to the World

Tag: Italy

  • FIAR Vol. 1 – Papa Piccolo

    FIAR Vol. 1 – Papa Piccolo

    I really thought my daughter would be captivated by this book – she LOVES cats and longs to have one badly! Alas, I am allergic, but it’s a good exercise in patience, of which she is sorely in need. She is already planning out how many and what color, etc, she will have when she grows up.

    No, it was my son who was most interested in this story. I will say, the book itself is hard to find. I love it and I hope that FIAR can find a way to keep it in the curriculum, but sometimes they revise the volumes based on availability. This one, then, may be relegated to the older editions. That said, you can find it being read aloud on YouTube and I believe it is available in digital form. I personally love holding the books and we were able to find a reasonably-priced copy to have in our records. Honestly, we have the hard-copy of just about all of these books as they were just so sweet and bring back memories, even after a few years.

    Social Studies

    When you can’t get to Venice in person, the next best thing is to travel with a book! The pictures and iconic sites encouraged us to chase lots of rabbits in learning more about Italy and this beautiful city as a whole. The Disney movie, Luca, was also fun to watch along with this study. If the kids were older, I would consider watching The Italian Job as there’s an excellent chase scene through Venice. This is also an excellent time to play the tag game “Marco Polo” where the seeker is blindfolded and calls out “Marco” while the others respond with “Polo!”

    Art

    This book has come up a lot in this series of posts – it’s just so good! When studying Papa Piccolo, we discussed complementary colors and also how you can use color to depict changes in light in artwork.

    Science

    Our bodies are so interesting and the best thing is, especially with our senses, we can test and learn very easily. So, this week, we learned about peripheral vision and practiced seeing things in our periphery. I wasn’t sure how it would work for my son, as he has no (or very minimal) depth perception, but the two types of vision are not necessarily related.

    This little pocket book of cats was so much fun to see all the different types of cats found out there!

    Other books

    Cats are a source of endless amusement – just look at the popularity of Cat Videos online. So, it’s no surprise there are plenty of picture books about cats and their antics. Here are just a few that we found and read along with our main book.

    I also found this poem about how cats sleep. I’m more of a dog person myself, and I think dogs run a close second on being able to sleep anywhere and with anything going on around them.

    Poem: Cats by Eleanor Farjeon

    Cats sleep
    Anywhere,
    Any table,
    Any chair,
    Top of piano,
    Window ledge,
    In the middle,
    On the edge,
    Open drawer,
    Empty shoe,
    Anybody’s
    Lap will do,
    Fitted in a
    Cardboard box,
    In the cupboard
    With your frocks –
    Anywhere!
    They don’t care!
    Cats sleep
    Anywhere.

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    Complete Booklist:

    Find the full list on or .

  • FIAR Vol. 1 – The Clown of God

    FIAR Vol. 1 – The Clown of God

    Part of my family has strong Italian heritage and I’m always happy to find ways to connect the kids back to that part of my ancestry. While we are not Catholic, this was a sweet book about an orphan in Italy, gifted a skill with the question of will he remember the one who gifted that skill to him or spend it all for his own glory?

    Tomie is a favorite storyteller and illustrator for us, especially his Italian-themed books like Strega Nona. We have read several of his other books too, depicting predominantly Catholic folk stories from other cultures – these we take with a grain of salt as he is stepping out of his cultural heritage to tell those stories. When that happens, I try my best to find another telling of the story by someone from that culture – it may sound daunting but there are so many children’s books these days with such a diversity of culture and writers!

    Social Studies

    These are all the books we used to address the variety of topics under the Social Studies category – language, geography, the Renaissance, orphans, and occupations. At this point, the kids want to be an electrician and a babysitter. The Renaissance and Meet Samantha were over my kids’ abilities, but they would be excellent reads for older kids.

    Art

    There is such artistry in designing and building bridges! This book was a good intro to bridge engineering and we even tried building our own with blocks and lincoln logs.

