Trail Guide to World Geography - what does a lesson look like?

[brownie]

I think I am going to get Trail Guide to World Geography next year for my geography loving soon to be 6th grader.  I wish I had the opportunity to look it over before using it, but instead I am wondering if someone here who has used it for middle school or high school can give me an idea of what a 1 hour lesson might look like using this curriculum?

 

For the sake of my son I like that there is some freedom so he can choose to go more or less in depth on topics that interest him.  On the other hand, I am not good about using curricula where the path is not clearly laid out.  I do love SOTW because the questions and answers and mapwork are clearly laid out.  On the other hand, though we rarely use the activities and lit suggestions, I know they are there to help me if I want them.  Is it kind of like that? or less orchestrated?

 

Thanks!  Brownie

[~Anna~]

I just used this for a co-op class I taught. Honestly, I didn't like it all that much. There are questions each week broken down by grade level. They are OK, but some need to be answered by looking online. I would have preferred questions that all could have been answered from an atlas. The co-op had purchased the CD as well, so I had all of the maps for the kids and the instruction for that was fine. But the activities they had laid out each week seemed geared more toward history and culture of the lands than the geography. I guess I was looking for more of an actual geography course (capitals, rivers, learning where places are in relation to other places). So instead of doing the activities in the book, I would just make up questions for the kids and we would play games after we went over the questions and did the map work.

[SilverMoon]

I have it in my fall line-up. Randomly flipping through the book I landed on week 15. The first page has 4 days of geography trails for 3 different skill levels. These are a mix of what country is made up of these islands, what part of Africa is X in, where is the Niger delta, which country has the highest elevation, and such.

The second page has:

- the actual mapping assignments (shade this, draw this river, label that)

-Trailblazing section, culture, daily life, compare Sahara/savanna/rain forest, practice countries/capitals, Ivory Coast, and a man-made lake, recipes from Eat Your Way Around the World

-geography notebooking assignments, includes several more mapping exercises

-projects in Geography through Art

[brownie]

Thanks!  We'll be home, so I don't mind if some of the questions require internet research.  And I don't want just a list of places to memorize.  That will get too boring and tedious every day.  I want some cultural geography and key historical info as well.  We're basically dropping history for a year to do this.  I'd really like it to be a borderline high school level class.  I may use the HS level stuff because he already pretty much knows where all the countries of the world are and key mountains and rivers. 

 

If anyone has already done it at home, I'd still like to hear how you choose what to do each day and how much time you devote to the different pieces.

Thanks!  Brownie

[Reefgazer]

We used it this year and really liked it.  The lessons are organized by week.  So, a week might consist of a page of 6 questions (most can be found in the atlas) and some basic map work for the basic lesson of the week.  Some people stop there.  That's probably about 30-45 minutes time at the middle school level.  From there, you or your child chooses as many or as few additional activities related to the lesson as they wish.  Additional choices include work on culture, art, food, physical geography, political events, animal and plant life, etc...  It's very adaptable to many needs.

[Luckymama]

We used the Trail Guide last year in seventh grade as an organizer for geography as an elective (did not replace history). Dd answered the questions and did the map work. We only did a very few of the activities as she looked on the, as busy work. Instead, we added in Globe Trekker DVDs whenever appropriate. I really think the addition of the videos made our study last year.

 

As a seventh grad, dd answered mainly the high school level questions (I bought both middle school and high school downloads). She also used a different atlas, one that my ds used in a college class: Goode's World Atlas http://www.amazon.com/Goodes-World-Atlas-22nd-McNally/dp/0321652002/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399642143&sr=1-1&keywords=goode%27s+world+atlas+23rd+edition

[brownie]

How much time would you say the mapwork and questions required each week?  I will probably see the activities as busy work too :)

I think I just need to go buy the book, but I would like to know how much time to expect for planning purposes.  I am now thinking I want him to spend maybe 2hrs a week on this, some time for outside reading like National Geographic, and 30+ minutes to study the info.  Brownie

[Luckymama]

How much time would you say the mapwork and questions required each week? I will probably see the activities as busy work too :)

I think I just need to go buy the book, but I would like to know how much time to expect for planning purposes. I am now thinking I want him to spend maybe 2hrs a week on this, some time for outside reading like National Geographic, and 30+ minutes to study the info. Brownie

The questions took at most 30 minutes a week. At most. Usually it was 10--15 minutes. The map work varied, depending on the complexity (some were trickier than others) and on how "artsy" dd was feeling that day :lol: so maybe another 30 minutes.

[brownie]

Ouch!  Okay - 1 hour a week for questions and mapwork.  That leaves lots of time for other stuff.

Brownie