Geography

After much prayer, thought and consideration, I have decided to tie geography in more with our readings and current events. We have been very loosely trying to learn the states and capitols over the last two years, but for some reason that is the first thing that gets laid aside. Sigh....! The ones we have studied the kids know pretty well, but we have only done about half to three fourths of the states. I had firmly decided that we were going to use a curriculum for next school year, and spent much time researching what the best fit would be. I asked the kids if they wanted to continue US geography or move to World geography.. as usual they were split with the decision. Mallory wanted to finish what we started, not surprising if you know Mallory, she like to organize things in neat compartments. Daniel wanted to study world geography, also not surprising as he has very broad interests in the world. Sarah of course would rather play baby dolls than do either, so her vote got cancelled, since she didn't really care!! I had actually decided on Trail Guide to World (or US) geography, which I still think is a great resource, but as I was planning our schedule for next year, it just looked way too cluttered. After more prayer, thought and consideration (henceforth called "PT and C") I decided to just use our readings from history ect and current news and world issues. So when we come across something geography related, we'll try to find that place on our maps, this should fill Daniel's need to learn more about the world, I think. We'll also finish up the states with the current book we are using Kids Learn America And I have on my wish list the GREAT Hollings C Hollings book Minn of the Mississippi. We started this years ago and didn't finish it in time for it to be returned to the library... which happens more frequently than I care to admit. On a side note, I have come to the realization that I really need to start buying some books, instead of being a cheapskate and borrowing them all from the library!

I think using this combination of handling geography may be better for us, although more hodge podge perhaps.. we'll see. One tool that I have purchase to help this along, though are geography placemats. The biggest hinderences to our locating something in our reading or daily discussions is the fact that we have no real place to keep large maps. Our globe is handy for some things, and the atlas works ok, except it is hard to use for the kids, they still need more practice using it (hey, I need more practice using it sometimes! LOL) besides which, we only have ONE atlas, and it is rather cumbersome to use, having to shift through the contents to find the area we are looking for. I figured if we could have maps for each child on hand everyday then we are more likely to find those things we read about. That is what I am hoping anyway.

I found the perfect maps for this at Blooming-Babies dot com.
THere are two placemats, one USa and the other for the world. One side is a full colored labeled map and the other side is a blankline that the kids can use dryerase markers to write on. Don't you just love dry erase markers?

Here is the usa placemat:


So here is my little poll... how well do you know geography? US geography? world geography? Share your experiences, and how geography has either helped you in your careers or life or if it was not an issue at all.