Geography is just not happening!

[Momof3plus]

Hi, we’re hitting all our subjects except geography. I was using Charlotte Masons Geography in the elementary years (I think that’s what it’s called), but for some reason we’ve not done it for months!

 

Is there anything else you would recommend for 1st going into 2nd grade? I want something that encorporates map drill with some social/cultural geography as well as all the usual geography info. Is there such a programme that is quick and easy to do and no frills?

[HomeAgain]

We work geography into history.  :) 

 

But I think you need to figure out the reason you're not getting to the subject.  Is it because it's at the end of the day?  Not prepared for each lesson?  What would happen if you pushed it to the beginning of the day?

[ghcostafamily]

For 1st and 2nd if you want to do mapmdrill, pick a continent and print off a blank map, then have your child point to each country they know each day. You can also do sticker maps, or scratch off maps! My kids love that paired with the JUST LIKE ME Book, it’s a great combo. We just read about a country and scratch it off on the map. It’s helped a lot just getting them hands on.

For kiddos that small I’d mayeb print the labels and have them match it for map drill instead of writing it.

[Farrar]

I'd work the cultural aspects into history and add in some Sheppard Software for the map drills.

[SilverMoon]

At those ages we just wove it into their history. Before I read the new SOTW chapter we find the last few locations in the atlas and discuss the places we've been (through SOTW, not literally). Then we find where the new story takes place and begin the read aloud. My 7yo can fairly reliably find the main locations in SOTW 1 with this method and has cultural/social stories in his head to go with them.

 

Most of my kids had one school year where geography replaced their history.

[KAM]

We haven't done a separate geography program, but I try to keep either a map or a blow-up globe (the kids favorite) nearby and just have them find a place or two from whatever history/lit read-aloud we are doing.

[rjand6more]

I have used Geography Songs every year for 8 years.  I just love it.  We now review a song a week.  When the kids are big enough(2nd grade or so) they get a map to color.  Then, they move to labeling.

I used CM "Visits to" series.  We loved those.  Some are missing and I made my own using the established formula. The "Visits to..." have cultural geography incorporated with suggested reading assignments.

[Ellie]

I have used Geography Songs every year for 8 years.  I just love it.  We now review a song a week.  When the kids are big enough(2nd grade or so) they get a map to color.  Then, they move to labeling.

I used CM "Visits to" series.  We loved those.  Some are missing and I made my own using the established formula. The "Visits to..." have cultural geography incorporated with suggested reading assignments.

 

I big pink puffy heart the geography songs. :001_wub:

[Mrs. A]

Most of my kids had one school year where geography replaced their history.

Oooh! This is intriguing! Can you elaborate on this please?

[SilverMoon]

Oooh! This is intriguing! Can you elaborate on this please?

Instead of history they did a full size geography. We're not wed to the history cycle rotation, so it was a natural sideways trail. Last time I did this with elementary kids I used Trail Guide as a loose spine and cobbled resources together around it. They covered cultural and physical, maps, etc. It was fun. 🙂

[Momof3plus]

Thank you everyone for the great ideas. We have the Children Just Like Me book and have been through it several times. They really enjoy it.

 

I think HomeAgain hit the nail on the head though, I think I’ve scheduled it on the wrong day, a day where we have to be out of the house in the afternoon.

 

I’ll try switching the day we do it and see how we get on.

 

Xxxx

[ExcitedMama]

I am using Galloping The Globe and it’s been good. It’s more prep than I would prefer so it depends on if that can work for you. It goes through a few countries per continent. DS requested to learn more about countries today, as opposed to just in history, so I added some fun books with interesting facts. DD tunes out most of that but she really enjoys the cultural stories, like Chinese or Russian fables.

 

DS is doing Legends & Leagues and there have been a lot of interesting facts and good map practice for him. That one is pretty open and go if you want something that’s easy to do.

[greenfields]

If it makes you feel better, we don't study history or geography (for 2nd grade) - just longitude/latitude in math.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2018 by greenfields

[Tess in the Burbs]

Evan Moore has Daily Geography for 1-6th. My kids loved these workbooks. Community to world, it was a large variety. And the Geography songs.

[eternalsummer]

for map drills I like the Sheppard software games too.

[Hobbes]

We also do a lot of geography with history - doing the SOTW maps, finding places on the globe, etc.

