LolaT Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Does anyone know of a secular geography curriculum like Expedition Earth? (for the same age group) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in VA Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Ok - this is weird. Knowledge Quest has a new geography program out called Expedition Earth but the one on your link isn't it. Here's a link to the Knowledge Quest one. I believe it's secular. The book itself is about the countries and the CD comes with the lesson plans, activities etc. http://www.knowledgequestmaps.com/Expedition-Earth.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarawatsonim Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 It is possible to make it secular. That is what I bought to use and we teach secularly, just skip the prayer step. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nov05mama Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 It is possible to make it secular. That is what I bought to use and we teach secularly, just skip the prayer step. Ditto. We are using EE and adding in our own stuff and I've just skipped the prayer part...it's not like there is something I have to read to DS and omit...he just doesn't even know it exists...we pretty much just use the map/flag pages and then suggested reads and crafts. I've since added so much 'other' stuff to our mix that really EE is just for the map/flag in our house :001_huh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LolaT Posted March 22, 2011 Author Share Posted March 22, 2011 Knowledge Quest has a new geography program out called Expedition Earth http://www.knowledgequestmaps.com/Expedition-Earth.html I looked at this one the other day and although at first I was impressed with the number of countries it covers when I looked at the samples, it just looked like a fact summary page for each one. Kind of dry. I don't want her just memorizing facts. The other Expedition Earth looks a bit more interesting for little kids. I was thinking of just making it secular too if there was nothing else out there. I like the price and that it's downloadable. But I just wanted to see if there were any other options first. Any other suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in VA Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I looked at this one the other day and although at first I was impressed with the number of countries it covers when I looked at the samples, it just looked like a fact summary page for each one. Kind of dry. I don't want her just memorizing facts. The other Expedition Earth looks a bit more interesting for little kids. I was thinking of just making it secular too if there was nothing else out there. I like the price and that it's downloadable. But I just wanted to see if there were any other options first. Any other suggestions? I wonder about that too. I noticed that in the description it says the Cd has all of the plans, activities, recipes etc but I can't find a sample of those. It's a brand-new product . I think it could be really good if those samples are good. I emailed the company today to see if they could send me any samples of the activities part. I'll let you know if they do. I don't know what else to recommend. I'm in the market for a geography program as well and while I don't mind if it's secular or not, I still haven't found anything I like. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymonkeybug Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Not sure if Geography Matters is secualr or Christian but worth a look http://www.geomatters.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindyz Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Does anyone know of a secular geography curriculum like Expedition Earth? (for the same age group) We use this. It's very easy to secularize. There are plenty of activities and information sources that you can easily skip the religious portions and still have too much to do. I supplement it with notebook pages and lapbook from Galloping the Globe. I looked at Knowledge Quest's new product and agree that it looked very dry and just a fact page for each country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LolaT Posted March 22, 2011 Author Share Posted March 22, 2011 Thank you for the suggestions. OK, Geography Matters: Galloping The Globe -definitely not secular it looks like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 I looked at the Expedition Earth from Confessions of a Homeschooler. It looks interesting but I wasn't sure how much of it we would use - I wouldn't do the prayer/religious stuff, likely wouldn't do the songs and I did download the Animals supplement for free. I have a membership to Enchanted Learning for maps, flags and various information on different countries. I basically got the Intellego unit studies Continent unit, then using some ideas from Homeschool Creations, National Geographic Kids and Time for Kids, I put together my own studies. I'm not planning too much depth right now since the kids are young. Basically - Find the country on our large, dry-erasable wall map and circle it, look at the features - rivers, mountains, bordering countries and oceans/bodies of water, look at a picture of the flag and color one, look at currency (real or pictures), look at a sample of the alphabet if its different than ours, Time for Kids has information on various landmarks for various countries and then a Native Lingo section where you can hear the language being spoken. National Geographic Kids has information and pictures on the people, culture, government, religion of each country and usually a short video. We will read a couple picture books about the country, learn about special holidays and the people. We have Children Just Like Me, Children Just Like Me: Celebrations, Children Just Like Me: Our Favorite Stories and a book of World Folktales. We do at least one craft for each country. Last, we learn about the animals of that country, usually using National Geographic Kids for videos and information. We may pick one animal to look into more (Panda for China, Komodo Dragon for Indonesia). So far we've done Antarctica (which was pretty easy since no real culture), China and India - details of what we did can be seen on my blog (in siggy). We'll be finishing up Japan this week and then doing Israel and Saudi Arabia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LolaT Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 Great! Thank you for all the resources/ideas. I'll be checking out your blog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Trip Around the World and Another Trip Around the World are written for elementary and include a variety of activities.