Where's the Geography?

[chocolate-chip chooky]

Looking at the plans for this year, I realise that Geography is a point of weakness. 

Not weakness as in my daughter is weak at it. But weakness as in I'm not providing much.

 

Then I looked back through all of your plans and geography doesn't get many mentions. Is it not a required subject in the USA?

 

So, any ideas for engaging geography resources for accelerated learners?

We read. We watch documentaries. We build good general knowledge. We're working through Mapping the World with Art.

 

But, I feel there could be more. Something to really spark more interest maybe.

 

Any ideas? Maybe I'm overthinking it.

[EndOfOrdinary]

We roll it into his humanities studies. I personally do not like how stereotypical most children's geography study resources are.

 

We did an entire year on studying mythology. Included in that was quite a lot on landforms, climate, and economic/political structures.

 

We did a couple years on climate, carbon, and global environmental science relating to economic and population issues.

 

We did a year on world religions and the clashes/convergence of cultures there in.

 

Currently he is really into how cultural systems of economy support government and power dynamics of class and gender. He is intregued with how a culture stratifies into heirarchy. That generally leads back to resources, trade, and physical location.

 

I make it a point to talk about geography a lot, so it is not a separate subject here.

[slackermom]

I think it generally falls under the "social studies" umbrella, along with history.

At dd's middle school, the Humanities teachers do an integrated ELA/Social Studies program with lots of geography learning goals incorporated into the lessons. Last year they focused on migration, with special attention paid to the refugee crisis, and they read some novels with related themes.

[luuknam]

Yes, people here consider it part of social studies, and TWTM recommends making it part of history. I was one of the people who mentioned geography on the planning threads (though, I didn't mention it for my youngest since I don't know what we'll be doing yet - this year we're doing Scholastic Success With Maps Grade 3, but I don't think I want to use Grade 4 next year - I think I want to combine Grade 4 & 5 the year after that (for one, I only have a few pages of the Grade 4 book, but the other pages are pretty much the same as what's covered in the Grade 5 book)). As I mentioned in the 5th grade thread, I'm thinking of using Zombie-Based Geography for my oldest next year, but I can't recommend it since I haven't used it yet, or even been able to look through all of it (only the samples they have online). And it's not cheap - $135 iirc, though, I think you can get a version to download for a tiny bit less, which would at least save you shipping costs to Australia.

 

For where countries and cities are at, we do some games and apps - Stack the Countries and Stack the States, 10 Days in the USA, country mazes and state mazes books, I've got NY state, US, Netherlands, and China puzzles, and sometimes we'll use random.org to give us random coordinates and then use Google Maps to see where that gets us (often in the water, of course), write it down in a notebook (along with whether we're in in water, forest, city, etc), and use street view on the nearest place that has street view.

 

ETA: oh, and we just got a world map placemat. And we have horrible geography, but the kids aren't really liking that.

Edited January 27, 2017 by luuknam

[Loesje22000]

It is a required subject here, and due to a lack of useful textbooks in English, she has to do it Dutch too.

 

Geography is here:

- Topography

- Physical Geography

- Cultural Geography

- Space and Earth science

- Global Issues

- Environmental Science

-.....

 

We did IGCSE Geography and IGCSE Global Issues last year.

For the moment we work with Flemish Worktexts for Geography which are terrible to work with.

 

It is a required subject for each track here, although vocational oriented track may integrated it with other subjects.

[Loesje22000]

Www.toporopa.eu can be set on English and might be a nice site.

[Momto4inSoCal]

We are doing mapping the world through art this year. I like it but it's more of a cartography class. My kids like drawing so it's been fine but I also think we could have skipped it. I pulled together some worksheets to cover different types of maps (physical, political, climate etc) just because I feel map reading is a skill many kids don't learn anymore because of phones and technology, of course you could argue they don't need to know it because of phones and technology. I do think generally these are easy skills to learn and most kids will be able to figure out how to figure out a map on their own but I felt like I should cover it so I did.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

We roll it into his humanities studies. I personally do not like how stereotypical most children's geography study resources are.

 

We did an entire year on studying mythology. Included in that was quite a lot on landforms, climate, and economic/political structures.

 

We did a couple years on climate, carbon, and global environmental science relating to economic and population issues.

 

We did a year on world religions and the clashes/convergence of cultures there in.

 

Currently he is really into how cultural systems of economy support government and power dynamics of class and gender. He is intregued with how a culture stratifies into heirarchy. That generally leads back to resources, trade, and physical location.

 

I make it a point to talk about geography a lot, so it is not a separate subject here.

 

Wow, that all sounds amazing.

Would you mind sharing some of the resources you've used?

 

Because of the way I need to report for our homeschool authorities, I  document by subject. This can be quite hard when a lot of our learning is hard to pin down. We do so much reading, watching, game-playing and discussing, with topics intertwining in natural ways. A lot of our best learning can happen over dinner with whole-family discussions on big topics, such as politics or religion. We don't pull out anything that looks like a textbook though, so it can be hard to document.

