Charlene Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 Has anyone used the geography portion of Wayfarers? I bought Term 1 of Wayfarers Ancients, but I am still having trouble picturing how the geography looks day to day and how the literature reading fits in with the mapping and expedition earth activities/reading. Sorry, this is probably a pretty dumb question, but I am just having trouble seeing it in my mind. I am trying to decide between using Wayfarers or Guest Hollow for geography for my grades 1, 3, 5, and maybe 7. I think the benefits of Wayfarers are the literature (which I would use as our main read aloud probably), and the slow reading pace (1 chapter per day), which I like because I am a little worried about our overall workload this year with the number of ages and grade range I'll have this year. I really like the idea of learning about places by reading literature. The benefits of Guest Hollow are: I just really like the look of it. The books are short and look interesting for younger children as well as older children. The problem is, there so many books and activites, and I am not sure how much they would learn from just reading a few short picture books on each country. I know I could just skip some, which is what I am considering. However, the schedule has so many books and activities, I worry that if I left out a bunch of them, the study would be just skimming the surface, if that makes sense. What would you do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edeemarie Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 We are currently using Wayfarers Ancient History, so I'll give this a try. :-) The mapping is done on a rotation to basically help teach country location by repitition. When we do the mapping exercises, I use the Wayfarers maps that I laminated. We first point out and name all of the counties on that particular map several times, then I "quiz" the kids to see if they can remember either where a specific county is or what the country is that I am pointing to. We are only on the first rotation, but I may do things a bit differently next time around (possibly have them fill in as much of the map as they remember before we review the countries again). The individual country studies we do a bit differently. We don't use the Expedition Earth book but just look up the country on our own. My kids ask questions about the country and we find the answers (usually questions about religion, population, size, foods, etc.). Then we have a large blank world map on our wall and we label the country we studied. The kids love keeping track of the counties we have learned about. The read alouds have been very much enjoyed in our house. In fact, just this evening I ordered the rest of the books series that follows "Escape to Murray River" because my kids 'really' wanted to know what happened in the next books. The books are grouped by continent, and even though they don't specifically line up with the mapping or country study, the kids are making connections anyway (especially when it comes to the mapping). The "Child's Introduction to the World" is a great book too. It covers so many different topics of geography, mapping, cultures, climates, and individual studies of each continent. It does an excellent job of tying it all together. Geography has been a subject that was often pushed to the backburner in our schooling. I am loving that Wayfarers is allowing us to get this done, and learn so much! I'm hoping to do a "week in review" of Wayfarers soon to show through pictures (and words, or course;-) exactly how we use Wayfarers. We are truly having a great year so far with Wayfarers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlene Posted August 10, 2015 Author Share Posted August 10, 2015 Thank you so much- this was very helpful! And, yes, please do a week in review of Wayfarers- I would love to see that! I am thinking of combining the Guest Hollow and Wayfarers geography by using the Guest Hollow schedule, but stretching it out over two years so that I can add in more of the literature from Wayfarers. Also, this way, the countries will be studied and mapped in sync with the corresponding literature for that country. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verity Posted August 10, 2015 Share Posted August 10, 2015 I am planning to use Wayfarers this year with my 4th and 8th graders. I really like being able to combine them so that table time is simpler and my read alouds fit for both. I backtracked to Ancients this year (my 4th grader did SOTW 1 in Kindergarten) because they both need a refresher and I want to build on that history foundation. I'm excited about the geography portion and went ahead and bought the pdf for Expedition Earth. I couldn't find it anywhere in print. I was thinking of printing the book out but it will cost almost $100 at Staples! That's just crazy. Others who have used this book - did you just use the ebook from your tablet or did you print it somewhere? I would love to hear how Expedition Earth worked for other Wayfarers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlene Posted August 10, 2015 Author Share Posted August 10, 2015 I looked at a sample of Expedition Earth and it seemed to only contain very basic information about each country. We have a set a World Book encyclopedias- both the regular set and the set for younger readers (Discovery set I think it is called), so I will probably just use those instead of Expedition Earth. I know that doesn't reallly answer your question, but that is what I'm planning to use. I don't like using E books. I much prefer printed copies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.