Germany, A Homeschool Geography Unit

Germany, a musical wonderland filled with fairy tales and castles, Martin Luther and Gutenberg! We fondly remember our hikes and dinner over the campfire with cousins in Germany. Oktoberfest was moved online this year, so we watched some of the videos while we had our own party at home. Try this homeschool geography unit on Germany!

Navigate this page: Missions, Booklists, Science, Cooking, Composer Study, Folk Dance/Music, Art Project, Art Study, Game, Movie, Videos

Mapping it Out

• Crayola.com’s Free printable of Germany’s Flag and Map
• Seterra.com’s Free printable maps of Europe
• Seterra.com’s Free online geography games for Europe

Missions Spotlight

• Prayercast.com/Germany: Prayer Points, Summary, Quick Facts
  **parents should preview the short prayercast.com video for sensitive topics that may not be age appropriate.
• Video: Museum of the Bible, Martin Luther’s translation of the New Testament: Septembertestament

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My Top Booklists for Germany

The following are my favorite books for different age groups. Science, Music, and Art books are in their own sections farther down.

Preschool/Kindergarten: On A Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein

Elementary: From the Good Mountain: How Gutenberg Changed the World

Late Elementary/Middle: The Life and Times of Martin Luther

Our favorite illustrations were found in these Grimm’s Fairy Tales:

• The Twelve Dancing Princesses
• The Brave Little Tailor

Science

• Favorite Book
  • The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian’s Art Changed Science
• Black Forest
  • Video: “Blackforest“
  • Vlog by Travel Beans: “Black Forest Region, Germany“
• Rhine River
  • Video by Rick Steves: “Castle-Studded Rhine River“
  • Video by Wocomo Travel: “Legends of a river: The German soul of the Rhine” (52 minutes long)
• Books about Bogs
  • “Big Belching Bog,” by Phyllis Root (elementary level picture book)
  • “The Mystery of the Bog Forest,” by Lorus and Margery Milne (higher level chapter book)
  • “Bodies from the bog,” by James M. Deem
    (The pictures of preserved bodies from the bog may be graphic for some kids. Most of the pictures are in black and white or sepia.)
  • Article by Atlas Obscura: Bog Mummies in Germany: The Bog Bodies at the Schleswig-Holstein Landesmuseum

Cooking German Food with kids

It also happened to be Oktoberfest during our study of Germany, so it was really fun to twist Bavarian pretzels and make the traditional Oktoberfest gingerbread hearts, called lebkuchen. We didn’t end up hanging them on necklaces, but that’s what the holes are for. The kids also helped with stuffed peppers and homemade sauerkraut! These were the best jars for making sauerkraut. (For the rest of the German food that I made, the recipe links are in Recipes by Country: Germany.)

Composer Study, Homeschool Geography

There are so many wonderful composers from Germany, especially the three Bs: Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. (Fun fact, the third B was Berlioz before Brahms bumped him out.) Since 2020 is the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, the choice was made for us. For links to audios for kids, kids books and YouTube videos, visit my page: “Composers: Ludwig van Beethoven.” (I’ll make lists for Bach and Brahms, too.) For ideas of how to do Composer Study, visit my page: “Art and Music.”

• Read: Beethoven’s Heroic Symphony
• Read: Beethoven Lives Upstairs

Folk Dance and Music of Germany

These videos were so much fun!

• German Folk Dance
• German Folk Dance (kids dancing)
• Rheinländer – German folk dance (also kids)
• D’Hammerschmiedg’selln Folk Dance
• Teach your kids how to do the D’Hammerschmiedg’selln: Video tutorial of D’Hammerschmiedg’selln

• Search for the best-sounding wood for hand crafted violins and other stringed instruments
• German Folk Music – Goldried Quintett
• Zither Music Hirschberg-Zithermusi – Mars de Medici
• Accordion Music German Folk Song Medley

Art Project/Handicraft

We did a few art projects to understand Gutenberg’s printing press. (See all the photos below!)

The first was creating our own printing press using rubber stamps for the moveable type and dot markers to blot the ink onto the stamps.

The second was making potato prints where they had to carve out letters in mirror-image, so the stamp is the negative space around the carved-out letter. You could make this project even more challenging by carving out the negative space, essentially making your own letter stamps with the potato. The potato prints could have definitely looked better but the kids learned some valuable things about printing.

Here is a video from the Museum of the Bible explaining how it works: Lonesome Curator Episode 36 – Gutenberg Press Demo

We also did a flower pressing craft, from the book “Global Art.”

Art Study: Josef Albers, Homeschool Geography

We read the picture book and watched these videos. The book and the videos were clear enough that we didn’t need to recreate to understand color theory. BUT since they were still unsure about primary vs secondary colors, we painted our own color wheels with primary colors.

• “An eye for color: the story of Josef Albers,” by Natasha Wing
• Video: Josef Albers, Color Theory

Game

My board-gaming cousins introduced me to German Board Games many years ago and our collection of these strategic and high quality games only continues to grow and threaten to overflow our game closet. For awhile, I was trying to play all of the games on the Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) list but then we had babies so all that stopped for awhile. I knew it would only be a matter of time before they would be playing these strategic games with us, and now that time has come! I introduced them to Thurn & Taxis although it’s for age 10+ and I knew I’d be walking them through every round. The map is of Bavaria (southern Germany and a little bit of present-day Austria, Switzerland, and Poland), with pictures of the historic buildings on the cards and board.

Movies!

There are so many movies based on the Grimm’s fairy tales: Cinderella (animated and live action), Sleeping Beauty (animated and back story of Maleficent), Snow White, and Tangled. We chose to watch a family favorite, “Ever After: A Cinderella Story.” It begins with the Brothers Grimm visiting a castle to learn the “true story” of Cinderella from Cinderella’s descendent. (Unfortunately, the movie is set in France and not Germany.)

YouTube Videos, Homeschool Geography

• How Germany Is Celebrating Beethoven’s 250th Birthday
• Flying the Nest Vlog: The Perfect Germany Road Trip | Bavaria, Mountains & Lakes Guide
• Exterior: Neuschwanstein Castle in 4K
• Interior: Rick Steve’s Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein Castle
• Cuckoo Clocks made in the Black Forest region of Germany
• Travel Kids: Germany: Skiing
• Geography Now! is a fun and informative resource geared towards adults and older kids; I recommend that parents pre-watch before showing to younger kids:
  • Geography Now! Germany
  • Geography Now! Germany’s Flag