 

Here in Australia, the overall subject is called something like Humanities and Social Sciences and it includes history, geography, civics and economics. 

[chocolate-chip chooky]

I think it generally falls under the "social studies" umbrella, along with history.

At dd's middle school, the Humanities teachers do an integrated ELA/Social Studies program with lots of geography learning goals incorporated into the lessons. Last year they focused on migration, with special attention paid to the refugee crisis, and they read some novels with related themes.

 

That sounds great. We generally don't plan any social studies type projects ahead, but instead use current events or themes in novels and take it from there. We've recently read Green Glass Sea and we're now reading the sequel White Sands, Red Menace along with the non-fiction Bomb. Lots of history and science, but still lacking in the geography department.

 

I'm thinking that I may suggest some geography-based topics for her next research essay. Maybe something related to natural disasters or environmental issues. 

[chocolate-chip chooky]

Yes, people here consider it part of social studies, and TWTM recommends making it part of history. I was one of the people who mentioned geography on the planning threads (though, I didn't mention it for my youngest since I don't know what we'll be doing yet - this year we're doing Scholastic Success With Maps Grade 3, but I don't think I want to use Grade 4 next year - I think I want to combine Grade 4 & 5 the year after that (for one, I only have a few pages of the Grade 4 book, but the other pages are pretty much the same as what's covered in the Grade 5 book)). As I mentioned in the 5th grade thread, I'm thinking of using Zombie-Based Geography for my oldest next year, but I can't recommend it since I haven't used it yet, or even been able to look through all of it (only the samples they have online). And it's not cheap - $135 iirc, though, I think you can get a version to download for a tiny bit less, which would at least save you shipping costs to Australia.

 

For where countries and cities are at, we do some games and apps - Stack the Countries and Stack the States, 10 Days in the USA, country mazes and state mazes books, I've got NY state, US, Netherlands, and China puzzles, and sometimes we'll use random.org to give us random coordinates and then use Google Maps to see where that gets us (often in the water, of course), write it down in a notebook (along with whether we're in in water, forest, city, etc), and use street view on the nearest place that has street view.

 

ETA: oh, and we just got a world map placemat. And we have horrible geography, but the kids aren't really liking that.

 

I hadn't heard of Zombie-Based Geography. I'll be looking that one up, thanks.

 

Yes, we have the Horrible Geography books too, but they haven't been the hit that Horrible Histories, Horrible Science and Murderous Maths have been, unfortunately. 

I have been using them to source dictations recently though, hoping to spark some interest in a new topic.

 

Oh, we LOVE the 10 Days in ... games. We have the whole set, except the USA one (just can't source it here, sadly). My daughter plays Stack the Countries - what a great app! I think it may have been on this board that I first heard about it.

 

When I start mentioning all the things we have and do, maybe we do do enough?

I just feel like we're very maths/science heavy and I strive for a balanced foundation for my daughter. Who knows what she'll want to do later on.

 

I think I'm just going through one of my regular doubt/worry/panic phases.  :sad:

[chocolate-chip chooky]

Www.toporopa.eu can be set on English and might be a nice site.

 

Thank you!

[chocolate-chip chooky]

We are doing mapping the world through art this year. I like it but it's more of a cartography class. My kids like drawing so it's been fine but I also think we could have skipped it. I pulled together some worksheets to cover different types of maps (physical, political, climate etc) just because I feel map reading is a skill many kids don't learn anymore because of phones and technology, of course you could argue they don't need to know it because of phones and technology. I do think generally these are easy skills to learn and most kids will be able to figure out how to figure out a map on their own but I felt like I should cover it so I did.

 

We're working through Mapping the World with Art also. We're kind of goings in spurts. I like the history section more than the mapping. Like you, I like the idea of map skills, not just drawing a map. 

[Dmmetler]

FWIW, History for the Australian Curriculum has a companion Geography book-we got both in a bundle. It actually is pretty good as far as map skills go.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

FWIW, History for the Australian Curriculum has a companion Geography book-we got both in a bundle. It actually is pretty good as far as map skills go.

 

Thanks for that.

We haven't really delved into using textbooks, except for maths. Maybe the time is nigh.

 

Are they any good (both history and geography texts)?

Did you get it for when you were studying Australian history? From my understanding these sorts of books are the sort that schools buy in bulk to cover a whole year's worth of content and not just the Australia-specific content.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

Www.toporopa.eu can be set on English and might be a nice site.

 

My daughter played this for ages today and knew way more than I did!

[Loesje22000]

My daughter played this for ages today and knew way more than I did!

My daughter has used that site a lot!

Glad it worked for you too.

Topography is easy to learn online :)

Topics like migration and watermanagement not so much ;)

Dd dislikes Geography, and despites my efforts she stil doesn't like it.

 

In the Netherlands there is something called 'schooltv' and we have used all their geography episodes, and she still did not like it.