 

We also use GeoPuzzles, listen to Geography Songs, do fill-in maps of continents and see if we can beat our own best number each time, and track where friends and family are when they travel. When my sister went around Iceland, she sent me a message with a photo of where she was each day and we marked it out on a poster of Iceland, then read about the site. She came home with money and food from there - amazing way to do geography if you are close to people who travel!

 

All of the above happens in spurts, often in morning time.

[Erielle]

It's not technically a program, but I purchased a wonderful book a while back called Give Your Child the World. It includes a list of more than 600 wonderful children's book recommendations that are arranged geographically and by audience age that teach geography, culture, and tell about the lifestyles of people who live in the locations you read about. There are also discussion notes for religion and other topics if that is something you want to cover.

We're using it as a geography study this year (and maybe even continue into next..). We locate each place we read about on our globe, discuss what we learned, and stop and pursue interest-led learning if my DS wants to. I'm also teaching map skills. It has been very enjoyable. 

[nixpix5]

Evan Moore has Daily Geography for 1-6th. My kids loved these workbooks. Community to world, it was a large variety. And the Geography songs.

This is a great way to do it especially if you are having a busy year and it isn't getting done. We keen EM workbooks on hand for Geography and use them when we cannot get to our usual geography. My DD especially loves EM and asks to do it. They are quick and painless. I have been surprised at how much my chidlren have retained about maps using it too.

[2_girls_mommy]

No frills, easy to add in- The Complete Geography Workbook 

 

We did it occasionally, but mostly we did the maps that came with our Story of the World for elementary age. 

 

Editing to fix the name: It is the Complete Book of Maps and Geography

Edited March 6, 2018 by 2_girls_mommy

[lots of little ducklings]

We've enjoyed using the Kristin Draeger "Draw" series.  My children independently practice drawing on a personal white board each morning (for about 10 minutes), then bring the board to me and Point/Say for every country/state they've drawn (we are working our way through the US book  right now, adding a few more states each week).  It's easy; very low-maintenance for me and fun for them, which means it gets done daily.  :-) . 

 

 

We also like most youtube songs by CCHappyMom  (designed for CC).  I download them and play them in the van until we've learned them... it makes the Point/Say part of our lessons so much easier.  (I purchased Geography Songs years ago, but never really used them... just not my style).  

 

We use SOTW too, so that's our source for historical context.

 

I haven't emphasized social/cultural context yet, but my older children enjoy reading children's atlases, and have LOVED Highlights' Top Secret series (World Geography) and Which Way USA series (US Geography).  Top Secret is much more substantive (I haven't been as happy with Which Way), but both have been fun and appealing and informative and therefore... easy to implement!

 

HTH

 

 

[Momof3plus]

Oh I love all these ideas! The ‘Draw...’ series sounds good and so does the workbook approach. I especially love the Give Your Child The World Book idea but I’m not sure we’d consistently get through all the chosen read alouds.

 

I’ll cettainly have a look into all these ideas though. Thank you xxxx

[nixpix5]

We've enjoyed using the Kristin Draeger "Draw" series. My children independently practice drawing on a personal white board each morning (for about 10 minutes), then bring the board to me and Point/Say for every country/state they've drawn (we are working our way through the US book right now, adding a few more states each week). It's easy; very low-maintenance for me and fun for them, which means it gets done daily. :-) .

 

 

We also like most youtube songs by CCHappyMom (designed for CC). I download them and play them in the van until we've learned them... it makes the Point/Say part of our lessons so much easier. (I purchased Geography Songs years ago, but never really used them... just not my style).

 

We use SOTW too, so that's our source for historical context.

 

I haven't emphasized social/cultural context yet, but my older children enjoy reading children's atlases, and have LOVED Highlights' Top Secret series (World Geography) and Which Way USA series (US Geography). Top Secret is much more substantive (I haven't been as happy with Which Way), but both have been fun and appealing and informative and therefore... easy to implement!

 

HTH

I will 2nd the Draw series. This is our typical geography (Draw plus living books as we study countries) it is hands down my most favorite way to study geography. We use EM workbooks when we cannot fit in Draw (because we draw as a group but I love lotsoflittleducklings use of it independently. I hadn't even thought of that haha :)

[goldenecho]

Are you doing anything for history?   Are you planning to do world history? 

 

What I've been doing is pointing out all the places on the map we study in history--every chapter, whether they mention it or not, and asking my son what continent that is in.   Sometimes we will watch videos about the modern places in those areas, but I've kind of been slacking on that.

