Mapping the World by Heart -- Q's please

[vlshort]

I'm contemplating purchasing this for use in a co-op next year. I haven't actually been able to get my hands on it yet, though, so I don't know a lot about the program. My plan was to use it JUST to learn the mapping skills. Could this be done in one hour per week?

 

Any other info you can share about the program would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!

-vanessa

[Guest]

I went through much of the program when my daughter told me she wanted to learn to memorize the world. I think it is a program you can tweak and fiddle to make as brief or as extensive as you like. For instance, they recommend when you being focusing on mapping a particular continent that you collect articles and pictures about it for a week or more; if your child is older and has a good grasp of general geography you could skip this.

 

The binder full of material I got was mostly a few exercises, long lists of countries, capitals, rivers, mountain ranges, etc., and various pages with longitude and latitude lines. What was missing, to me, was an extensive discussion of how to memorize so much visual material; I think the author must be a visual learner and finds this easy, so assumes others will as well. There were a few hints here and there, but the hints and tips on Mapping the World by Art were actually more useful for someone like me who needs to verbalize what thinks look like and have a little mini-program for drawing certain difficult areas or shapes. My daughter, on the other hand, did fine with just what was in the binder.

 

I think you could get by on an hour per week if the kids would practice at home. We found that it took quite a bit of practice to get things down in memory. If they draw a little bit every day it would help dramatically; this is a big, demanding project, but one I think is so well worth while to have a built-in mental map whenever you hear or read the news.

Edited March 11, 2010 by Guest

[abbeyej]

KarenAnne, are you talking about Mapping the World by Heart? What you describe does not sound like Mapping the World with Art to me.

[FloridaLisa]

I'm using Mapping the World by Heart this year with my 7th grader and used it several years ago with my oldest three. Actually, that's not true. I'm using the *concept* of mapping the world by heart, but I've pulled together a full world geography program from many different sources. MTWBH is a shell and provides very few lesson plans. I thought the lesson plans were missing the first time I purchased it! Aside from a lesson about map distorition and some lessons on topographical maps, MTWBH is primarily a set of blank continent maps with a list of countries, capitals and major physical landmarks. You can then use the list to map your way through each continent, concluding with a project to create a world map by memory.

 

Instead of MTWBH, I would recommend Trail Guide to World Geography. The lessons are more structured and fleshed out. I think it would be hard to make significant progress in world geography in 1 hour a week. Whilte the student could map 1 hour a week, I think it would be difficult to connect the dots from week to week for a meaningful study. I think 30 minutes 3 times a week is more reasonable for a true world geography study. You'll find, too, that world geograpy is a HUGE subject. It's one thing to learn places and names; it's another to flesh it out with culture, people groups, landmarks and vocabulary.

 

HTH,

Lisa

 

ETA: Just re-read your post and I see that you will be using it in co-op once a week. Aaah. I'm using MTWBH in a co-op as well with a once-a-week one hour class. That's enought time to review mapping and add some fun games. Again, though, if you're relying exclusivly on MTWBH, you will have to fill it out with your own lessons. I'm using a combination of MTWBH, Trail Guide, Runkle student book and other games and projects I've collected over the years. It's a GREAT co-op study and we are thoroughly enjoying it!

Edited March 11, 2010 by FloridaLisa

[Guest]

KarenAnne, are you talking about Mapping the World by Heart? What you describe does not sound like Mapping the World with Art to me.

 

Mapping the World by Heart was the one that I thought you needed to have a good visual memory to use; it was the binder with lists of places and blank templates with longitude and latitude lines.

 

Mapping with World with Art has more ideas and is a fuller program about mapping and the history of mapping. It had various pages laid out that talked you through how to draw various locations and how to remember what they looked like, which I found I needed but my daughter did not.

 

It's weird, isn't it, that there are two programs with such similar names?

[plain jane]

What grades would this be for? Another option for you that may be a bit less time intensive is using Draw Your World from Winterpromise. The website says it's good for grades 3-12. I have not used it, but I did get the downloaded sample package and it looks pretty good. The sample pages are tricky to find, but I think this link should work. :)

 

Just thought I'd throw it out there.

Edited March 11, 2010 by plain jane