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlebug42 Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Great Books Academy (greatbooksacademy.org) has an interesting geography course of study that uses materials from National Geographic. My sister is using it and it looks very interesting. I may being using it year after next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satori Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 I looked at the Expedition Earth from Confessions of a Homeschooler. It looks interesting but I wasn't sure how much of it we would use - I wouldn't do the prayer/religious stuff, likely wouldn't do the songs and I did download the Animals supplement for free. I have a membership to Enchanted Learning for maps, flags and various information on different countries. I basically got the Intellego unit studies Continent unit, then using some ideas from Homeschool Creations, National Geographic Kids and Time for Kids, I put together my own studies. I'm not planning too much depth right now since the kids are young. Basically - Find the country on our large, dry-erasable wall map and circle it, look at the features - rivers, mountains, bordering countries and oceans/bodies of water, look at a picture of the flag and color one, look at currency (real or pictures), look at a sample of the alphabet if its different than ours, Time for Kids has information on various landmarks for various countries and then a Native Lingo section where you can hear the language being spoken. National Geographic Kids has information and pictures on the people, culture, government, religion of each country and usually a short video. We will read a couple picture books about the country, learn about special holidays and the people. We have Children Just Like Me, Children Just Like Me: Celebrations, Children Just Like Me: Our Favorite Stories and a book of World Folktales. We do at least one craft for each country. Last, we learn about the animals of that country, usually using National Geographic Kids for videos and information. We may pick one animal to look into more (Panda for China, Komodo Dragon for Indonesia). So far we've done Antarctica (which was pretty easy since no real culture), China and India - details of what we did can be seen on my blog (in siggy). We'll be finishing up Japan this week and then doing Israel and Saudi Arabia. :iagree: We are doing pretty much the same. I'm sorry Lola I didn't answer your email (or was it blog comment), I had a busy weekend and I wasn't familiar with what you were asking. I just know that either of the Expedition Earth was not going to be secular enough for me to use. I use the Knowledge Quest maps because they're pretty, but over 1/3 of the maps are religious in nature. I'm not looking for a program where I can only use 2/3 of the intended program. Galloping the Globe was never an option for me either. So we're blazing our own path. We had great success learning US state geography. Now we're learning Africa, we plan to learn all the countries and then move on to another continent. My daughter is obsessed with geography trivia, so we'll pick up some basic facts about each country just for fun. Only earlier today (before I read this thread) did I realize I have an active Enchanted Learning membership and I was so excited to see all the new additions this year. Tons of country maps, flags, worksheets, books, even on obscure countries in Africa! Like Dottie, we're keeping it simple and doing much of the same as her family is. We may not even get to the craft part. I think we'll use our globes/maps/atlases/books we already have, Google Earth, Intellego, DE videos, EnchantedLearning, and the Internet. A lot of work, but we enjoy it so much, it makes it worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovedtodeath Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 I made my own and put it on a blog. I never did schedule in a couple of the books, but I plan to finish it and post it somewhere. http://www.homeschoolslikeus.com/blog.php?user=4CedarsClassicalSchool You will need to do a control F for cultures because I have no idea how to get you to the start of it. I can email you a Microsoft Word file if it is easier. My profile has pictures of a couple of the projects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LolaT Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 Yay, I have a lot of ideas to look at now. I was reluctant to put together my own thing mostly because of time. Right now, we are doing Prehistory which I do on my own and even though the main activities are making a timeline page for each period and a crossword puzzle, sometimes we're waiting for me to prepare these as I'm just doing it as we go along. I want to do the Geography when we finish Prehistory. That's why I was kind of looking at open-and-go type of thing. But I may just need to spend some time and plan/prepare it all out before we get started using some of the resources mentioned here. That sounds like it might be the best approach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cara Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 We're doing it also, the only thing I have seen that needs to be taken out are the prayers, DS and DD don't even know they exist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LolaT Posted April 21, 2011 Author Share Posted April 21, 2011 OK, I decided to just get Expedition Earth to make my life easier. I have a preschooler starting phonics and a 1 yo that may stop napping in the mornings at any time. And I'll be using some of the resources suggested to me here. So, now I'm trying to decide what additional books I'm going to get. I've put these in the shopping cart so far: The Usborne Geography Encyclopedia: With Complete World Atlas Geography from A to Z: A Picture Glossary (Trophy Picture Books) Wonders of the World Coloring Book - Dover Sticker Dolly Dressing Around the World Around the World in 80 Tales Peoples of the World - Usborne (not sure if I'll like this but I looked at the more popular Children Just Like me at the library and it felt kind of outdated. If anyone has any opinions on these or other suggestions... Also considering A Life Like Mine) The other ones I'm not sure about are A Trip Around the World. Are these really worth the price? I can't see what's in them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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