Czechia and Slovakia were so recently divided into two individual countries that most of the books are about Czechoslovakia. We really enjoyed learning about the people and place. Since we are heading east through our country studies in Europe, this study was our first glimpse into the Cold War era.
Navigate this page: Missions, Booklists, Science, Field Trip, Cooking, Composer Study, Folk Dance, Art Project, Game, Movies, Videos
Free Printables
- Classics for Kids: Antonin Dvorák Activity Sheet
- Crayola.com’s Free printable of Czechia Flag and Map
- Crayola.com’s Free printable of Slovakia Flag and Map
- Seterra.com’s Free printable maps of Europe
- Seterra.com’s Free online geography games for Europe: Czechia and Slovakia are grouped in the Eastern Europe Countries game.
Missions Spotlight
- Article: Good King Wenceslas. Learn about this 1st Century Duke of Bohemia, the man behind the Christmas carol
- Article: John Huss, precursor to the Reformation, about 100 years before Martin Luther
- Prayercast.com/CzechRepublic: Prayer Points, Summary, Quick Facts
- Prayercast.com/Slovakia: Prayer Points, Summary, Quick Facts
**parents should preview the short prayercast.com video for sensitive topics that may not be age appropriate.
Top 4 Book List
The following lists are a sampling of my favorite books for different age groups. (These are Amazon affiliate links that do not increase your price. I may earn a few cents on qualifying purchases.)
Preschool/Kindergarten
Early Elementary
Late Elem/Middle School
Middle/High School
Reference Books for Czechia and Slovakia
Science/Easy Field Trip idea
Mushroom foraging is a common pastime in Czechia! We watched a few videos about mushroom foraging as well as an intro to fungi/mushrooms. How very fascinating! After making it clear that the kids were not to eat fungi from the woods, we went on a mushroom foraging hike of our own. As it was the tail end of winter, we didn’t expect to see much, but actually found a decent amount of fungi growing on logs and trees. We are now forever keeping our eyes peeled for mushrooms as the weather warms up!
Cooking Czech Food with Kids
Czech food is so unique and amazing! This is probably the best pork roast I’ve had, and I have never cooked a huge dumpling loaf before.
They had fun on the mushroom foraging hike, but my kids are not fond of eating mushrooms. I had received dehydrated, home-grown shiitake mushrooms from my father-in-law recently, so I pureed that soup and they did eat some of it.
The kids helped make kolache and got to choose between cherry and blueberry filling.
Lastly, as we studied the Central and Eastern European countries right around Easter, we made all the delicious Easter breads. In Czechia, they have Mazanec. I have never started a dough by leavening the yeast in a puddle in the middle of a bowl of flour, but this bread turned out really tasty. In Slovakia, they have Paska for Easter, and the braided cross was a beautiful touch.
Czech Roast Pork with Knedlíky (Dumplings) and Sauerkraut 
Unusual way of making the Knedlíky (dumplings) 
Czech Liver Dumpling Soup 
Rehydrating the home-grown shiitake mushrooms 
Kulajda (Mushroom and Potato Soup) 
Kolache with canned cherry pie filling 
Kolache with blueberry filling and egg wash 
Czech Kolache 
Turkish style coffee, the way they take it in Czechia 
Mazanec, first leavening 
Mazanec, Czech Easter Bread 
Paska, Slovakian Easter Bread 
Paska, Slovakian Easter Bread 
Czech Pizza: mushrooms, eggplant, and spinach
Composer Study
I was delighted to continue our study of “nationalist music of the 19th century” with Czech composer, Antonin Dvorak. He is hands-down one of our favorite composers. Classics for Kids has four audio shows about Dvorák and Nationalist music.
- Dvořák – Slavonic Dances, Op 46
- Dvořák: The Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”
- Dvořák’s American Quartet: this is the quartet referenced in the above listed picture book “Two Scarlet Songbirds.”
- Biography of Dvořák’s life by Classical Music Nerd: Great Composers: Antonín Dvořák
Folk Dance and Music
Dvořák’s music was heavily inspired by the folk music, thus creating a Bohemian nationalistic sound.
Art Study and Projects
We watched a few videos about Alphonse Mucha and the Art Nouveau style. This was especially meaningful for us after studying Gustave Klimt for Austria and Antoni Gaudí for Spain.
Game
The board game, Thurn and Taxis, includes the Czech cities of Pilsen and Budweis (the orange section on the right side of the board), so we revisited that one.
Another great overview game for Europe is Ticket to Ride: Europe.
Movies!
“The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” was partially filmed in Czechia, and is one of our favorites, so we enjoyed that one. Exactly which scenes? Find out right here.
YouTube Videos
- Good King Wenceslas, from Czechia
- Slovakia, Ice Caves Demanovska and Dobsinska
- Slovakia: Cleaning Up: Napkin Collector Keeps Breaking Own World Record
- Slovakia: Largest Castle Complex in Central Europe, Spissky hrad
- Rick Steves and Geography Now! are a fun and informative resources geared towards adults and older kids; I recommend that parents pre-watch before showing to younger kids.
- Rick Steves’ Europe: Prague
- Rick Steves’ Europe: The Czech Republic Beyond Prague
