For the upcoming school year we're organizing everything around the 7 continents. For each continent, we're focusing on the larger nations but also the countries our family has some connection to - ones we've traveled to or our family is from.
I wrote to the following embassies requesting any educational materials they make available, especially maps:
Our nationalities: England, Ireland, Mexico, Myanmar, Germany (via email as per website)
Our travels: Australia, Botswana, France, Japan, Panama, and Spain
Other nations we want to learn about: Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, India, and Russia
I visited each embassy's website and tried to follow their directions for PR materials. Some, such as Germany, wanted all requests handled via email. Some, such as Japan, had materials on their website. Some wanted inquiries sent to a regional consulate.
I tried to customize the communication to each so it was relevant. Germany's email said, " We are a homeschool family in the United States of German descent. This
year for our studies we are concentrating on world geography and
culture. Would you please send us any materials appropriate for kids to
learn about Germany and for teachers to help kids in their studies. A
map would especially be appreciated. Thank you so much for your time."
The snail mail letters had the above image for the intro. I wanted to involve the kids in the request for info but it would have been unrealistic of me to expect older toad to write that many letters. Also, younger toad of course wants to be involved in everything so this did involve him a little bit.
I'm hoping the power of snail mail will bring us some fun treasures. I'm also of course saving all the addresses so hopefully we can write gushing thank you letters. I will post back with what we get.
