Hi friends! How are you? Life is weird around here. And since I don’t even know how to share what is happening in my life right now — I figured I’d post something completely and totally neutral— a list of really awesome books to teach kids about mexico. That works, right? Well, I guess the post works if you have school age kids that you want to teach about mexico… haha.  But not just mexico— Central America because I threw in some books about Guatemala too. But it is a list of mostly Mexico books. And if you ant to get more specific, mostly books about the Mayan people and culture. (but not completely).

We bought some of these books to bring to Mexico with us for our homeschooling lessons, but we also ending  up buying some during our travels as well. I remember learning about Mayan history when I was in about 5th grade– but it’s really never too early to start teaching kids about history and current day cultures. The history of the Mayans is so amazing, but the Mayan people of today, are still very rich in culture and life. And these books dive into little tidbits of all that.

And I’m not going to turn this post into a political post (hard not to with the current happenings in our country), but it’s always a good idea to teach your kids about different cultures, diversity, and commonalities as early as you can. The world would be a better place if all kids learned that all people are human beings with real feelings and equal rights and should be treated as such. We’re all just trying to do our best– Ya know? Ya know.

A List of Great Books To Teach Kids About Mexico (Home-School)

The Chocolate Tree – A book on Mayan folklore and the story of Kukulcan and (Marlowe’s favorite god) the night Jaguar. A nice bedtime story that doesn’t feel like learning 😉

The Ancient Maya – Belonging to the True Books series– an intro book all about the ancient Maya civilization– perfect for tiny kids and young readers.

The Aztec Empire – Also in the true books series– but about the Aztecs. Totally different from the Mayans and belonging more to the west of Mexico. Just as powerful, just as interesting.

The Most Beautiful Place in the World – A great book to teach kids about a more modern-day Guatemala. While many Guatemalans do live in bigger cities, the reality is that many do live in a more rural environment. This book shares the story of seven-year old boy in a more rural Guatemalan life. I think its easy for us to forget that the world of a child looks very different in different places around the world. It’s not as easy as school and homework– and this is a good way to teach our own kids that, without traveling all the way to the other countries.

The Corn Grows Ripe – Another book to teach about life’s realities for other people/kids.

The Maya Activities and Crafts from a Mysterious Land (Secrets of Ancient Cultures) – If you only choose to buy one book, this might be the best one. I like it because it’s a hands on activity book where you get to play and learn.

Common Birds of the Yucatán Peninsula– I was hoping to be able to find this book easier on amazon. We found it in Mexico and it’s pretty freaking amazing. IF you’re a bird or animal lover, this book is super interesting. Not only does it list the birds of the Yucatán and info about the birds, but it also lists their Mayan name! If you’ve never heard the Mayans language, it’s pretty intensely awesome. Marlowe says she wants to learn Mayan one day– for now this is a good start 😉

The Mayan World Rebuilt –  A book about the mayan temples and how they would look I todays modern world. It’s still pretty surreal to see each ruin up close and try to imagine people building these massive buildings without modern-day tools. This book gets into how they were built and what they would look like today. Would be great to look through the book and have a lego day building  together.

Welp, that s it. I know this post is super short– but honestly, I have so much stuff going o n behind the scenes that it’s completely and totally crazy around here. Good stuff, but also bad stuff for sure. Womp. But we’re still chugging along over here.

I hope you guys are great. And I hope you have an amazing weekend. If you got some young readers around you, these books would be great gifts or take outs from the library 🙂

Check out more posts about books we’re reading HERE.

1 Comment

  1. interesting!!! this summer we are reading a lot! We are not in any camp and reading is always a good option.

    Mainly Samantha is reading in Spanish because I don’t want her to forget it…
    I will look for these books, they’re very interesting, thanks for sharing!