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Anyone used Mapping the world by heart??


Sweetbeebie
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Way overpriced with essentially no instruction for how to teach someone to map the world "by heart." It is a glorified book of lists.

 

Have you looked at Mapping the World with Art by Ellen McHenry? It is what I hoped Mapping the World by Heart would be.

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Hmmm... for those that bought it and never used it, was that the previous version?

 

I know there's a revised version that came out this spring. I've been looking at it - and wondering if the new one comes with more hand-holding. I just looked up the product description:

 

 

 

Designed for grades 5-12,
Mapping the World by Heart
includes a set of maps and a comprehensive teacher’s guide that makes it easy to integrate lessons and activities into any class’s existing curriculum. Combining memorization with the real use of knowledge, practice, mnemonics, large and small group activities, and games,
Mapping the World by Heart

 

inspires students to study – and love – geography.

 

Did the old version have a "comprehensive teacher's guide" (that may or may not have been "comprehensive" LOL.)? Or is that a new addition?

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I just downloaded the TOC for this one... it looks like the focus is historical maps vs. current maps, right?

 

No, not really... There are three main elements to each lesson: a history lesson (chronological history of efforts to map the known world), activities that generally help the student understand how those efforts were made, and a drawing lesson for a part of the world. The drawing lesson is generally related to the history lesson in some way, but the maps are generally contemporary, though there are sometimes discussions of changing geologic features or political changes and name changes.

 

It's entirely possible to skip the history portion and just use the mapping lessons (there are step-by-step drawings and a dvd, so you can use either or both in order to learn how to draw each map). I think the history is good, if a bit dry. Best for about 5th grade and up. There are a *ton* of activities for each lesson, some just fun, and others really good for helping kids understand the science behind mapmaking or measuring the world, etc. Whether to do any of them is up to the teacher.

 

But the real value for me in the program is the dvds. They're just fantastic. All you see is the piece of paper and the hands. And Mrs. McHenry slowly and carefully explains everything she's doing. If you do the map along with the dvd a couple of times, then attempt to draw it on your own, then refer back to double check... Well, you'll have a *greatly* improved understanding of that particular region of the world.

 

Over the course of the 30 lessons, you draw basically the whole world. And several lessons help you see how all of the pieces fit together.

 

The final project is to draw (freehand) an entire world map.

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I also bought and never used Mapping the World by Heart, for all of the above reasons, but if you are looking just for a way to learn the locations of the countries, Visualize World Geography (www.tenderheartpress.com) is waaaaay cool. It is a one-trick pony, but if you are going to have just one trick, it's a good one. My 6 year old can already identify all of the countries in South America, Central America, North America and half of Europe.

 

Terri

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I have used it.

 

Honestly, you can do this on your own SO easily. Save the money to buy a great atlas, world map, globe, and big paper. :001_smile:

 

All you need to do is list out what you want dc to learn, continent by continent, and then have them trace, then draw looking, then draw without looking. Meanwhile, make flashcards of the states and capitals, provinces and capitals, and countries and capitals and drill them and play games with them.

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I also bought and never used Mapping the World by Heart, for all of the above reasons, but if you are looking just for a way to learn the locations of the countries, Visualize World Geography (www.tenderheartpress.com) is waaaaay cool. It is a one-trick pony, but if you are going to have just one trick, it's a good one. My 6 year old can already identify all of the countries in South America, Central America, North America and half of Europe.

 

This looks interesting, but I noticed the Biblical reference on their webpage, and links to Bible study materials. I would like to know whether their products have any religious references in them.

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This looks interesting, but I noticed the Biblical reference on their webpage, and links to Bible study materials. I would like to know whether their products have any religious references in them.

 

I have not come across Biblical references yet, and we are through S. America, N. America, Australia and a big chunk of Europe. There may be a Bible verse on the dedication page, but I am not sure of even that (I am not at home and don't have the book to check). You could always e-mail her and ask. The stories that go along with the pictographs are certainly not religious--they are just silly little stories about fish or food courts or men wearing jackets, whatever fits the countries.

 

Terri

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I also bought and never used Mapping the World by Heart, for all of the above reasons, but if you are looking just for a way to learn the locations of the countries, Visualize World Geography (www.tenderheartpress.com) is waaaaay cool. It is a one-trick pony, but if you are going to have just one trick, it's a good one. My 6 year old can already identify all of the countries in South America, Central America, North America and half of Europe.

