Our story
Country of the Week was founded by Dave Ternier in 2017 as a way of bringing the world to his kids. The platform became popular with parents and teachers all over the world who saw the value that organized, non-political, non-biased, physical learning materials created an enriching learning environment in their homes and classrooms.
In 2024, COTW changed parents when long-time subscribers, the Block Family, agreed to take over operations. Putting their boys, Charlie and Simon, to work, the Blocks aim to continue to bring the joy of learning about the world to families everywhere.
Parents and Children
As parents of young kids, we were constantly worried that our children will only know the world according to the news cycle. We wanted to ensure our kids would want to explore the world instead of hiding from it. We wanted them to have global perspectives and to know how neat the world actually is!
{L-R: Marika, Dave and Kiana.}
A small weekly commitment
Every week, we print out the colourful, fact-filled country profile sheet and display it in the dining room, beside our big world map, and that countryĀ is our theme for the week. Our boys have come to expect a new countryĀ postedĀ every Monday morning.Ā They then take the previous week's country profile sheet and place it lovingly within a plastic sleeve and into a binder for future review and fun. Then they search our map on the wall for the new country.
{Kiana, our oldest, takes great pride in finding the countries we've done.}
What are the benefits long term?
It is hard to know the precise long term effects this project will have on our kids. What we know now is that they're becoming empathetic, understanding and very curious global citizens (in-between being your typical young children of course!). Their understanding of the world today rivals that of many adults I know, including my pre-Country-of-the-Week self.
When I asked Kiana (at 9 years old) what Country of the Week means to her, she replied withĀ "I'm not afraid of the world anymore." Upon expressing my surprise that she might have ever been afraid, she simply commented that she had been comfortable with what she knew--our country. Now, she continued, that comfort is worldwide for her.
The only negative result so far is their bucket lists. Our children now have extensive travel plans! I'm not sure that mom and dad will be able to finance all those adventures, but it's great for them to have things to work towards, right?
Our primary purpose with Country of the Week now is to extend the positive impact we have experienced with many more children, their families and yes, you, you curious adults. If we accomplish that, a better world is sure to be in store for everyone.
Ready to explore how it works?