Gather Round Homeschool: Asia – Resources to Save You Time!

I’m both a dreamer and travel enthusiast, so naturally I thoroughly enjoy learning about countries across the world. We spent two weeks over the summer doing an “It’s a Small World” themed unit that I put together myself and we loved it.

Insert Gather Round Homeschool. When I saw how the curriculum goes through every continent on the globe, I was in! Asia was our first “Connecting Continents” unit and it did not disappoint! So many things were covered…flags, language, religion, government, animals, landmarks, trade, food…SO MUCH.

Now I have an 8, 5, and 3 year old, so they’re on the younger side. Will they remember everything? I doubt it. BUT, it’s in their knowledge base now, and when they hear about these topics again down the road, I believe they’ll be able to recall learning about it.

If you are unfamiliar with this curriculum, be sure to check out this blog post that tells more about it or download free samples of some of the units to try out yourself!

I’ve also shared our experience with this unit by sharing what we did and what we thought about it…so make sure to check out our review if you’re looking for that!

The Resources:

These “extras” are the things that I love about doing unit studies! It helps make the lessons even more immersive!

I’ve also found that our lessons go so much more smoothly when I have everything that I want to introduce to my kids all organized and ready to go. Sometimes we may not get to everything or even go down a different rabbit trail of learning but it’s so helpful to have what I want readily available.

I understand how time-consuming this is, though! So, I’m sharing with you some of the playlists and resources we have used for the Asia unit study so that you can have what you need without all the planning!

My playlists are probably geared toward upper elementary and under because that is where my kids are. There are lots of other videos you could add if you have older kids as well.

While I’ve used these resources with my kids, I always recommend that you preview them before using with your kiddos to make sure it’s a good fit for your family.

Gather Round Homeschool: Asia – YouTube Playlist

The videos in this playlist are favorites of my kiddos. They go in order from Lesson 1 – 20 to make your life easier! Use what you like, leave what you don’t, add what you need.

They can be used during the lesson, after the lesson, or anytime really! How they are used is entirely up to you.

Gather Round Homeschool: Asia – Amazon Music Playlist

This is a playlist I created with traditional music from many of the countries that are discussed in this unit study. I would occasionally play it during writing time and often during dinner.

At dinner, especially, it adds that little extra touch that helps transport you to that country…especially if you’re eating their food, too!

https://music.amazon.com/user-playlists/2ff63ceb65714abfa1562d4c95c1de13sune?ref=dm_sh_9367-a3e4-dmcp-e022-0d29b&musicTerritory=US&marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Gather Round Homeschool: Asia – Pinterest Board

I don’t know about you, but I adore using pinterest to gather ideas…and recipes! Sometimes I use the ideas that I find directly and other times scrolling pinterest inspires an idea of my own.

This is yet another thing that takes a little time, so here is your shortcut!

The creator of this curriculum sells a beautiful digital recipe book to go along with the unit if you’d just like to purchase and print that! However, if you choose not to, this board has the recipes that I pinned for every country in the Gather Round Homeschool Asia unit…including ones for the recipes she recommends. I didn’t end up making ALL of them, but I did make many of them.

You will also find some other pins related to the “End of Unit” party we throw at the, you guessed it, end of each unit! 🙂 It helps give an official closing before moving on to the next unit.

I often set up this “party” with activity stations consisting of different crafts, projects, art, etc. related to some of the topics we discussed in the unit. Some other things to do are group science experiments that we didn’t get to, read any books we had leftover, present our writing projects to the family, have an asian feast for dinner, and watch a related movie.

Of course, never feel like you HAVE to do all these extra things!! They are just that…extra. Your children will have learned just as much without ending the unit this way!

Gather Round Homeschool: Asia – Book List and More!

Book List

Rebecca Spooner, the creator of Gather Round Homeschool, has an amazing book list in the front of every unit’s teacher’s guide. It’s even divided up by levels to make it easy! I was able to get most of the ones I wanted from our local library and then used Amazon and Thrift Books to get any that were remaining.

I also used a few additional books not on that list:

• Magic Tree House: Day of the Dragon King, by Mary Pope Osborne
• Yoko, by Rosemary Wells
• The Lonely Planet Kids Travel Book, by Lonely Planet Kids
• If You Lived Here: Houses of the World, by Giles Laroche

Shows and Movies

Here are some great choices for added entertainment that can further reinforce the theme!

• Wild Kratts
  • “Elephant Brains” Season 5
  • “Golden Snub Nosed Monkey Man” Season 4
  • “Komodo Dragon” Season 5
  • “Panda Power Up!” Season 4
  • “Pangolin Rescue” Season 4
  • “Red Panda Rescue” Season 4
  • “Temple of Tigers” Season 5
  • “The Colors of China” Season 4
• Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Around the Clubhouse World
• Mira: Royal Detective
• Mulan
• Kung Fu Panda
• Aladdin
• The Jungle Book
• Pandas the Journey Home
• Disney Nature: Born in China
• National Geographic: Expedition Everest (Disney +)
• The Prince and Me: The Elephant Adventure (older kids)
• Aftershock (older kids)
• The King and I (older kids)

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I hope that these pre-planned resources help save you time in your unit study planning! Enjoy!

Make sure to check out my resource pages for Gather Round Homeschool North American Birds, Space, Europe, Oceans, Africa, Earth Science, North America, The Human Body, South America, and Australia & Oceania too!

What are some of the activities you’ve done or are planning to do with this unit? I’d love to know! Share it with us in the comments below!