Road Trip Usa (Confessions...) or Trail Guide to US Geography?

[momsuz123]

Hi all,

Okay, we are looking at doing a geography unit this year. I have the COAH Road Trip from the Omnibus. It looks great, and has gotten good reviews. My concern, is how much prep work I may have to do.

 

Then, while I was searching here I stumbled upon Trail guide to geography. That looks awesome.

 

What are your thoughts? Differences between the two? Which did you use and why? Did you like it?

[~Amanda~]

following

[happyWImom]

I haven't done either (why am I responding :huh: ) but, I have used Expedition Earth from COAH.  It was great.  And I could use it the way I wanted.  If it was used the way she uses it, it is a super full curriculum (she does the memory work stuff with it)but since we were using other things, sometimes I did the bare bones stuff.  

 

I am sure you could do the same with Road Trip.  By prep work, do you mean getting the add'l books (from the library) or are you talking crafts, wkbk pgs., what?

 

By bare bones, if you just read the state info. that's in the teacher's manual & have them fill out the state sheets, along with the songs they would still get a lot.  I'm not saying only do that, but if you get bogged down, sometimes.  They have review games & review cards that you should do weekly, but the cards can be used however you wish.  And, there are optional books to further the history portion, but you wouldn't have to get those.  We did lots of recipes & crafts, but we didn't do them for every country, just like you wouldn't have to for every state.  Pick & choose.  It looks great.

[momsuz123]

Thanks, by prep work I mean the lapbook activities in Road Trip. Sometimes I find myself doing more of it. I like the suggestion though of tweeking it though. Like using the state sheets, etc.

[happyWImom]

Thanks, by prep work I mean the lapbook activities in Road Trip. Sometimes I find myself doing more of it. I like the suggestion though of tweeking it though. Like using the state sheets, etc.

I have to say, we were really bad about the lapbooking. :blushing:   I had them fill in the info. , but never actually cut out the pieces & put into a lapbook.  Also, while I loved the idea of the animal lapbook & info. we never did it.

 

I still feel they got a lot out of the things we did do, though.

[kagmypts]

Double Post.

[kagmypts]

This is somewhat off-topic, but is Road Trip USA included in this year's Omnibus?  If so, I'm in.  :-)

[happyWImom]

I thought I saw that it was-not 100% sure, though.

[threeofakind]

We just started using Trail Guide to US Geography and we are loving it!  I have no experience with the other program so I can't compare but I can tell you a little bit about TGUS.  We started the program 3 weeks ago and I use it with a 5th and 3rd grader, though it can be used through high school- the questions and activities are broken up by 3 grade level groups (3-5, 5-8, 8-high school), and it is meant for families to use as a whole and more than once in their schooling years- due to the fact that the questions and activities are more challenging as they get older.

 

The program is set up to study 2 states a week, and the kids answer questions using the atlas provided and mapping of the state, a geography term for the week (but they don't provide the definition so we have to look on our own).  That is the minimum you can do and then the other activities are extras, such as the State of the Union sheets, etc.  For us, we are slowing the program down, to do 1 state a week that way we can do the State of the Union sheets for each state and then anything else we choose to add on.  So far this is my sons favorite subject this year.

 

So far the prep to it is just printing off the worksheets and mapping sheets, and they do have a binder to put everything in- in the teachers guide they suggest how to set one up- pretty simple, so before school started I printed off the appendix sheets and dictionary sheets and set up their binders.  We spend anywhere between 10-20 minutes on geography a day.  So far we are just excited to be using this!   :hurray: