Geography-Travel the World Series

Almost ten years ago was that terrible tsunami in Sri Lanka.  I'm embarrassed to say that my hubby and I huddled around the globe to locate the tiny country that received such devastation.  We had a general idea....but that was it.  

At that moment, I decided that my children would learn better geography skills than I possessed.  So I've come up with this study program for them to do.  The wonderful thing is that this program can/will be used for years as they can do as many levels each month as they wish.  

I have a blank world map hanging on the wall that we use to test with.

Each month, I print out the sheet corresponding to that month's study and then I give them a blank map to fill in themselves.  It gives them ownership of what they are doing.  I designed the program to go over countries, capitals, vocabulary terms, oceans, lakes, rivers, mountains, deserts.  Here's a look at month one and two.  September is a short month because we're getting into the swing of things so that only has two levels.  If your child knows these already you can move onto level two.  I've designed a ten month program.  

Month one

Level one – Back to Basics

North America

South America

Europe

Asia

Africa

Australia

Antartica

Level two

Atlantic Ocean

Pacific Ocean

Artic Ocean

Indian Ocean

Southern Ocean

Vocabulary:

Continent

Island

Ocean

Month two-North America

Level One

Greenland

Canada

United States

Mexico

Cuba

Level Two

Newfoundland

Quebec

Ontario

Manitoba

Level Three

Alberta

British Columbia

Northwest Territories

Saskatchewan

Level Four

Lake Superior

Lake Michigan

Lake Huron

Lake Erie

Lake Ontario

Vocabulary

Bay

Peninsula

Coastline

There is a printable version of this here.

Enjoy!

Map Trek

I just found this awesome resource on Currclick. Its called Map Trek and its make by Knowledge Quest.

 I absolutely love geography.  This year, as always, my kids are doing a seperate geography course to learn more about geography and I sprinkle it into their history lessons also.  Map Trek takes all the work of mixing it into your lesson plans.  I love that you can purchase each unit or together in a bundle.  If I'd realized how awesome it was, I would have done the bundle. 

Each topic has three lesson plans.  One for grades 1-4, 5-8, and 9-12.  And the best part is that all the answers are located conveniently on the teacher's page.  Sometimes with TL's program now, we have to really dig and although I don't mind the digging, it would be nice to be able to verify the answers.

The teacher's map is colored and has all the answers for you.  The black and white map is for the student to complete with the lesson plans that are given for the topic that your working on.  I purchased the New World book.  Here are all the topics that are covered:

World Map (Landforms)

Elizabethan London

James Towne

African Exploitation

Renaissance Italy

North America (map 1)

North America (map 2)

Native American Tribal Groups

Plymouth Colony

Thirty Years' War

Australia Discovered

King Philip's War

Ming/Qing Dynasties of China

The Mughal Empire

The Original 13 Colonies

The Iroquois League

Puritan England

Restoration Colonies

The Kingdome of Prussia

New England Colonies

The Middle Colonies

The Southern colonies

The Seven Years' War

The Explorations of Daniel Boone

Early Battles of the Revolutionary War

The American Revolution

The Expansion of Russia

The French Revolution

Napoleonic Wars

Lewis & Clark Expedition

Independence for Latin America

European Composers

European Inventors

England - Industrial Revolution

War of 1812

Growth of the USA (map 1)

The Growth of Australia

Growth of the USA (map 2)

Trails of Expansion in the USA

Goldrush in California

Westward Expansion/Mexican War

The Pony Express/Telegraph Lines

European Revolutions of 1848

I can honestly say that I never considered doing a map for Daniel Boone.  Or how about the Pony Express and the Telegraph lines?  I can't wait to dig deeper into this set.  

And did I mention the curriculum integration guides?   The author has taken some of the popular history programs such as Story of the World, Ambleside, and Truthquest and labeled which maps are to be used with each lesson.  What a treasure!

If you sign up for their newsletter, you can download a free Map Trek sampler.

Enjoy!

Still here

Sorry for not posting much the last few days. We've been really busy with school and our projects. TL is currently reading about and doing a lapbook on one president a week. I will update with pictures next week. The girls are learning about the Circle of Life from the lapbook from Hands of a Child. They should have that done next week or the week after. My father comes for a visit for a week, so I won't start their new project until after he leaves. They've requested to learn about deer-there are alot of black tailed deer here and they see them almost everyday. I have to be careful not to hit them.

