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Greetings!

Deborah Wuehler and family

We are experiencing "Geography on the Go" right now. Sitting in our 15-passenger van watching the geography go right past as we drive from northern to southern California and back again. We are enjoying the mountains, the ocean, the valleys, the sun, and the snow. As we are visiting our boys in Los Angeles, we are experiencing a whole different culture here in this University City than in our own back home.

We have met people from so many far away geographical places on this trip. Our boys live in a house with students from Saudi Arabia, and the owner has housekeepers who are from Mexico. The pastor of their church is from Ireland, and the owner of one of their workplaces is from Germany. We met their friends from Italy, China, and Sri Lanka. In California, we live in a multi-cultural society that represents a vast geographical map. When we get home, we will look at the map and see where they are located.

This is one way we've taught what I would call living geography. Another way is when letters come from the missionaries and children and organizations we support, we take a look at that country and delve in to study more when we can. Sending our older children on mission trips to other countries is a great learning experience in more ways than just geography. They learn teamwork, compassion, and gratitude as they share the gospel of Jesus Christ. These things are the same in any language or geographical location, and are profitable for more than just this lifetime.

Additionally, when the kids are reading good literature, biographies, or history, you can print out a map of the country or countries mentioned, have them mark it up with the book's information, and put it in a binder. 

You can get creative with geography and you can also review a multitude of helpful and entertaining geography products here. Don't forget about the free monthly magazine, where our March 2012 and March 2013 issues cover geography in several helpful articles. Our goal here is to support you in all of your homeschooling subjects, including geography.

What does the Bible say about geography? "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). How better to learn this type of Biblical geography than teaching children at Home Where They Belong.

~Deborah

TOS Senior Editor

SeniorEditor@TheHomeschoolMagazine.com  

P.S. If you are planning to travel, I would suggest reading about Donna Rees's practical and fun idea of creating Travel Kits for your children. We have made these each time we travel and it helps make the travel time less stressful for dad and mom, and more fun for everyone. You can get the Travel Kits E-Book FREE this month! Simply find the ad in the March issue of the magazine and follow the instructions. Hint: The ad is between pages 25-35.

Diana Waring

Relational Homeschooling

www.DianaWaring.com 

Dear Friends,

This week's topic makes me smile because I have learned much firsthand knowledge of geography from traveling . . .  Actually, my kids visited 49 of the 50 states before graduating from homeschool high school, and they not only knew where each state was located on the map, they knew what the local food tasted like!

So, how are you doing with geography? Is it one of those painful subjects for you? Or one you think--with a great deal of shrinking and trepidation--that you must get to someday?  Since we don't have a lot of great models for making geography come alive (it tends to be a boring subject in school), I thought you might enjoy hearing some ways to make it POP!

First of all, turn geography into a game. You can use manufactured games, or, you can manufacture your own. It can be a board game, a word game, a card game, an outdoor game, a running game, a tag game . . . There are a tremendous number of options!  (If you're really interested in this concept, you might want to check out my curriculum.)

Second, try eating your geography. Sound wild? Well, it's really pretty simple. If you're studying Italy, for instance, eat the foods or use the ingredients that come from each region, like olive oil, olives, or garlic. Libraries and online recipe sources can perk up any study of geography.  Studying France? There's no motivation for learning about this country that is quite as tasty as French crepes!

Third, tie geography to its logical cousin--history. If you learn, for instance, about Hannibal crossing the Alps with soldiers, horses, and elephants during the Punic Wars, the geography of northern Africa and southern Europe will leap into vivid reality.  In fact, your kids might become so fascinated with this that they build their own models out of papier mach� or clay! (Hmmm.  I feel the need to refer you once again to my curriculum.)

Finally, don't ignore your local geography! Take a walk, take a hike, take a drive, and explore the wonders of your own locale. Allow your children to experience the differences between mountains and deserts, between rivers and ponds, between cities and farmlands. This is what will actually help them make the connection between what they read about in a geography book and the reality of what it is like in a particular location.

Remember, stay relational.

Diana

P.S. We'll be at the GHC Greenville convention this weekend and we'd LOVE to meet you! Just stop by our booth and tell us you are THM readers--we'll delightedly give you a free gift!

Raising Real Men

www.RaisingRealMen.com

Hal & Melanie Young

Several of our sons have done well in state-level geography bees, including one who ranked No. 2 in the whole state. When a public school teacher turned to Melanie in amazement and asked "What curriculum do you use?" she had to admit a dark secret . . . We seldom use a geography curriculum at all! So how do we help our children learn it?

• Make it accessible: For years, we kept a world map and a U.S. map under plastic on our kitchen table (you can get tough, clear plastic in home improvement stores and fabric counters of discount stores). As we talked about current events over dinner, we'd simply illustrate them from where we sat. "There's flooding in the Hunan province of China. That's over there, under the green beans." One family we met had a world map which covered the wall of their playroom, from floor to ceiling!
• Make it personal: Use your family's history and your child's experiences to make geography real for them. Our four-year-old son once stepped to a chalkboard and sketched a very accurate map of the eastern U.S. We were shocked! When we asked how he could do that, he told us a short story about each state, just like we'd told him: "Grandma and Grandpa live here, Uncle Stan lives here, this is where we went on vacation. . . ." And he had learned the shapes from a jigsaw puzzle!
• Make it memorable: Much of history is connected to geography, whether it's the western expansion of the U.S., the military campaigns of Napoleon, or the growth of colonialism. We are fans of the novels of G.A. Henty, who wrote historical fiction with loads of geographical detail. Look for map clues in all your children's reading and point them out--follow the Ingalls family in the Little House series, explore the lands visited in missionary biographies, trace the Mediterranean travels of the apostle Paul or the journeys of Marco Polo! And don't overlook the maps in the back of your Bible--many of those countries, from Israel and Egypt to Babylon and Persia, are frequently in the news today.
• Make it fun: Kids love maps and globes. Get them! There are puzzles, games, memory songs, and books galore, where geography is either taught or caught. All of these can be effective tools for sharing the outlines of God's world!

Whatever you do, point out that knowing something of geography can be an opening for sharing God's love with others. You may find, like we have, that most people haven't even heard of Kyrgyzstan or know precisely where Saskatchewan is, but knowing geography can give you more opportunities for friendship and ministry than you may have dreamed.

"[God] hath made of one blood all nations of men . . . and the bounds of their habitation" (Acts 17:26).

Yours in the battle,
Hal and Melanie Young

P.S. G.A. Henty novels are full of adventure, battles, and excitement while teaching virtuous character, history, and geography. We love the audiobook versions of the G.A. Henty novels so much that we recently started carrying them on our website. Check them out here.

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