    I also found a video on YouTube for kids to learn to juggle. We discovered that we are not coordinated enough (but maybe just at this time).

    Science (Aging)

    I will gladly create a list of picture books we’ve come across which deal with aging loved ones and grief. It is such a delicate subject for children and they can come up with some difficult questions. Tomie wrote this book based on his own grandmothers. We’ve even stumbled on books dealing with the death of a pet.

    Disclaimer: This site uses some affiliate links. This costs you nothing, but helps supplement our homeschooling costs.

    Complete Booklist:

    Find the full list on or .

  • FIAR Vol. 1 – How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World

    FIAR Vol. 1 – How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World

    This book is all sorts of silly. We decided to do this one a little out of order from the curriculum so that it would time nicely with local apple harvest. We have a local orchard that, while we can’t pick them from the trees, we can peruse several varieties and pick up honey and other yummy treats. They make a mean cider too! I am excited to try making an apple pie with the kiddos – we will be having a family reunion this weekend and it will be fun to make something to share with everyone. I also took the many travels of the girl as an opportunity to learn the names of the continents.

    Social Studies

    These books provide just enough information to be interesting for my 5 yr old without overwhelming him. We also enjoyed making the flags for Italy and France and marveled at how similar they were to each other! The library didn’t have the book on Sri Lanka in, so I found this book about cinnamon.

    I think the kids were “geography”d out, so I stretched out this part over the whole week. We picked a new destination book for each day and that was still a little too much for the kids, but they are pretty little. I’m just real glad that I got the names of the continents in their vocabulary and hope to cement those in their minds.

    Math

    These books actually tied in real well with math this week. Who Knew? introduced sequencing as each wild animal group learns that Fall has come now. Bob and Pup-Pup are a good tie-in for baking practices and learning about measurements – however, there are no measurements mentioned in the book. We also found a video on YouTube of a guy showing how to bake an apple pie. My 5 year old has recently discovered baking videos, including the mini-chef videos, and was captivated.

    Science

    We were all set to make some apple pies today as our science lesson, but I have a sinus infection and just was not up for it. But we reviewed what foods are fruits and what are vegetables and where do they grow (under the ground, above the ground, on trees or bushes, etc). There was a fun experiment in the STEM book about growing broccoli flowers, so I think we’ll try that next week.

    The Fresh Produce Guide book was a gift from my mom from a nearby international market called Jungle Jims. It’s quite the store and I highly recommend the Fairfield one if you’re ever in the Cincinnati area. This guide lists which produce is grown/available in which seasons, how to store it, prepare it, what it pairs well with, what spices to use with it, and the general nutrition facts. I use this book more than I ever thought I would.

    I would also recommend this video on YouTube by SciShow – it’s the grown-up version, which is kid safe, but might be a little technical and go over little guys’ heads. Just FYI, but the title is, “What Happens When Food Goes Bad.”

    Additional Books

    These books were very helpful in establishing map intelligence and the life cycle of an apple. We did an apple study last year through Treehouse Schoolhouse but it’s always helpful to repeat lessons, especially with my little little ones. Me on the Map was fun and helped us imagine ourselves on the map. When I was in 7th grade, I told my social studies teacher that I wanted to be a cartographer when I grew up. She disdainfully told me that everything had been discovered and we wouldn’t need mapmakers anymore. I believed her. But now, I know that map skills are still immensely valuable. It means a lot to me to be able to hear the name of a place and be able to find it on a map because I have cultivated that skill. I hope my kiddos have the same knowledge as they get older.

    Here is a fun poem I found for memory work this week, “If I Were an Apple”:

    If I were an apple
    And grew upon a tree,
    I think I’d fall down
    On a good boy like me.
    I wouldn’t stay there
    Giving nobody joy;
    I’d fall down at once
    And say, “Eat me, my boy.”

    Anonymous

    Disclaimer: This site uses some affiliate links. This costs you nothing, but helps supplement our homeschooling costs.

    Complete Book List:

    Find this list on or .