Trivium Academy Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 I'm not looking for an integrated program with literature, art and cross-curricula focuses. I want a nitty-gritty workbook with tons of concrete mapping activities that will teach through application. Color would be a plus but not necessary, a little bit of teaching prompts would be nice too but not completely necessary. I would like something for U.S. Geography, to learn the states and their locations as well as capitals, physical attributes (such as what states border the Mississippi River) and cultural information. We have Great States the game and the Leap Frog Explorer Smart Globe which we will use regularly. I would also like a similar product for World Geography...:001_smile: I'm not thrilled with the cost of the Trail Guides to Geography from GeoMatters in respect to what I'm looking for, there's much more projects and cross-curriculas than we need or want. What I've seen that could possibly be good is: U.S. Geography: Where in the U.S. Are You? by Carson-Dellosa World Geography: Where in the World Are You? by Carson-Dellosa or The Complete Book of Maps & Geography Grades 3-6 by School Specialty Publishing Does anyone have any other suggestions before I pursue these further and try to see them in person (having a store order them for me to preview)? Open and go is essential, we have great atlases already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AudreyTN Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 What about Spectrum Geography? I had considered using it next year. Or there's this one by Rand McNally. I have the Beginner version. It looks like your choices fit what you want better though. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trivium Academy Posted January 17, 2009 Author Share Posted January 17, 2009 Thank you Audrey, we have the Rand-McNally Beginning Activities too, ;) I'll go ahead and see about previewing the Carson-Dellosa titles through our local teacher supply store, I think I might be complicating things. I looked at what we have and although I could plan and piecemeal something together with all that we currently have, I want a workbook but I'm realizing a workbook cannot be 'everything'. So I'm taking a dose of reality and will settle for something that fits the most of what I'm looking for. Thank you for your help and the links they really helped me process this... :hurray: With gratitude, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 We used the US Geography: Where in the United State are you? book last year. I did not like the book. The one page summation was too brief, imo. I initially chose it because it was one of the few books I could preview that was laid out by regions. Our teacher supply stores carries it and I would recommend previewing before purchase to see if it will work for your needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joan in GE Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 (edited) I live in Switzerland but have access to the used books from the local international school and so have been able to look at all kinds of geography materials from England. From what I have seen of US materials (I'm American), the British ones are much much better. Recently my 10 dd read through Geography 360 (link below) and found it very interesting. It also covers worldwide topics. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Geography-360-Core-Students-Book/dp/0435356739/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232207014&sr=1-1 They have some good map skills ones as well. I don't have these ones exactly but some similar ones. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Basic-Mapwork-Skills-Simon-Ross/dp/0748774092/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1232204411&sr=1-2 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Skills-Common-Entrance-Geography-Stage/dp/0340905026/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1232204411&sr=1-1 You can have the UK items sent to the US... Best, Edited January 17, 2009 by Joan in Geneva wrong link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riverfront Headmistress Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 As simple as it sounds, just use a blank map. I've blown up a map 11x15 and had it laminated. Each week, the girls are expected to learn more locations and physical features. For our school, it ties into US history which is also what we're studying in history. But, you wouldn't have to tie in into your history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommy25 Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 Hi Jessica, You might try these geography units published by Evan-Moor. They cover each continent in detail. You could always supplement these units with maps from Uncle Josh's maps. Or these books are wonderful but a little pricey published by Great Source. HTH! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smg0918 Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 My kids have enjoyed the Maps, Globes and Graphs series by Steck Vaughn. We started using it as part of the Calvert curriculum in first and second grade, and then continued with it even after we dropped Calvert because the kids really liked it. It's definitely "open and go" -- geography is one subject that my kids do fairly independently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 I think you might really like the Evan Moore Daily Geography and/ or the Great Source workbooks. The Spectrum geography workbooks might be useful. The UK book Across This Land by John Hudson looks good. The MacMillan/ McGraw Hill social studies book Our Country and Its Regions might be good for US geography, but I'm not sure how hard that would be to get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neesek Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 My ds is working through the