Check in: McHenry's Mapping the World With Art - How's it going?

[RootAnn]

There were a LOT of us that put on our "What are you using this year" (7th & 5th) threads that we would use Ellen McHenry's Mapping the World With Art.

 

For those of you who are using it (personally or in a co-op), how is it going? Are you doing the history readings? The extra crafts & reviews? How often are you getting to it? Do you find your kids have internalized the major features of the maps you've done so far?

 

I'm getting to it about once per week, but I'm thinking of dropping it for now. It seems like it is an add-on that isn't really adding value the way we're doing it. I really like it, so I want to do it again. However, when we restart it, I'll do it as a full class - several times per week, with the extra activities, and add in constant review of the maps we've already done. Right now, we all do a map & then forget it. (I was making myself redraw previous week's maps after doing the current week's map, but fell out of practice about five weeks in.) When we did the review map (week 8??), I did well with some areas & poorly in others. My other two kids had to use previous week's maps and even then struggled. It isn't carrying over to their map work in history, so I think I'm going to drop it until I can fit it in as a full time class (perhaps for one semester).

 

I'm interested to see how it is going in other households!

[....]

My kids finished this in June (?).  They were working on it twice a week (or more).  Actually, they did all of it on their own.  I had nothing to do with it.  They would occasionally need help spelling a city, country, etc.  They did watch some of the videos on her YouTube channel (but not all).

 

Random thought:  My 8 yro insisted on doing this with the older kids.  She wasn't able to keep up with the drawing on the videos and would start crying.  This was a mess.  She just really, really wanted to do the videos, too.  Ugh.  I eventually convinced her to wait until she's older.  My older kids were able to work on this independently and follow along.  Their only complaint was that sometimes they had to adjust the brightness on the screen, because EM's pencil drawings are very light.  So, until she goes over it with marker, it was difficult to see.  They really liked the lady in the video.  I plan to buy The Elements and Carbon Chemistry in January.  I may just eventually buy all of her curricula.

 

My kids really enjoyed it!   :thumbup1:    

[Woodland Mist Academy]

Um, it's not. Thanks for the reminder.

[Penguin]

I get it out maybe once every two weeks.  DS does not like drawing (quite the understatement), but this program makes him feel successful with drawing.  I love it just for that reason.  We skip the readings but will start incorporating the activities.  The activities are really only loosely tied to the maps, and we are finally far enough along in history to enjoy some of the activities.

[helena]

Every year I put this off (though its been in my cupboard forever) because my kids get frustrated with not being able to draw something just right. We're about to finish Beautiful Feel Geography. May I ask, what's the oldest you think I could go with this curriculum, and how long does it realistically take if we want to do all the activities?

Thanks

 

Hope it's going well for everyone!

 

 

[Penguin]

The drawing component is an all-ages type thing. I do it along with DS, and thoroughly enjoy it. But I guess that an "artistic" person would outgrow the explicit tutorial method of instruction.

[RootAnn]

I think the sky's the limit on ages. I get something out of it as an adult. We have the DVDs and the PDF -- and my kids can't do the drawing from the DVD-only. (We tried & failed.)

 

I think there are people doing it as a co-op -- so you could do a lesson (w/activites) in an hour or so. We take about 30-45 minutes to draw & read the history text that goes along with each lesson. We haven't done the activities (except the review one part way through & that was a bust). I think it is important to redraw the ones you've already drawn to keep your memory fresh! Part of that would be trying to pick a few (3-5) details (names, shapes, locations) to remember about each drawing that are important.

 

I think we're going to drop it for now (unless I can find a way to spend more time on it). When I restart it, I want to incorporate blobbing (a la The Core) and gradually add our McHenry maps into our big blob ones. 

[MrsMe]

What topics does this program cover?  Does it cover Geographical terminology?  It's not just finding and drawing maps is it?  I haven't seen a scope & sequence of the program.

[fractalgal]

You're welcome to read my Mapping the World with Art Review.

 

We used it more as an elective on Thursday afternoons and did not rush to get through it.

