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Do you like Trail Guide to World Geography?


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I'm starting to plan for next year and am thinking of using this. It looks great, but someone mentioned that it was a lot of work on her part to come up with ideas or to put it together. I don't get that from looking at the samples. But I don't want to get myself into something I'm not prepared for!

 

Would love to have some feedback on this. Thanks so much!

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Think of it as a skeleton, a guide. You can can add to it and make it very complicated or you can keep it fairly simple, it really depends on what you want. I suggest the notebooking CD that goes with it since the questions, etc are right there where you can print them off. I approach it very simply and do not do all of the (probably fun) projects that she suggests. We mainly focus on the daily questions and the mapping exercises. I will reserve library books on the country we are focusing on, which my kids read independently while we are studying that country/continent. In my opinion, if we use the questions and mapping to gain a good bank of geographical knowledge and terms, memorize the main countries and capitals as we get to them, and learn a little about different countries/cultures along the way...we have succeeded. I do not need to make a globe out of paper mache and get into complicated projects to do this (she really doesn't suggest that many, but there are some and I skip them). I hope this helps some.

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Also, she suggests the Ultimate Geography and Timeline Guide to go along with it. I do not care for that resource. If I were purchasing now, I would skip it. It is another Geography program on its own, co-authored by her;) Maybe I am missing something here, but I can't find it very useful? :confused: It doesn't flow well and makes my head spin. If I were doing it again, I would get the Trail guide book, the notebooking cd, a good student atlas, and maybe the Uncle Josh's Maps CD (though all of the maps we have needed thus far have been on the notebooking CD?). A cheap world almanac could be useful.

 

You could add in some of the worksheets from World Geography for your oldest, if you want to go deeper. You would definitely want an almanac if you add that in.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Geography-Second-Teacher-Created-Materials/dp/0743937996/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294359258&sr=8-1

 

 

edited to add the World Geography link ; )

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:iagree: with Charleigh about the Ultimate Guide. I did not find that user friendly and regret that purchase.

 

I do however like Uncle Josh's map cdrom. That tool has been used quite a bit.

 

While I have used Trail Guides and found them to be okay. I really liked Around the World in 180 Days. Apologia carries it. Trail Guides is fine. You will be able to do a good geography study with it. But, I really liked the layout of Around the World.

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As I'm managing to finally view samples of these curriculums I'm disappointed they don't seem to include a focus on the 5 themes of geography. I'd really like to make the 5 themes the CORE of my studies, before getting into the smaller individual details of each place.

 

in every subject I tackle, I like to find curriculum based on some type of themes, elements, principals, etc, helping me to set priorities and a framework for my studies. I like to make up, or find generic worksheets, or writing templates that are usable over and over, that identify, research, analyze and apply the elements.

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