Geography Fair

Thursday we participated in the homeschool geography fair. It was an event that the whole family was encouraged to participate in and it was not a competition. Having never participated in anything like this before, I thought it would be a great opportunity for us to get our feet wet!

The kids had originally picked Spain, which I liked. I have a friend that I used to work with who is from Spain and I figured she would be a great resource. But, about a month ago, the kids decided they wanted to do Madagascar (after watching the movie ;). I will be honest, I didn't even know Madagascar was a real country. How embarrassing.

Anyway, we enjoyed finding out all about Madagascar and putting some of what we learned on display. Did you know that Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world? Did you know that 75% of the species found in Madagascar can be found no where else? Did you know that in 1985 Madagascar had an economic down turn because one of their larger exports is vanilla and that in 1985 the Coca-Cola Company started selling New Coke which used less vanilla? When the Coca-Cola company returned to selling the original Coke, Madagascar's economy rebounded. Did you know the official languages of Madagascar are Malagasy and French?

At the fair, the kids were each given a passport. And when then went from country to country, they got their passports stamped and they wrote down something about each country. Some participants even offered food. (Boop loved the jalapeno limeade from Mexico.) I think there were about 15 countries represented.

It was a good time had by all. I can't wait for us to participate in something like that again. It has been a very busy day so pictures will be posted tomorrow . . .