My 8th and 6th grader handled it well, and my 8 year old enjoyed it when he was able to go at his own pace.

[fluffybunny]

Oh no ... this board has just made me buy another book!!

[Kalmia]

My son (13) completed Mapping the World with Art during 7th grade, independently. He enjoyed it greatly as he loves to draw and he likes a quiet break from other schoolwork. I don't think it is designed for retention though, rather exposure. If you want retention you need to practice the same maps over and over and over as described in The Core until you can draw them from memory. 

[Tina]

Dd, 8th, has been doing this independently doing the readings and the maps.  Really enjoying it.  Are we missing a lot not using the DVDs?

[Chrysalis Academy]

I love the idea of this, but I really don't want to add this on to our week.  Is there any way to sort of treat it like a lap book where we finish it in a month or two (meaning we just do that everyday until we are done)?  Ok except for math.  We'd do math too. 

 

Wendy, I have it but haven't used it yet (plan to next year) so take my comments with a grain of salt, but I don't see why you couldn't do it instead of history (or some other content subject) every day for a couple of months.  But I can't imagine doing *just* this and math . . . There are 30 Readings, but actually more like 50 map drawing lessons.  Unless your kid is a drawing maniac, I can't see doing multiple drawings each day.  I can't see mine having the concentration and hand stamina to do more than one a day.  YMMV, of course.

[Ravin]

DD had had some frustration with it, so we haven't gotten as far in it as I originally expected. I asked her if she wanted to drop it, though, and she doesn't.

[laughing lioness]

There were a LOT of us that put on our "What are you using this year" (7th & 5th) threads that we would use Ellen McHenry's Mapping the World With Art.

 

For those of you who are using it (personally or in a co-op), how is it going? Are you doing the history readings? The extra crafts & reviews? How often are you getting to it? Do you find your kids have internalized the major features of the maps you've done so far?

 

I'm using it for co-op for 4-6th graders. We have one autistic kiddo in class. He has really enjoyed it too, though his maps are simplistic, but he loves the class (yay!) and he did  presentation for the geo bee ; )

 

We ditched the videos. Ds19 and I take turns wtih the class. We've been drawing countries - that usually takes about an hour- we draw, label, color. Twice, we've done 2 maps/ class. I did the reading once. Snore. Kids totally NOT into it.

Ds and I are adding in tons of info- ds is a history nut so he can just go on and on about something related to whatever country we are doing. The kids LOVE it!

I also have an extra 15 min time period during the morning and we are doing something related to the country during that time. We've made hierglyphic tablets, peacock cards (India), eaten stuff- olives, pizza and then done a lot of drawing (drawing is one of my things) using DRaw Right Now- so we did lots of AFrcian animals one week, etc.

 

I now wish that we'd started with blob mapping and gone to continents and then really dived into this program. We are going to start the spring with the continents.

 

I also have a large map on the wall and the kids I.D. where stuff is as we go. Last day of the semseter a couple fo weeks ago we had a geography bee which some of the kids did individually and some paired up. The kids all chose a country and did a presentation on it. Oy vey, the food! Everyone brought food and almost everyone had a diplay of some sort- a couple of the kids dressed up- it was terrific! The only parameter I put was that they had to include a map of whatever country.

 

We are going to make "map books" before it's all over by putting everythign together with brads.

 

My son (13) completed Mapping the World with Art during 7th grade, independently. He enjoyed it greatly as he loves to draw and he likes a quiet break from other schoolwork. I don't think it is designed for retention though, rather exposure. If you want retention you need to practice the same maps over and over and over as described in The Core until you can draw them from memory.

 

My goal isn't for them to be able to draw the maps from memory. My goal is to have them understand where things, get familiar with names, places, sounds, and have a point of reference.

 

[Ravin]

We have the DVDs, but my dd only watched the first one. She doesn't feel like they work as well for her as the written instructions and pictures.

My DD doesn't care for the DVD's, either.

[happycc]

did you buy all the supplies need for them-all the protractors/compasses?

 

Were they absolutely necessary?