Complete Book of Maps and Geography this year. I chose it for many of the reasons you listed: open and go, minimal teacher involvement, completeness, and able to be used fairly independently. So far, I have really liked it. We probably won't finish it this year, but that's ok. I also may save the states and capitals until we do American history, but I haven't decided yet. Have you looked at the preview for it on Amazon? It is definitely not a complete geography program, but it does fill our need this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trivium Academy Posted January 17, 2009 Author Share Posted January 17, 2009 Updating The Complete Book of Maps and Geography is still in the running Geography For All Seasons by Prufrock Press looks like a lot of fun I'd like to know more about Mapping the World by Heart but wonder if the cost is worth the program, esp. since we'd only use it for 1 year. I went to the school supply store and saw Evan Moor's Take it to Your Seat Geography Center grades 3-4 and grades 4-5, I think we could use those two books but I wasn't able to look very long b/c I had ds4 with me. Any bad experiences with this? still looking... the UK resources looked great but they focus more on Europe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagira Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 (edited) I like Discovering the World of Geography by National Geographic. It sounds like what you may be looking for. I'm including the link to Rainbow Resource as there are sample pages to look at. Edited January 18, 2009 by sagira Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neesek Posted January 17, 2009 Share Posted January 17, 2009 (edited) I like Discovering the World of Geography by National Geographic. It sounds like what you may be looking for. I'm including the link to Rainbow Resource as there are sample pages to look at. This series looks good. I have added it to my wishlist for possible use in the future. Thanks! Edited January 18, 2009 by neesek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christine Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 I'd like to know more about Mapping the World by Heart but wonder if the cost is worth the program, esp. since we'd only use it for 1 year. I want to answer, in re: to this one. I bought this program when it first became available. . .ages ago. I would think / hope, they've upgraded it. I found it incredibly challenging to schedule. (That said, I refuse to buy TOG because I've tried to schedule the free unit they have on-line, and it threw me for fits. . and I know you are a TOG fan / scheduler.) I did get a schedule done, but I never actually implemented it. Never once in that book, MtWbH, other than right at the beginning and right at the end, is it ever suggested to draw. (Never got that.) (Again, remember I have one of the oldest versions out there.) There were other issues as well, but I can't recall them at this time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usetoschool Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 We love doing the Evan-Moor Geography Centers but be warned - you have to cut out everything yourself to put the centers together and they are just printed on regular paper so unless you laminate them or something, they are hard to work with and get dog-eared pretty quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riada Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 We used this book last year and enjoyed it. It was thorough, inexpensive, not teacher intensive and yet she retained the information quite well. It sounds like it might fit what you are looking for. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trivium Academy Posted January 18, 2009 Author Share Posted January 18, 2009 Geesh, now I'm a little confused. I chose The Complete Book of Maps and Geography with Geography for all the Seasons but now I'm wondering about Discovering the World. My nagging thought is that this is just for 4th grade and we'd use all 4 of the Discovering the World titles...would it be too much for dd8? We've covered physical geography before although a refresher would be good, we used The Geography Book by Caroline Arnold as part of our earth science studies in 2nd. My concern with Discovering The World is that it might be too much to truly absorb and there doesn't seem to be a lot of instruction/teaching about the concepts. I want dd8 to have a more hands-on learning experience but not at the expensive of her not learning why she's doing the exercises. I think these would be good spread through the years but not all in one year. I was considering it strongly, b/c it does seem great! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PollyOR Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 For those that are interested... You can view all the pages in the National Geographic books here. Just click on "Look Inside." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagira Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 You can look inside here and see if you like what you see :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trivium Academy Posted January 19, 2009 Author Share Posted January 19, 2009 to use Discovering the World of Geography, all 4 books instead of The Complete Book of Maps & Geography and Geography For All the Seasons. I think dd8 (who loves playing geo games) will enjoy the World of Geo. more even though I was afraid of giving her something that may be above her grade level. I think working through the books level by level will be fine and if there is a need to stop, we can. After looking inside at all the pages and comparing, I decided to try it instead of having buyer's remorse. Thank you Sagira for sharing about it and others for linking the inside pages! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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