With the holidays behind us (a little relieved, a little sad), we were ready to start Prayer for a Child as the first BFIAR book of the new year.
This was a wonderful little picture book with many lessons about children around the world. We took our time to row this book and explored the various homes, cuisines, and traditions of children around the world.
It’s funny how our BFIAR units can take us on extraordinary journeys. By the end of our row (which usually lasts 2-3 weeks), we’ve weaved an eclectic mix of themes that came together just perfectly!
Bible
Prayer
This was the perfect book to start off the new year. Prayer was the main focus of our Bible time during this row.
We talked about praying for others, we did a prayer wheel craft, and read several children’s books about prayer.
We also talked about fear and not being afraid, because God is with us and watching over us. We memorized Numbers 6:24 as we studied this book.
I created the following Bible verse printable to go along with our Prayer for a Child unit.
Our Daily Bread
We had a fun time learning about The Lord’s Day….it was a “bread day”. We read The Lord’s Prayer, colored little Lord’s Prayer booklets, and watched a cartoon version of the Lord’s Prayer in our Prayer for a Child youtube play list.
Instead of baking the traditional loaf of bread, we put a “twist on it” and took the pretzel path.
We read a little about the history of pretzels in Preztels by the Dozen .
The boys helped make the dough
The kids help shape the dough into traditional pretzel shape.
We put the pretzels in a baking soda bath.
The kids helped butter the pretzels.
Everyone enjoyed munching on our yummy pretzels with butter and salt.
We read about breads around the world in Bread, Bread, Bread (Around the World Series) by Ann Morris.
The older kids located each country we read about while Parker worked on bread themed activities on our learning lane.
Language Arts
Parker worked on his vocabulary words in a variety of ways. First, we collected toys around the house (some I had to improvise, so I made replicas from foam) and he matched the toy/object to the cards.
Other days we worked on phonics and he matched the picture cards with the starting letter sound.
Jordan worked on a set of rhyming word puzzles that matched some of the elements in our story. He also continued his Sonlight Kindergarten HWOT (Handwriting Without Tears) letter formations.
Math
This was a row packed with an eclectic mix of this and that.
We took a slight detour and focused our attention on toys, trains, and The Little Engine That Could (since she did help deliver the TOYS to the “good little boys and girls”). 
Thomas and friends made a few appearances in our learning lane and we even played a little Thomas BINGO!
I made little toy store packets with coin recognition, counting and word problem worksheets for the kids to work on. While Parker and Jordan worked on counting and coin recognition, Haley did more advanced word problems and price calculations. They had so much fun, because who wouldn’t enjoy math centered around toys…Math + Toys = FUN!
Social Studies
It’s a Small World
This was a wonderful book to introduce cultural awareness through the eyes of little children. As we read about cultural differences, we also learned about similarities. We all have basic needs for clothing, shelter and sustenance.
Talking about children around the world always reminds me of Disney’s It’s a Small World. We read Disney It’s A Small World, The Moon Shines Down, and watched a few clips from Disney’s behind the scenes It’s a Small World ride from our playlist.
The kids worked on their continents throughout this unit. I printed and laminated world flag cards and I set up an invitation to create world Duplo flags in our learning lane. The boys LOVED this activity!
Homes Around the World
We read Homes in Many Cultures and I set up an invitation to “create your own home” using our Melissa and Doug Play House reusable stickers. The kids loved doing this activity…some rainy day fun!
We read several great books about homes and worked on a little homes around the world booklet. It was neat to see the page in our book match the real home somewhere in God’s big wonderful world!
Clothing Around the World
We continued our studies of children around the world reading Clothes in Many Cultures. I found an adorable kids around the world printable. I laid down our cloth map and the kids matched each child to the country we read about.
The kids around the world printable had matching country flags. The older kids would match each child with their coordinating country flag while Parker and I would play an “I spy” game that would get him familiar with both the country name and it’s flag.
Food Around the World
In addition to our “bread day” reading Bread Bread Bread, we found some other great books that talked about cuisine around the world. We brought out some bingo markers and our world maps and marked countries as we read. Once again, a great way to see both cultural differences and similarities. It truly is a small world after all…
Science & Art
We turned our attention to the heavens….the moon, the stars, just like the little girl in Prayer for a Child. I set out an invitation to create constellations with mini white pom-poms on black felt. This was geared more for the older kids, but Parkie still made a constellation or two.
In addition to our other books, we read How to Catch a Star
Check out my Pinterest board to access the printables used for this row. Click here to access our playlist.
Prayer for a Child Pinterest Board