[RootAnn]

Lisa - I was hoping you'd chime in. I follow the blog & sometimes see pictures from the co-op. I wish I could send my kids there, but the several-hours drive wouldn't work.  :laugh:

 

We don't usually watch the DVD. (Wish I would have known that before I bought them!) SOME of the history readings are interesting. (I used almost all of the one on cartography / longitude / latitude as part of science one day.) We don't use those every time.

 

We already have protractors and lots of erasers (pink ones do work - as do erasers on the top of pencils), so I just bought some black felt tip pens. They work so well that I've thought about getting other colors for my artist dd.

 

Wendy - You could definitely do one a day. You could use it as a base for a geography unit study & then just add to it.

 

Interesting to hear that no one is going for mastery in terms of memory. Here I thought the goal was to be able to draw a world map from memory with a few land marks from each country/area when you are finished. (And we were no where near being able to do it which is one reason why it hasn't been going well for us.)

[Penguin]

It is interesting to me that most of you do not draw with the DVDs. We only use the DVDs for the instruction.

[TracyP]

 

Interesting to hear that no one is going for mastery in terms of memory. Here I thought the goal was to be able to draw a world map from memory with a few land marks from each country/area when you are finished. (And we were no where near being able to do it which is one reason why it hasn't been going well for us.)

 

I thought the goal was exactly the same, RootAnn. Does anybody want to talk about what is a reasonable goal with this program? I would like my kids to have  a solid understanding of the countries in the world, how they sit in relation to each other, and their major geographic features. Will this accomplish those goals?

[laughing lioness]

Lisa - I was hoping you'd chime in. I follow the blog & sometimes see pictures from the co-op. I wish I could send my kids there, but the several-hours drive wouldn't work.  :laugh:

 

We don't usually watch the DVD. (Wish I would have known that before I bought them!) SOME of the history readings are interesting. (I used almost all of the one on cartography / longitude / latitude as part of science one day.) We don't use those every time.

 

We already have protractors and lots of erasers (pink ones do work - as do erasers on the top of pencils), so I just bought some black felt tip pens. They work so well that I've thought about getting other colors for my artist dd.

 

Wendy - You could definitely do one a day. You could use it as a base for a geography unit study & then just add to it.

 

Interesting to hear that no one is going for mastery in terms of memory. Here I thought the goal was to be able to draw a world map from memory with a few land marks from each country/area when you are finished. (And we were no where near being able to do it which is one reason why it hasn't been going well for us.)

 

Wish you were closer, too! We are using nice paper, pencils and black felt pens; learning about guide lines as we go. Plus, the spelling has been a bit tricky for some of them. We did do the boiled egg latitude/longitude project and that was fun.

 

I thought the goal was exactly the same, RootAnn. Does anybody want to talk about what is a reasonable goal with this program? I would like my kids to have  a solid understanding of the countries in the world, how they sit in relation to each other, and their major geographic features. Will this accomplish those goals?

One of the guidelines for our co-op is no homework so I'm not sure how much mastery we can accomplish in an hour a week. Personally, I think the way that it is organized is a bit confusing for a geo program- they start wtih Mesopotamia. I like to give younger kids a bigger picture first- like the world, the continents, and then go to idividual countries from there. This starts with more like the ancient world and moves "out" but I'm not really clear what the system is to learn the countries. I think this program will accomplish the goals you've listed, but you might want to tweak it a bit. I wish we'd started with Map Blobbing- just to get a sense of the world, then continents and then divide the remainder of our time into so much work per continent. Also, some of the countries are really complicated- like France. France about cooked the kids grits. I think the blobbing would have given them a greater sense of "A blob is a good enough place to start and then we can refine from there" kind of attitude-kwim

 

I think this program does address these goals: Understanding the countries of the world, how they sit in relation to each other and their major geo features. As far as memorizing everything, it will take a lot more intentional effort than simply doing the drawing in this program, imho, but it's a great overview, place to start, esp for older eled's.

