Holla, for our first country we’re heading to Europe to visit sunny Spain!

To start our journey we found the shape of Spain, then located it on our world map and drew the country outline on our information board. I was impressed that even the 3yo took great care to shape her country, and while she still draws very basic repeated shapes for human figures, her abstract shape recognition (for the shape of the country) was rather close to the image she was copying. This is a great mental mapping and fine motor exercise, the more they use the skills, the more it will translate to other areas of their learning.

We then found some facts about Spain. With a goal throughout this process to show my kids different ways of finding information, this time we watched a short educational video for kids. Despite the narrative and visual quality of the film being slightly cringe worthy for me, the blandly presented content really impacted the kids. They went on to create a book about Spain, each page detailing something that they particularly remembered about the country. Sleeping in the day while the shops are closed, playing soccer, and dressing up to dance were a big hit.

We also played Soccer in the sun, made castanets, danced to Spanish music and ate Spanish food. I’ll write about these in future posts, but for now put Spain on the map and go on a fact finding mission to see what your children learn.

Find your free vector map of spain here.