Beautiful Feet Geography or Galloping the Globe?

[PentecostalMom]

I would like a simple, yet complete, program to skim over with dd for 1st grade. We will be doing some light mapwork with SL, but I (and dh) want something a little more in depth. Keep in mind I have a toddler and will have a newborn. I have a read a few threads about GTG, and many say trips to the library are necessary, or buying books. The library, for a multitude of reasons, is not an option, so I would have to purchase the supplements. I would also prefer something that is pretty much open and go, that is why BF looks appealing. I can buy the whole kit with maps.

 

I do not want a workbooky type thing. If either of these would be a good fit, please let me know. If not, or if you have a better suggestion, please let me know that as well. I don't mind printing a few things, but I really would prefer as open and go as possible.

 

TIA!

[kolamum]

I can only speak about G.G. because it's all I used.. BUT, I'm REALLY curious about the BF stuff.. maybe I need to do a spinoff thread so as not to hijack yours!

 

As for GG:

 

Here's the scoop for us. It's good, but I felt many of the books called for weren't needed. For instance.. We obtained the Science Book called for and used it one time. I didn't like it, I don't know why other then it was too much for my rising 1st grader.

 

Each country covered a mammal, so I didn't feel the need to spend 30 some odd bucks on that book and was kinda annoyed I had. I ended up selling it in the end. I also picked up the Rod & Staff book they called for. I dunno, we didn't need it. If your child knows basic geography I think you'll feel the same way. ;)

 

Outside of that, we owned many of the story books called for because they matched up with the FIAR curriculum we were using. We spent one week on a FIAR book and one week on a country. Super simple.

 

You can purchase it as a whole pack with all the books. In fact, I've seen it sold used that way. It ONLY covers WORLD geography. If you want US geography you'll need Cantering The Country which I don't own.

 

I will say that I'm intrigued by BF geography because I want some world geography for my troops this year, but I couldn't decide how much of that was covered in BF as it seemed tilted towards US geography which we'll get plenty of. That said, I only viewed the previews on their website. I could be very wrong. :D

[Mom0012]

Well, the year we used GTG was one of our best, but it does involve lots of trips the library. We read tons of books for each country, so I'm not sure how great it would be to try and buy them. If you really want to make it fun, it takes time to plan it all out. We cooked, did tons of crafts, watched dvds on the country, etc. It really isn't an open and go program, in my opinion. Part of the reason for that is the recommended resources they sell in their bundle were not very good. We didn't use them at all (except for Children Around the World, but I know they have updated the program since we used it. Also, there is not much in the way of mapwork in GTG. We added http://www.sheppardsoftware.com to our year (and still use it as a refresher) to learn the location of all the countries.

 

I know nothing about Beautiful Feet Geography.

 

Lisa

[LoveBaby]

I haven't used GTG, but it seems pretty in depth for a 1st grader, especially if you are just wanting a "light" geography to skim over, KWIM?

 

Beautiful Feet books are beautiful, but the mapwork would be too much for a 1st grader.

 

My suggestion would be the 2nd grade social studies book from Rod & Staff. Our Father's World It's really sweet and covers all of the early geography that you are looking for.

[G5052]

I have used both different years for light summer studies, and Beautiful Feet Geography is for a bit older children IMHO. The maps are very detailed and it requires a bit more background to grasp the books they use and record what they say on the maps. Most libraries have some of the Beautiful Feet books, so you might check one out and think about it. Even as a read-aloud, the Hollings books are very meaty.

 

Galloping the Globe is more "general" geography with literature options that you choose. We enjoyed it quite a bit, and I still have the notebook that we made. I think we used it when it first came out.

[mom&nana]

I used Galloping the globe for one country. It is not open and go. It requires many books from the library and it took a good deal of planning on my part. Also a lot of the worksheets included in the book were too advanced for my kids who were 4 and 5 at the time.

 

I've never seen the BF study so I can't comment on that. I'm not sure if there's an easy open and go option for this age.

 

Here's a few more options you could look at. This one is free and similar to Galloping the Globe. There's also this one, I don't know anything about it.

 

I know you said open and go but....

Here's what I would do... I'd buy this book from Amazon, and maybe this one. Use these sheets from Homeschool Creations to go along with the book Children Just like me that I linked. Scroll down to see those specific sheets. There's other printables there for geography but they might be too much for a young child. Then I'd purchase and print some of the Geography materials from either Montessori Print Shop or Montessori for Everyone and make continent Bags/boxes. If you want ideas for Continent bags then look here. You can also find some Geography puzzles from Timberdoodle. I wouldn't go in depth too much. That's why I like the Montessori printables because you could introduce people, places, foods, animals for each culture easily.

This will take a little work on your part to prepare but it could be open and go once you gather everything.

 

I hope I didn't overwhelm you with options and by the way I'm a Pentecostal mom as well...United Pentecostal to be exact. :)

[Ellie]

I would't even try Beautiful Feet Books at this stage.

[stephanie]

I've used GtG and BF both, and my dc loved them both. We used GtG first, then BF. GtG was more "work", but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. At the time I used it my situation was very much like yours in that I had a little one, and all the dc were just younger. They absolutely LOVED the Christmas chapter in it, and they still talk about it.

 

We used BF 2 years ago, and that, too, was a great success. The stories are absolutely beautiful (I think), and my kids were so excited to do Geography. I read them, of course, because the reading can be difficult. Everytime my kids see a turtle now they always say, "Look, it's Minn!"

 

In terms of actually learning something and sticking, BF would be the winner on that. GtG was more "fun" and informational kind of work for us. We used an Atlas and looked up the places on the computer for more pics. I think BF worked so well because it was an immersion of that geographical place for the length of the book, and everytime we read it we went back to the same maps. I ordered the maps from BF and laminated them. We would draw lines on the maps, or I would have the kids come and circle the location we were at. It worked for us.

 

I hope you find what you need and that this helped a bit!!