We have created and used 2 continent boxes {Europe and North America} in one year, and I still hope to create the remaining 5 and use them along with these in our homeschooling years to come! My kids have been very into the box on the first few days, but then the newness wore off. If I engaged them, they would explore with me, but I wanted a way to encourage them to explore on their own {and learn something}.
Enter….the Continent Box Challenge!
I made a chart reflecting our North America Continent Boxes, coming up with tasks that the children could complete. Here is a copy of the sheet my kids used…
I set individual goals with each child to earn prizes as they marked off tasks. 
First we brainstormed prizes that did not involve money {or shopping}. They came up with ~
- Peanut Butter Pass ~ the option to choose a PB sandwich for dinner on a night when they hated what was offered {the little 2 in our family are VERY picky and we don’t make alternate meals so they often go hungry at dinner time}
- Juice Ticket ~ our kids drink water all day long except for the occasional cup of 100% juice with dinner or milk. They never have soda or other sweetened drinks. The Juice Pass is a ticket to have freedom to drink 100% juice whenever desired for one day.
- Chore Pass ~ Mom and Dad complete ALL of your daily chores for one day.
- Stay Up Late ~ this one is obvious, right?
- Candy Baggie ~ freedom to nibble from a pre-created candy baggie {by me} throughout the day. Candy intake around here is VERY low, and most of our candy is dye-free and organic if possible, but either way this is a BIG deal to them!
Each child chose prizes they wanted and ranked them. Then we set the goals. Pac had to complete his entire chart {21} to get a chore pass, 19 to get a candy baggie, and 17 to get a juice pass. Krash was 15, 13, 10 for his leveled prizes. Ladybug was 12, 10, 8. I marked out on their sheets what I thought was above their level with a few optionals. You can see K’s below with an X on “name 50 states” and a ? on “name at least 25 states” showing how we modified the activities to their levels.
Yes they can earn all 3 prizes, when they reach each goal. I wanted to make it fun to keep going!
This really got them going and we are still using the challenge now! Here are some action shots of the kids…
Matching up the North American Landmark 3-part cards…
Working on puzzles…
We will definitely be using the Continent Box Challenge in the future and I thought it might work for some of you too! BUT, I knew your boxes would be different and you would need to be able to create your own tasks based on your boxes! So, I asked my friend Jolanthe {who has the correct software} if she would make an editable PDF form for my readers to create your own challenges! She said yes!!!
The colors correspond with the colors used with Montessori geography, but you can just print in gray scale if you don’t need the colors! Each box is editable and you can save the PDF file to use again too!
Click on graphic to download your printables!
Looking for more World Geography Resources? 