You have probably noticed some changes in my blog. I am actually working on making it three columns to add more information. I hope to have that done later this week. Please bear with me. I also changed the picture to our resident eagle that is always flying overhead. I finally had my camera with me one day while he/she was perched on the tree down the street. I also took a picture of the nest, which is huge.


The Passport Club is going wonderfully. Last month TL learned all five levels and earned five stamps in his passport. The girls each learned two levels. I may try to up it to three for them. They seemed a little bored at the end of the month.


This is the map we use to test with and study from each month


This is the map that we use to help study with. It shows everything the kids would learn if they study all five levels each month. We also have smaller study maps (these two are about 2 feet by 3 feet) that shows on a monthly basis, what needs to be studied. The smaller maps are very helpful to me, because I can point out the general are of Tajikistan, but have no idea exactly where it is.


This is a copy of Princess' passport page from September.

TL is testing for his Taekwondo lower yellow belt tomorrow. I'm praying that he does well. He sometimes acts a little goofy, although I think during the test, he will be okay. He would definitely be the class clown if he were in school-and I would always be in the office!! :)

Bug-a-bug just received her belt from her test last week. She was very excited. She is in a lower division of taekwondo, from the big kids, called Kinderkicks.



Receiving her belt from her teacher


Proudly displaying her new belt

I have a new layout that I will be doing for the blog, hopefully this week. First, I have to find my tax returns from last year so I can apply for financial aid for school. I really need to finish my bachelor's.

I also have a ton of pictures to load from our camping trip, the views were awesome. We are also hosting six flat friends. I will only ever host two at a time from now it. Its a little more work than I wanted, but its alot of fun and the kids are really liking it. Hopefully, I can also get to that this week. Have a wonderful day and week everyone!

Ending the first week

This week was our first week of school. We did only half days, actually completing all subjects but writing and history/science. Not too bad. The kids worked hard and got alot of work done quickly. Today was the best day. For the different subjects, I ended up moving to the dining room table and moving the kids in one by one for some mommy instruction time. This worked much better than the last few days, which included constant interruptions. If I'm not in the room, they couldn't ask me a question. Most subject intruction took only a few minutes and I'd check between them to see if there were any questions. With all this up and down and walking back and forth (it must be at least fifteen feet one way from the dining room table to the schoolroom), I will hopefully lose some more baby weight, lol.

I was hoping to post pictures from the passport club materials, but my computer is giving me fits and I just didn't want to deal with it tonight.

In another effort to make school more interesting, and of course, learn even more geography, we have decided to do flat travelers this year. I send emails out to some friends and got everyone to agree to host a flat friend for a while. This is wonderful news and will be alot of fun for the kids. I also just found a yahoo group the deals with flat travelers. There are over 700 members of this group and a giant list of all participants (you must include your own info on this list). You can look up different locations and email to see if they would like to exchange flat friends. It looks like a wonderful group-but be warned. It took over a week for the moderator to approve me for membership. This group is also very active and you may want to see about doing a daily digest instead of individual emails. I've received over twenty emails today. Here is the info.
www.flat_travelers_homeschool@yahoogroups.com

If you are interested in exchanging flat friends, please let me know. We would love to host your flat friend!

Have a wonderful week!

The passport club

This year we're participating in the passport club with our homeschool support group. Each child gets a passport. Each month lists five levels to study. The first three levels list five countries to study. The fourth level has 10 countries. The fifth level is the capitals to the countries in level one. Included are two very large maps, probably 2'x4'. The first map is the study map that labels everything in the passport. The second map is blank and will also be used for their testing. Also included is the study map for each month. At the end of the month, the kids go to the testing site and test their knowledge on the big blank map. Each level gets one sticker in their passport book. We're looking forward to starting this next week. It should be alot of fun!! Check it out at www.thepassportclub.net.

Also, thank you so much for your prayers. My Aunt Florence seems to be improving. They have not set her arm yet because of all of the other issues. She was removed from the respirator yesterday for two hours. She's been reluctant to breathe deeply because of the pain of her broken ribs. I can only imagine how much pain she's in. My Aunt Vivian is still the same. I haven't heard from my mom today about any test results. I'll keep you posted.

Have a wonderful, safe, and fun weekend!!!