 

Terri

I really like the look of that one! <insert to shopping list> ;)

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Definitely look at Mapping the World with Art instead. I can't say enough wonderful about it! I *wanted* to like Mapping the World by Heart, but just found it unusable (and over-priced).

 

We are using Mapping the World with ART this year and LOVE it. It is so easy to implement and dd is really enjoying it. She is drawing maps she is proud of and enjoying the extra activities.

 

I tried to do the Elements curriculum this summer and it flopped with my kids. I was nervous about how Mapping would go, but it may be my best find this year.

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  • 2 weeks later...

We began Mapping the World by Heart this year, and I'm loving. I agree that it lacks specific instructions on how to implement the program, but I've been in regular contact with the author via his email link on his mapping.com site. He's been incredibly responsive and helpful.

 

In our talks, I've discovered that he intentionally left out a lot of instruction with the intent that students would develop skills in teaching themselves. Like many who have tried the program, I was at first unsure of how to proceed, but I've asked lots of questions and am liking what I see so far.

 

The author recently posted the following on amazon:

 

The biggest criticism that seems to appear in the reviews here is that the material doesn't tell people "how to teach their children how to draw the world". This is completely on purpose. Read on.

 

In my view, the job of the teacher is not to TEACH how to draw the countries and land masses, but to give children lots of opportunity to FIGURE IT OUT FOR THEMSELVES, to TEACH THEMSELVES. And the program is designed to help teachers and homeschoolers to find ways to help children teach themselves, and has worked succcessfully for 20 years.

 

Also note that the new publisher does not ship a VHS tape, and that the maps and contents are all new since the Summer of 2010.

 

How to prepare kids to map the world by heart...

 

I suggest doing nothing at all about learning borders and continents and so on during the school year -- to impose an overlay of "memorization" on all the regional maps creates a constant sense of panic.

 

Instead, the students teach themselves how to draw the boundaries and borders during the "getting ready" time, in the 3 weeks before they make their final memory maps. They study and memorize the borders, they create their own mnemonics, and they teach them to each other.

 

Here's the general order of what I do...

1. Run off lots of blank maps in the grid you've decided to use.

 

2. For each student, run off one filled-in map to be used for checking.

2a. Post one filled in map on each available window in the classroom, so students can hold their hand-made maps on top and check their work.

 

3. Students practice every night -- start with the point where 0 degrees of longitude meets zero degrees of latitude, and learn the coast of Africa, each night a little more. Africa generally takes a week. But by then, they are already "learning how to learn..."; some students will be very "right-brained", and try to do connect-the-dots and other literal techniques; others will be very "left-brained", and will focus on shapes and general relationships. Most students find a method somewhere in between that works for them.

 

4. In class each day, hand out a blank map and say "show me what you learned last night". This will give you a good idea of how they are doing.

 

5. Let students ask questions of each other -- I call them coping questions. They can ask these out loud, or if they think everybody else knows it and they'll embarrass themselves, then they can drop a card in the classroom "suggestion box". For example, you might get "I know the countries in Central America but not the order they are in; how have others learned this...", to which one or more will reply with a mnemonic ("beware of hot gorillas eating nitrates casually, pop" for example); "I can't get the top of Russia to look right...", to which somebody might say "it's a triangle, and here's how I make it..."; "how did you learn the African countries on the Mediterranean, to which somebody says "a MALE from Tunisia..."; etc., etc.

 

6. Bit by bit, students make sense of it all; during the actual map-making, they can review at home each night for the section they plan to do in class the next day. It really does work.

 

I hope that helps.

 

David Smith, author of "Mapping the World By Heart"

 

Here are some things I've done with my children:

 

We were working on the US map the other day. After filling in the state names and capitols along with most major features, I gave my son another blank US map. I asked him to look at the shapes of the states to see if they look like anything to him (kind of like finding shapes in the clouds). I told him he could color in any shapes he saw. That was all it took. Florida became a gun. Minnesota a gnome. Oklahoma a pot like Johnny Appleseed might have worn. He has had such fun learning the states this way, and we're all happy.

 

Yes, Mapping the World takes a little extra thought on our parts, but in the end, our children will have a map in their heads that makes the effort well worth the additional work. I hope this helps many of you who would like to look into this curriculum.

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But if one has to come up with everything themselves, then....why buy the program?

 

Exactly. The most Mapping provides you is a bunch of lists of countries and capitals, other than a few activity ideas. You can easily come up with the lists yourself and save the money. What makes students able to "map the world by heart" is the consistent, dedicated time spent drawing. You can't buy that. :001_smile:

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