[RootAnn]

 I wish we'd started with Map Blobbing- just to get a sense of the world, then continents and then divide the remainder of our time into so much work per continent. Also, some of the countries are really complicated- like France. France about cooked the kids grits. I think the blobbing would have given them a greater sense of "A blob is a good enough place to start and then we can refine from there" kind of attitude-kwim

 

:iagree: I think when we start up again (next fall - I'm done for this year:  they aren't learning or enjoying it right now), I'll start with blobbing & then move into each continent. I'm pretty sure I'll start with Africa. France was way too complicated here, too! I'll probably simplify it next time through -- just making sure it has enough sides & gets connected to Spain & the rest of Europe correctly. 

 

Thanks for your input, Lisa!  :grouphug:

 

.... And for others who still have questions, if you click the tag links at the top (mapping or mchenry), you'll see other threads with additional info.

[happycc]

It is going well although the reading is a bit over our heads. ALso on the 3 reading ...we have some lines missing. Does anyone know what she meant to say at the end of the third reading?

 

 

So in general my kids are able to handle the drawing --I have three girls. Two sixth graders and one fourth grader who is 10yrs old. I held her back a grade cause of her late birthday. 

 

 

 

 

[Amy Jo]

I'm still interested in this program, but I want to go for mastery. Since the straight-through approach doesn't provide that, would it be possible to use the drawing instruction out of order? Such as following your history progression (or other readings)?

[happycc]

I seems to be fine to put them in historical order. The drawing component doesn't seem progressive skillwise. The readings are a bit progressive but they don't always seem matched with the drawing component however it does seem to match a bit with the activities. We are not doing the activities much. It is enough just to do the map drawing for us. We barely can squeeze that all in. I have a feeling we will do this curriculum once more over while the 11yrs old are in middle school and then I will do more of the activities. It is definitely a curriculum you can do multiple times as it is so dense with info. One swallow is not enough. You have to chew on the info quite a bit-especially the geometry components of the reading.

 

How do you pronounce Gnonom  by the way?

 

Thank you RootAnn for sending me info about for the missing part in the bottom of the 3rd page. 

[happycc]

I wanted to add that the curriculum was on my wanted to do list for a year or so. In fact I have many curriculum on my shelf that I want to do.

I got tired of looking at my hoarding of curriculum and felt I needed to put it all to use. 

 

So this has been my issue.... I have to have things just perfect to start a curriculum. Perfect timing, perfect space, perfect house, perfect mood, perfect coop situation, perfect equipment--I think I am a perfectionist. Anyways, then things just don;t happen. 

 

So now I just start without waiting for a perfect time. We just dive right into it and hope for the best. If it is a total flop we stop eventually but if it is a struggle, we just struggle through it and in the end we are done and happy that we accomplished something realizing that learning is not perfect. There is always next time or another set of kids in my case. 

 

 

[RootAnn]

How do you pronounce Gnonom  by the way?

 

Sounds like either NO-mon or NO-min. (Google "pronounce gnonom" and then click on the audio links. I heard two different ones.)

[happycc]

Seriously the readings are really hard for even me to get. I have to read it several times to understand.

 

It is a bit over the heads of my 6th and 4th graders. 

 

So I decided to continue with the curriculum with them minus the readings and activities for now and hit this curriculum again when the fourth grader is an 8th grader and the 6th graders are in 10th grade and we will put the curriculum in high gear then. They all seemed really excited about that. My daughters are currently taping their map pictures on the wall. Very proud of their work. 

 

This curriculum is packed with A LOT information. 

[mirabillis]

Do I need the book - or will a PDF suffice? Is there something that needs printing/copying from the book?

 

I also found a deal with the DVDs and PDF - is this good, or will I want the hands-on book as well?

 

Thanks!!

[RootAnn]

The PDF has the whole shebang on it & you can print it in color if you like. The "print version" is black-and-white, from what I understand.

 

You don't need both!

 

Some people like the DVDs. Some don't think they are necessary. My kids thought the DVDs went too fast, so we'd often try to draw them from just the printed info and then one would watch the DVD for any tips for next time.

[mirabillis]

Thanks!!