How We Study Geography

For early/mid elementary school, my goals for geography are to introduce my kids to the beautiful variety of cultures around the world, and familiarize them with regions. Here’s how we’ve been accomplishing that:

After spending over a year studying the states of the USA (you can read about that here), we’ve jumped to world geography this school year.

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To introduce a new region, we review the continents and oceans nearby, using our hug-a-world and globe.

We follow the regions as outlined through Kathy Troxel’s geography songs which provide the structure for our units. We use the simple blackline maps in her book, which number countries according to the music lyrics… meaning,  we can follow by number as we listen to the song, familiarizing ourselves with the countries by location easily. I play that song each day until the tune, and thereby the countries, are memorized.

We’ll spend a day immersed in our three favorite geography reference books, looking up the countries in that region: Maps by Aleksandra and Daniel Mizielinska; The Travel Book from Lonely Planet; and, Window on the World: An Operation World Prayer Resource.

We also read a mix of nonfiction and folktales from the region, usually spotlighting a particular country. For these, I often just search my library’s collection to see what is available. For additional ideas, I’ll reference the booklist in Give Your Child the World, which is a really lovely and rich resource.

I recently came across On Mission Magazine from Gentle+Classical Press. We’ve been loving these gorgeous, vibrant peeks into each country that they focus on. These are Christian faith-based resources; each includes a look at daily life, native animals, geography/landforms, spotlight on a missionary and how God has been/is at work in that country, foods, art/music, and suggested activities/handicrafts. You can purchase back issues if there’s a country you’re interested in, or subscribe to receive new publications as they’re released every other month.

We also view a few videos about the countries we are studying, using our library’s kids’ databases. Our library subscribes to the Just for Kids video library resource which has lots of LaVar Burton videos including the Virtual Field Trip series! (We have also enjoyed the videos in LaVar Burton’s Skybrary, which includes the Reading Rainbow videos in one app).

After a week… or three, I quiz my kids on the region with a simple method of asking them to point to each country learned about. Note on skill scaffolding: for my younger son, I name the country and he points to, or colors if so desired (“point to Bhutan”); for my older son, I point to a country and ask what its name is (“what country is this?”). Next school year I will require the older (3rd grader) to spell the country names.

I’ve found this to be a very doable way to explore the world with my boys! It takes only a few minutes a day between playing a song and reading a story, on most days! I’ve been impressed by the way they hold onto the information they learn this way, from stories and fun info about life around the world. Follow along on my instagram account for updates of what we read as we explore more!