Our Continent Boxes – Introduction

Among all my web searching, I came across Montessori-inspired continent boxes. Instantly, I knew I had to make my own version. I love the idea of having a quick peek into every continent at my disposal anytime. I can imagine a ton of uses for these boxes.

So what do I have in our boxes? The items vary a little bit, but for the most part each box contains the same type of things, just specified for its continent. Some things are more appropriate for my 4 year old, other things are meant for my 9 year old. I’m hoping to continue adding goodies to the boxes as things present themselves – especially to Antarctica. Poor Antarctica has almost nothing.

I found these boxes in the party isle in Target. They are a kraft-type paper shirt box.

A peek inside Africa’s box.

Each box (except Antarctica) has a flag wheel I printed from Enchanted Learning.

Photos from trips taken by us, family, or friends.

I now know why each time we’ve traveled outside the US I’ve saved a smidgen of the local currency. It was so I could one day add it to the continent boxes I made for my home schooled children.

I made little envelopes to contain like things: Animals, Art Styles, Currency, and Landmarks.

The Animal and Landmark envelopes contain flashcards.

I printed art pieces from the web to get a collection of art styles.

Some continents I had actual paper money. Those got added to the envelope. Some continents I did not, though. For those, I found a website that had images of currency from all over the world. I printed a few of those images for the envelopes. That website seems to be gone now.