You know how people will ask, “Where would you love to visit if money and time was no limit?” My brain locks up because there are SOOOOO many places I want to visit. SO many. Our geography lessons let me virtually visit a country as we read about them, put together a few projects, and of course eat a meal. So here’s what I’ve written of our Europe unit study, which is a unit study of unit studies….
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To start off, you need the Europe notebooking pages
This is what I base my Europe unit around.
Just with these notebooking pages you can learn a fair amount about the country. You’ll learn where it is, what the flag and seal look like. Then you’ll have some nice general information like size and population or climate.
Which leads to a great inside joke for our family. Princess was in charge of the research for one of the countries and she wrote for the climate, “It be cold.” Its climate was 76 degrees, not all that cold. She wasn’t really sure why she wrote that and now whenever we talk about these things she jokes about it complete with the bad grammar.
If you want a quick overview of all the countries, or all of the countries Geography Now has done for Europe so far, then check out this playlist:
These videos are a great starting point for our studies because it covers most of the information I want my kids to know, AND have the added benefit of being fun to watch.
Oh, and I love their April Fools’ videos.
Let’s dive into our Europe unit studies
Some of these have been done for ages, but there were so many activities that it’s taken me years to get them all written up, or some I don’t know how to duplicate what we originally did. So if you’re wondering why there’s not a unit study for England or France, that’s why. England is an especially tricky one.
Okay, let’s drop into the Europe unit study.
Yeah, I’m updating this post two years later, and I need to organize this better, so I’m changing it to by region.
Ugh, the first list I was using was terrible, it had countries on several different lists. Somehow Croatia is both in Eastern and Southern Europe. Grumble grumble grumble
Central and Eastern Europe units
- Belarus Unit
- Bulgaria Unit
- Czechia Unit
- Hungary Unit
- Moldava Unit
- Poland Unit
- Romania Unit
- Russian Federation Unit (Russia Unit)
- Slovakia Unit
- Turkey Unit
- Ukraine Unit
Seriously, there are so many countries in Europe!
Western Europe Unit
- Austria Unit
- Belgium Unit
- France Unit
- Germany Unit
- Lichtenstein Unit
- Luxembourg Unit
- Monaco Unit
- Netherlands Unit
- Switzerland Unit
Northern Europe Unit
So, I’m working off a highlighted map and then attempting to put the countries in order alphabetically, which means I’m occasionally missing a country then having to go back and add them back in. It’s kind of interesting.
- Denmark Unit
- Estonia Unit
- Finland Unit
- Iceland Unit
- Ireland Unit
- Latvia Unit
- Lithuania Unit
- Norway Unit
- Sweden Unit
- United Kingdom Unit
Southern Europe Unit
Oh boy, this portion has all the little countries, this is going to be fun to make sure I’m not missing anyone.
- Albania Unit
- Andorra Unit
- Croatia Unit
- Greece Unit
- Italy Unit
- Malta Unit
- Montenegro Unit
- North Macedonia Unit
- Portugal Unit
- San Marino Unit
- Serbia Unit
- Slovenia Unit
- Spain Unit
- Vatican City Unit (Holy See Unit)
Central Europe Unit
Argh, after all my hard work to try and find a list that did not include countries in several places, I still was not successful. I give up, this Europe Unit is a mess.
- Austria Unit
- Czech Republic Unit
- Germany Unit
- Hungary Unit
- Lichtenstein Unit
- Poland Unit
- Slovakia Unit
- Slovenia Unit
Some places that our Europe unit study is so far just books
Not too surprisingly the more well-known countries in Europe tend to be just book lists right now. Seriously, I’ve got a draft for my France unit study sitting there and it just scares me. I really need to man up and just get it done, but all the projects, and then I think of a side project about just World War 2, and my squirrel brain is gone.
Future Ticia 2022 has gotten the France unit done. I’m still scared to get United Kingdom or Italy done. Seriously, so much stuff.
Expect to see a fair amount added to this Europe unit study over the next few months because I’ve been busy hitting all of the easier to study countries, like Vatican City. My kids are greatly amused by a country that is smaller than our neighborhood.
Not too surprisingly, there are very few books for Vatican City unless you want to get into different Catholic saints, and those I tend to put with the places they are from….
European foods
I’m going to put a great big caveat on our foods, and say sometimes they are inspired by the country, partially because of my lack of culinary skill, partially because I couldn’t find a good recipe/ingredients, and partially because I want my family to actually eat these meals.
I will also add in, some countries have more than one recipe from there because we’ve redone the country since preschool, or because we like that style of food.
I’m also leaving out any recipes that are printed as part of the unit study, this is only a list of European recipes all by themselves.
- Earl Grey Shortbread recipe (England)
- Zuppa Tuscana (Italy)
- Paella (Spain)
- Danish meatballs (Denmark)
- Swiss Mac and Cheese (Switzerland)
- Beef Stroganoff (vaguely Russia, I was told by an authentic Russian this is not Russian food)
- Pumpkin spice scones (England, this might be what started all the cooking)
- Swedish meatballs (Sweden)
- Spanish Chicken in Sherry (Spain)
- Skillet Cordon Bleu (France)
- Icelandic Pepper cookies
- Italian bolognese sauce
I always enjoy reading your country studies. I wonder if I should revisit this with my teenager. We did a lot of country studies when she was little, and then she had a pretty good geography class in 8th grade where she learned more details. But perhaps I could do it about cooking this time around!
You’ve put together some great studies over the years!