 

We also look at land form terminology as it comes up in history.  For instance--river and delta got covered when studying Egypt.  Peninsula was learned in when studying about Rome. 

 

There's also a free geography curriculum (link below) that I looked into that covers learning places on the map really well.   I think it would be better a little later (4th or 5th grade).  http://www.knowledgequestmaps.com/Globalmania.html

[Lucy the Valiant]

Have you seen Geography Now! on YouTube? 

[Earthmerlin]

It's not technically a program, but I purchased a wonderful book a while back called Give Your Child the World. It includes a list of more than 600 wonderful children's book recommendations that are arranged geographically and by audience age that teach geography, culture, and tell about the lifestyles of people who live in the locations you read about. There are also discussion notes for religion and other topics if that is something you want to cover.

We're using it as a geography study this year (and maybe even continue into next..). We locate each place we read about on our globe, discuss what we learned, and stop and pursue interest-led learning if my DS wants to. I'm also teaching map skills. It has been very enjoyable.

Are the books listed in 'Give Your Child the World' pretty easy to locate--especially from libraries? I've been eyeing that book for some time and wonder if our library system (which is decent) would have the books it mentions.

[Bluegoat]

So, we do geography with history too, and also to some extent through literature.  I generally make a point to have a map on hand for the area of the world that we are focusing on.

 

I've also though used World Geography computer games online, and it's actually worked really well for basic drill for all my kids, and even me.  Also, they think it is a computer game and counts as screen time.  I'm not generally big on most computer learning but that's one area that seems very amenable to that approach.

 

Two other things - it can help map work a lot of you can actually do some orienteering or geocaching or even chart-reading on a boat.  With young kids you don't need to teach them to do it themselves, but getting out in the good weather and hiking and showing how you use the map and compass is really interesting to many.  

 

And I have had really good luck at that age using Paddle to the Sea as suggested in the AOL program.  It seems to be a very compelling story to kids and is perfect if you can get hold of a map of the Great Lakes region.  

[ktgrok]

And thanks to this thread I have now ordered the draw the world or whatever it was called workbook and also the geography song CD. I did not need to order more curriculum now!

[Another Lynn]

My oldest ds says he learned all the geography he knows playing Civilization.  :tongue_smilie:  

[knitgrl]

There are lots of positive comments about the Drawing books. Could someone explain the benefits of being able to draw a map from memory? I don't understand. It seems a lot of homeschoolers think it's important, so there must be something to it that I am missing.

[Erielle]

Are the books listed in 'Give Your Child the World' pretty easy to locate--especially from libraries? I've been eyeing that book for some time and wonder if our library system (which is decent) would have the books it mentions.

 

I haven't had any trouble locating books from the library. Our local library does have an interlibrary loan program where we are able to checkout books from participating libraries in the state and around the USA. If yours has a program like that then you certainly wouldn't have any trouble just as long as you plan ahead to make sure you'll have the books you need when you want them. I live in Texas and have borrowed some books all the way from Alabama. It never took more than a week to receive them. :)

[ktgrok]

There are lots of positive comments about the Drawing books. Could someone explain the benefits of being able to draw a map from memory? I don't understand. It seems a lot of homeschoolers think it's important, so there must be something to it that I am missing.

 

I think it's just another memorization tool. If they can draw the countries they can remember the countries. And for an art lover like my daughter it's an easy way to sneak in Geography. 

[Earthmerlin]

I haven't had any trouble locating books from the library. Our local library does have an interlibrary loan program where we are able to checkout books from participating libraries in the state and around the USA. If yours has a program like that then you certainly wouldn't have any trouble just as long as you plan ahead to make sure you'll have the books you need when you want them. I live in Texas and have borrowed some books all the way from Alabama. It never took more than a week to receive them. :)

Thanks for the reply. I ended up buying the book. I went through it and like the suggestions. It was a pleasant surprise to see we've read many of her suggested titles!

[Carolinagirl1]

I haven't read all the posts, but we love Seterra for map drills. You can play the game (map quizzes) online or on the app. My girls have enjoyed this more than anything else to learn maps. 

 

We also did Evan Moore Daily Geography, which is quick and easy.

 

If you want cultural/social geography, you can add in the books recommended by Simply Charlotte Mason - Hungry Planet and Material World. Maybe do some map tracing/drawing and read the books relating to the area that you are drawing. 

 

OH, we have also (currently) used/been using the drawing books by Kristin Draeger to learn to draw various parts of the world.