when to do geography?

[angelmama1209]

I know I can just incorporate it into history, but if one was to do a separate stand alone geography curriculum, when would one do It?

[fourcatmom]

I do it for 1/2 hour right after History. We do 1 hour to 1.5 hours of LA first thing, move into Math (about 45 min) followed by 45 min to 1 hour of History and then 1/2 hr of Geography. This is four days a week. We then break 1/2 hour for lunch and follow with Science and Art in the afternoons. Fridays we try to do a condensed version, projects, and finishing up work from the week. 

 

With Geography are week is planned out like this 

Monday and Tuesday we do Expedition Earth (a Country of study)

Wednesdays we do Mapping 

Thursdays we do Road Trip USA where we are still focusing on each state

Fridays they work from their Maps, Charts and Graphs book 

[pitterpatter]

We study geography as a stand-alone during the summer. We also have a geography component to our history.

[SilverMoon]

Whenever you feel like it.

 

You could do Daily Geography with whatever else you're doing. Or do little bits of daily map drawing ala The Core. Or get a Map Trek set that correlates with your history, but goes a little deeper than your history curriculum. Or take a year off of history and do an in depth cultural and/or physical geography. Or just play with it on the side with games and websites.

[sagira]

We do Geography on Fridays. I call Fridays our catch-all days. We do Music, Geography, and Critical Thinking, Spelling and Vocabulary quizzes.

 

For Geography we are using Evan-Moor's Asia for my fifth grader and my first grader is looking at maps and has Geography Songs.

[angelmama1209]

maybe I should clarify. I was wondering what "grade/s" it was best for.

[umsami]

I'm actually thinking of adding it for this year (4th grade).  I came across the Beautiful Feet Geography through Literature course and I think DS would really enjoy it and it would fit in well with what we're studying this year.

 

DS2 learned all the states and capitals when he was in a PK3 Montessori class, but I seem to remember that it was 4th grade when we learned them back when I was a kid.  My goal is to have a focus on geography once per four years... so sometime during Middle School, we'll do a more intensive World Geography.  Then in high school, we'll do it again.  But, it comes up all the time in history, literature, etc.  So, we keep maps handy... and the kids love "Stack the States" and "Stack the Countries."

 

I think in 2nd grade we talked about a compass rose, longitude/latitude, how to read a map, etc.

[pitterpatter]

I don't think geography is a one-time thing. We started in kindergarten and I plan to add onto that knowledge a bit every year.

[Maela]

We're doing Evan-Moor's Daily Geography and the mapwork from SotW.  At some point during the middle years, I'd like to do something similar to Mapping the World with Art.  I don't have a plan yet for high school.  

 

Geography is a favorite of mine and, IMO, very important.  I plan on doing something every year.

[AK_Mom4]

Answers are really going to vary on this one.  DS17 did US Geography in 5th and World Geography in 7th.  DD12 studied US Geography first in 4th and is doing World this year in 7th and will redo US Geography next year for 8th.  I think you can put it in wherever it seems to fit best.  I prefer to do the US stuff (state/capitols/etc) in the years we are studying US History.  Since we do Years 3&4 of the history rotation as a single year, with US History separately it all works out.

[Tracy]

We have had a lot of success doing semi-formal geography in K.  It started as part of FIAR, but then I decided that FIAR geography wasn't quite enough, so I added lots of FIAR-type books.  Here is a link to my book list.  We also have a huge wall map in our dining room, and we spend a fair amount of time playing geography games with our map.  Both of my kids knew all the continents and oceans and several major rivers landforms, as well as dozens of countries and many capitals before they started history in first grade.  

[mom2bee]

I would do it PreK-3rd grade in whatever manner is appropriate for the individual child at each age and stage of their development but my goal would be to have a child who in mid elementary knows all the countries/capitals about some basic "profile" type knowledge of each country. (ie. capitals, languages, religions, currency) and a few cultural tid bits--even if it is rote at first because as you study more social studies/history type stuff and do more reading from around the world, then that rote information is there as a scaffold and will develop into information that (ideally) will be stored long term as knowledge.

[sagira]

Ah, I see. I do it every year appropriate to the child's age.