Help, our geography plans need an infusion!

[ByGrace3]

We are doing a geography year...some things are going well...some things are not. The MP materials can be a bit tedious and my dd has expressed that the text and classroom atlas are difficult to understand. They are enjoying the mapping, are learning the world capitals, writing about different places -- that is all going well. I think what I would like would be a video series or documentaries that would help us have a little more fun with the rest of our continents. We have Africa, Asia, and Australia still to go this year. They tend to get more invested when we dig deep, so I would like maybe a quick overview and then some dive deep topics for each. We are about to start Sub-Saharan Africa next week. I want to talk about Sudan, the civil wars, refugee crisis etc. The kids have read A Long Walk to Water, will read Journey to Jo'burg, and we will be reading about the missionary David Livingstone. 

Next we will be studying North Africa, Middle East, and Central Asia. We will read Teresa of Calcutta , I am Malala, and Amy Carmichael. Possible Dive Deep Topics: Islam, Taliban, Women's rights

Next is South and East Asia reading Cracker: The Best Dog in Vietnam, Mission to Cathay

Last, Pacific Islands, Australia, Antarctica, reading Call it Courage, Red Sand, Blue Sky

 Any ideas on movies, documentaries, even youtube videos that would engage them? 

We watched a few videos on Machu Picchu last week and the Amazon River this week and got pretty good essays from them on the topics....

Thanks! 

[TheAttachedMama]

We are using the MP Geography 1 plans too!   We are not spending an entire YEAR on geography; it is just one little elective for us in many things we do.  :)  But I am the queen of supplementing the curriculum.   

Here are things that I have added to our assignment checklist:

1)  For every country we study, I have the kids watch the Geography Now Youtube videos associated with each country.   (They do not have every country in the world, but they have a lot!  The host is currently working through the globe in alphabetical order.  Here is the current A to Z playlist for every country he has so far.)    These videos do not take a lot of time, but they do add just enough fun to liven up our studies.

2)  For every country we study, I have the kids skim the associated pages in the books "Hungry Planet" and "Material World".   These books are a few years out of date, but they are still really interesting to look at and read.   

3) We own and still LOVE the Visualize World Geography DVDs.  The kids went through these when they were younger, and we still pull them out to help us learn the locations.  

4)  For added drill, we use Shepherd Software.