Handmaiden Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 I am drawn to Mapping the World by Heart despite the negative reviews. I've also read glowing reviews and wonder how there can be such a love/hate relationship with this particular curriculum. The negative comments refer to the lack of any real lesson plans and the high price. I've read that this program has been updated in 2010, and the producers claim that it now has a "comprehensive teacher's guide" with "detailed lesson plans." Has anyone used the latest edition? If so, can you share how detailed those lesson plans really are? This seems like such a cool way to learn geography, but for the price I want to be sure I'm getting my money's worth! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hebrews3:13 Posted April 14, 2011 Share Posted April 14, 2011 I am using it successfully this year with high schoolers doing World Geography. I am using the syllabus though at Hewitt. This is designed for high school aged students though. There are no lesson plans to speak of. They have it divided up like a meal- appetizer, entree, etc. It does have some lessons early on about maps, latitude, etc. that are fine, but I believe for the money you could do it yourself. The basic premise is using the checklists and an atlas and having the children map a certain area of the globe. The maps supplied have lines on them and the continent/country outlines. By year's end they are supposed to be able to draw the entire world (continents and a given set of countries, features) from memory at the correct approximate latitude, etc. One thing I do not like is that no maps with just lines are supplied for each area- only for the entire world and those are on a much smaller scale. So we are having difficulty here at year's end moving toward drawing the continents and countries as well as labeling them. They are so much smaller on the blank maps that it is challenging for the kids. I am still trying to figure that one out at this point. The final map is one you "build" and will be larger, but it is too inconvenient to make lots of those for practice. I am not sure you need your child to be able to draw the entire thing by heart on the correct latitude and longitude. I would be pleased with them just being able to label them all personally. It is good for them to have an idea where they are in relation to each other and on the globe, but that can be accomplished without the drama of drawing them on there. I have heard good things about "Mapping the World by Art" and would probably look at that if I taught it again. I had to add a lot to this to make it worth a credit for the students. I think the mapping and labeling is worthy of being done, but I would think you would also want to read great books about the area being studied and do other activities to reinforce what you are mapping. The maps and lists are nice, but you could come up with lists yourself. The maps you can actually buy separate from the curriculum at Rainbow Resource and make copies. They are good projections and well done in my opinion. He seemed to take a lot of pains with those. Hope this helps! Laurie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Handmaiden Posted April 14, 2011 Author Share Posted April 14, 2011 Laurie, thank you for taking the time to explain how you're using MTWBH. Now I'm more torn than ever! I may take your advice and just get the maps. Do you recommend getting a set for each student? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hebrews3:13 Posted April 15, 2011 Share Posted April 15, 2011 I would not. You will have to make copies to practice anyway, so I would use one set as masters. They are giant though 11 X 17 just FYI. Really, I am not sure of your goals, but you could get away with map outlines from any number of sources when I think about it. The nice thing about his maps are the latitude and longitude lines- at least for our purposes. I think as long as you have maps of the world where you have the children spend some time mapping each area too- so that they can see each area in relation to the others then you are fine. I hope this helps! Laurie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Handmaiden Posted April 15, 2011 Author Share Posted April 15, 2011 Thank you, again, Laurie! Can you tell me what's included in the Hewitt syllabus? I wonder if that would help me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cdally Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Im sorry I guess Im not understanding..Is this program taught by just copying a map or section of the globe and then eventually the child should have it memorized?I was interested in getting it but cant seem to fine anyone that likes it.I wish they had a sample lesson and not just the video.Can you explain how you are going it with your children?I guess I dont understand how you can do this on your own without this program.Besides just giving my children a section of a globe and have them copy it over and over again. Thx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 I would still strongly encourage you to look at Mapping the World with Art instead. Ellen J McHenry's program is excellent even if you ditch the history and activities and just do the mapping. It's engaging, useable, filled with clever ways to remember how to draw each region, and in the end it does all come together in a complete map. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandra Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 (edited) I just returned Mapping the World by Heart. The sample on the RR site showed a nice lesson on contour mapping, and the video on the mapping website was engaging. The actual book, however was a big disappointment, as a substantial portion of the book was just lists of countries and capitals. Somehow I had expected some drawing lessons like the ones on the McHenry site, only without the history. When I looked through MTWBH, I couldn't find any guide on how to get from the list to the memory map. This may just be me, but I found the presentation quite dry, boring actually. Presumably, a gifted teacher could devise exciting lesson plans for mapping by heart, but I don't actually see that a gifted teacher would need so many lists of countries. I didn't open the shrink-wrapped maps. so I can't comment on them. Definitely not worth $69, IMO. ETA My dd, completely on her own, copied each state from a U.S. map and taped them together. Her map is about 30" across and looks marvelous. So I am thinking that our collection of atlases, outline maps and so on will do just fine for now. (WHY did I think I needed to buy something???) For later, I am looking at the McHenry program and also the downloadable map collection from Homeschool in the Woods. I also like Spectrum Geography -- it's not mapmaking, just a nice, solid (and very inexpensive -- $6.95 from RR, I think) program. Edited July 18, 2012 by Alessandra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paintedlady Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 (edited) I would still strongly encourage you to look at Mapping the World with Art instead. Ellen J McHenry's program is excellent even if you ditch the history and activities and just do the mapping. It's engaging, useable, filled with clever ways to remember how to draw each region, and in the end it does all come together in a complete map. :iagree:That's what I did. I bought Mapping the World by Heart and never could get it off the ground. I just couldn't figure out where to start. I read somewhere that Ellen McHenry created her program in frustration from trying to teach the other course in a co-op. Edited July 18, 2012 by Paintedlady Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orozco Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 (edited) I found Mapping by heart. I also tried to find some sample lessons to review before purchasing because of the cost involved but came up empty. Despite this I decided to purchase it and am awaiting delivery. Yesterday, I came across Mapping with Art. I really liked the sample plans on thier website and is what I envisioned Mapping by Heart would be. It seems however that I am mistaken after reading these posts. I am however less heart broken now that I hear from Alessandra that the remaining lessons in the Mapping with Art do not measure up to the sample lesson on the website. I'll see if I can make Mapping by Heart work. Oops, woefully I just saw Alessandra was refering to mapping by heart. I think I will return mine and go with mapping with art. Edited July 25, 2012 by orozco misunderstanding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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