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One year cultural/human geography?


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Any suggestions here? I'm looking to do this with all the kids, but I care mostly that it reaches my older 2. I am not opposed to Christian content, but would prefer a neutral worldview. Is there anything with associated good literature, documentaries, etc?

 

I looked at the Trail Guide to Geography online. I'm not sure that it's for me. I'm less concerned about the mapping aspect as I am about the cultural aspect and the onus for that appears to be on the student in Trail Guide. Of course if I am wrong, please let me know. I am also not looking for a program with a lot of output (or grading from me).

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We used Trail Guide but as only a guide. For each region or country, dd would do the mapping activitied and answer the questions. We watched Globe Trekker videos together (our library has almost all) and read/listened to current NPR and BBC World pieces.

 

Dd was in seventh grade. We used the high school level Trail Guide. The middle school level was too simplistic because she had competed in Geography Bee.

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Two that I have looked at are the Harmony Fine Art Geography and the Build Your Library Gr. 7. Not sure if either of those are what you are looking for.

 

I'm not the OP, but thanks for these two suggestions. BYL Grade 7 looks promising for us. Do you have any experience with it? Have you seen any good reviews of it? I did a search and found a few reviews of other grade levels, but not specifically the 7th grade geography program. I'd love to hear about it from someone who has used it. Sorry to hijack...

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I'm not the OP, but thanks for these two suggestions. BYL Grade 7 looks promising for us. Do you have any experience with it? Have you seen any good reviews of it? I did a search and found a few reviews of other grade levels, but not specifically the 7th grade geography program. I'd love to hear about it from someone who has used it. Sorry to hijack...

We are using BYL7 this year and loving it! We are cooking, reading, watching travel videos, creating artwork, etc..... We are notebooking along the way, too!

Dd12 has enjoyed the book selections so far.... I added in MBTP Lit Guides for some books.

We are following BYL schedule loosely....there is a TON there and I schedule only 3 days a week.

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We are using BYL7 this year and loving it! We are cooking, reading, watching travel videos, creating artwork, etc..... We are notebooking along the way, too!

Dd12 has enjoyed the book selections so far.... I added in MBTP Lit Guides for some books.

We are following BYL schedule loosely....there is a TON there and I schedule only 3 days a week.

Thanks for the review.

 

I've looked at all the programs mentioned - Trail Guide, Harmony, BYL, Simply Charlotte Mason, Memoria Press, Confessions of HS'er and I don't even remember what else. As of now I'm planning on BYL, I like the focus and the booklists.

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I will look more closely at BYL and the Harmony Fine Arts. I'm glad to hear others using BYL loosely because I definitely have other science and language arts plans and do t want everything to *have* to be cross curricular.

The Science at that level is actually an outside program so no worries there. I don't think it would be a big deal to do your own LA either- from looking at the previews anyway. I plan to mostly use it as a pre-planned book list for history, geo and lit. We *might* do some of the LA, I'll have to see once I get it.

 

From what I looked at Harmony she had some good resources recommended but I liked the lit focus of BYL more and the format was more appealing to me. I plan to look at it more for optional supplements.

Edited by soror
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Not a curriculum, but I'll recommend the book

 

 

Material World: A Global Family Portrait by Peter Menzel

 

"In an unprecedented effort, sixteen of the world’s foremost photographers traveled to thirty nations around the globe to live for a week with families that were statistically average for that nation. At the end of each visit, photographer and family collaborated on a remarkable portrait of the family members outside their home, surrounded by all of their possessions—a few jars and jugs for some, an explosion of electronic gadgetry for others. Vividly portraying the look and feel of the human condition everywhere on Earth, this internationally acclaimed bestseller puts a human face on the issues of population, environment, social justice, and consumption as it illuminates the crucial question facing our species today: Can all six billion of us have all the things we want?"

 

Also look at:

 

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

 

Women in the Material World

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

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I used BYL Grade 7 as the spine for my son's 8th grade World Geography course last year. I spent months pulling together books and trying to schedule things, only to see BYL and realize that it had already scheduled a lot of things I'd planned on using.

 

I used a different science program, added more grammar and composition and scheduled some additional reading in order to have it meet my goals for 8th grade. I also scheduled in a lot of documentaries and videos, including quite a bit of Anthony Bourdain's stuff. Over the summer, I sat down and lined up all of the episodes of Cook's Tour, No Reservations, Parts Unknown and The Layover by continent and country. Then I wrote selected episodes into the schedule where they fit. (These are pretty irreverent and many parents might consider them too mature for a middle school kid.)

 

We had a fantastic year. My son learned a lot, and really enjoyed most of the reading. I highly recommended BYL 7.

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I used BYL Grade 7 as the spine for my son's 8th grade World Geography course last year. I spent months pulling together books and trying to schedule things, only to see BYL and realize that it had already scheduled a lot of things I'd planned on using.

 

I used a different science program, added more grammar and composition and scheduled some additional reading in order to have it meet my goals for 8th grade. I also scheduled in a lot of documentaries and videos, including quite a bit of Anthony Bourdain's stuff. Over the summer, I sat down and lined up all of the episodes of Cook's Tour, No Reservations, Parts Unknown and The Layover by continent and country. Then I wrote selected episodes into the schedule where they fit. (These are pretty irreverent and many parents might consider them too mature for a middle school kid.)

 

We had a fantastic year. My son learned a lot, and really enjoyed most of the reading. I highly recommended BYL 7.

Care to share anything?

 

I'm looking at adding reading for science for ds and have looked at some videos but haven't got into it too far yet.

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Not a curriculum, but I'll recommend the book

 

 

Material World: A Global Family Portrait by Peter Menzel

 

"In an unprecedented effort, sixteen of the world’s foremost photographers traveled to thirty nations around the globe to live for a week with families that were statistically average for that nation. At the end of each visit, photographer and family collaborated on a remarkable portrait of the family members outside their home, surrounded by all of their possessions—a few jars and jugs for some, an explosion of electronic gadgetry for others. Vividly portraying the look and feel of the human condition everywhere on Earth, this internationally acclaimed bestseller puts a human face on the issues of population, environment, social justice, and consumption as it illuminates the crucial question facing our species today: Can all six billion of us have all the things we want?"

 

Also look at:

 

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

 

Women in the Material World

 

Regards,

Kareni

Btw, Material World and Hungry Planet that Kareni mentioned above are both scheduled in BYL7.

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Oak Meadow has a 9th grade world geography course. They have a sample of their lessons online: http://oakmeadow.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/World-geography-overview-sample.pdf

BYL explains how she uses OM Geography textbook for her high schooler with siblings using BYL7. This is what helped me decide on what we use for Geography this year. She schedules BYL7 to match up with OM Geography. She also provides a HS booklist on this site and said I could count it as World Lit on transcript.

http://buildyourlibrary.com/multi-grade-teaching-an-example/#comment-413

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I'm going to be using North Star Geography from Bright Ideas Press.  I also noticed that Wayfarers from Barefoot Meanderings is based on literature centered on geographical areas and culture.  It looked really interesting, but I decided not to go that way.  If I had been doing it a little earlier I may have though.  I really liked what I saw.  But, North Star is physical maps, cultural geography and industry, etc.  I think it's going to be really interesting.  Another one that is an oldy but a goody is Around the World in 100 Days.  I looked through it and it looks very flexible.  More research based and you get out of it what you put into it. 

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