[Mike in SA]

We're doing geography through TTUISD.  It hasn't been that bad - actually rather good for DS, and it grants documented/accredited HS credit.

[Guest]

Its helpful to hike, bike, ski, and travel. Books just don't translate without reality...had a third grader excitedly tell me the feature in front of us was a mesa. It was a hill with top bulldozed off.

[Dmmetler]

Thanks for that.

We haven't really delved into using textbooks, except for maths. Maybe the time is nigh.

 

Are they any good (both history and geography texts)?

Did you get it for when you were studying Australian history? From my understanding these sorts of books are the sort that schools buy in bulk to cover a whole year's worth of content and not just the Australia-specific content.

Yes. I ordered years 9 and 10 because those seemed to be the ones that focused on the time period from Colonization of Australia to relatively current. They seem well written, although a bit dry compared to the Galore Park ones from the U.K., which had a dry humor to them. The Australia ones do a good job of placing Australian history in the context of world history and also include a lot of Pacific rim history that is largely missing from US texts that I've found, so even the World history has had a lot of surprises. DD isn't doing the writing assignments or questions (which are pretty clearly exam prep and are just as drearily dull as the US equivalents were in my childhood), but instead is using the textbook, taking notes (actually, drawing comics explaining the time period. It works for her, and they can be pretty funny to read), and then picking topics to research in depth. There is a decent amount of primary source material included, and the online extensions have more.

 

I think it's been a good way to spend middle school. For high school, she has to have US History and US government to meet state standards, so I wanted anything that wasn't US, so she wouldn't have to be too redundant.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

Its helpful to hike, bike, ski, and travel. Books just don't translate without reality...had a third grader excitedly tell me the feature in front of us was a mesa. It was a hill with top bulldozed off.

 

A very good point. 

I had to laugh at the skiing idea. We're in Queensland, Australia, and it is sweltering here. Heatwave type of sweltering in recent weeks.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

We're doing geography through TTUISD.  It hasn't been that bad - actually rather good for DS, and it grants documented/accredited HS credit.

 

TTUISD? I'm not familiar with that. 

[chocolate-chip chooky]

Yes. I ordered years 9 and 10 because those seemed to be the ones that focused on the time period from Colonization of Australia to relatively current. They seem well written, although a bit dry compared to the Galore Park ones from the U.K., which had a dry humor to them. The Australia ones do a good job of placing Australian history in the context of world history and also include a lot of Pacific rim history that is largely missing from US texts that I've found, so even the World history has had a lot of surprises. DD isn't doing the writing assignments or questions (which are pretty clearly exam prep and are just as drearily dull as the US equivalents were in my childhood), but instead is using the textbook, taking notes (actually, drawing comics explaining the time period. It works for her, and they can be pretty funny to read), and then picking topics to research in depth. There is a decent amount of primary source material included, and the online extensions have more.

 

I think it's been a good way to spend middle school. For high school, she has to have US History and US government to meet state standards, so I wanted anything that wasn't US, so she wouldn't have to be too redundant.

 

I'll have to have a look at Galore Park. Dry humour would probably hit the spot  :)

 

I always love hearing about what your daughter is up to. She sounds like she's getting a very well-rounded education, which is what I strive for.

PS Loved her avatar!

[wendyroo]

I have looked at lots and lots of geography curricula, and none of them were really what I was looking for.  So for the time being, I have decided to keep it simple.  Any time we come upon the name of a continent, country, body of water, landmark, etc. we find it on a map and enter it into our Anki geography deck.  Then twice a week we pull out all our blank outline maps and review any cards that are due.

 

Wendy

[Mike in SA]

TTUISD? I'm not familiar with that. 

 

Texas Tech University runs a K-12 program for distance education.  It's all accredited, but nothing advanced.  It's a pretty good deal for kids who travel a lot (sports, drama, etc), as well as for highly accelerated kids.  They don't check prerequisites - you just pay for the courses you want.  If you have an accelerated middle school student, a basic high school course can be just about perfect for them.

 

They arrange all curriculum and grading - including worksheets and additional depth, but it's more-or-less self-study or parent-led.

[EKS]

In addition to the standard coverage of geography through history, we used a college level intro to geography book in the 8th grade. 

[Guest]

A very good point.

I had to laugh at the skiing idea. We're in Queensland, Australia, and it is sweltering here. Heatwave type of sweltering in recent weeks.

Its too warm here to snow ski. Last weekend's nor'easter was mostly rain. Its been too warm for the last five winters. We have to travel to find snow, which is good because it leads to questions which lead to understanding and knowing. Edited January 28, 2017 by Heigh Ho

[raristy]

I found this site https://allinonehighschool.com/world-geography/ which has lesson plans and schedule for this wonderful Geography resource: http://www.gavirtuallearning.org/Resources/SharedWorldGeorgraphy.aspx

 

It's a good framework to add on based on your students interests.

Rosa

Edited February 5, 2017 by raristy