Same Earth, Different Homes: How Kids Live Around the World

A kid waking up in Tokyo, Japan might eat rice and grilled fish for breakfast and take off their shoes before walking into school. A kid waking up in Nairobi, Kenya might wear a bright uniform and walk to a school where classes are taught in both English and Swahili. Even though these two mornings look really different, both kids are doing the exact same things: waking up, eating breakfast, and heading off to learn.

- That people all over the world share the same basic needs - How homes, food, and clothing differ by country and climate - The names and locations of a few countries on different continents - Why differences between cultures are something to celebrate, not something 'weird'

In Mongolia, many families live in round, portable tents called gers (also called yurts), which can be taken apart and moved when herders travel with their animals across the grasslands. In the Netherlands, where the land is flat and rainy, many houses are built tall and narrow with big windows to catch as much daylight as possible. In hot, humid Indonesia, some traditional houses are built on stilts, raised above the ground to stay cooler and to avoid flooding during heavy rains. Every one of these homes was designed to solve a real problem in that region's weather.

In Italy, a classic family dinner might include pasta with tomato sauce. In India, a family might eat rice with lentil dal and flatbread called roti. In Mexico, corn tortillas have been a daily food for thousands of years, since long before Spanish explorers ever arrived. None of these foods is more 'normal' than another, each grew out of what could be farmed well in that region and the traditions families passed down for generations.