Teaching Geography
Homeschool Geography
I don't know about you, but I hardly learned anything about geography in my twelve years of public education. Taking time to learn geography is worthwhile!
We moved across the country, from Oregon to Virginia, in 2020. I can't believe the amount of young people who have asked us "Where is Oregon?" Where is Oregon?! I bet they don't know where Indonesia or Ghana or Guyana are, either. Yikes. Let's create a different kind of education for our children by teaching them geography.
There is a whole world full of people out there--human beings, who God made, and who He loves. There are also landscapes, different from what we see out our windows in our little space on this earth, and these landscapes prove God's existence and His immense creativity. We need to know about geography so that we can understand God better, and so that we can develop compassion for the people He cares about.
There are whole people groups who know nothing of their Creator, and we are called, in the Great Commission, to make sure that they hear the Gospel. Whether that means we go there ourselves, raise up our children to go, or we pray for and support those who are led to go; we need to know something about the places and people. Let's endeavor to raise globally and mission-minded children by introducing them to maps and landscapes and people of the world.
How Geography is Scheduled in the Cycles
I have scheduled geography to line up with the Claritas Publishing memory work. This provides some context for the memory work, so that our children are not simply memorizing dry facts.
I encourage you to also use the geography books suggested to study the places you read about in every other subject. You will run across geography in your history readings, your read aloud books, and your books about various composers, artists, poets, etc. Look at these places on maps. Draw your own maps. Get creative! Perhaps your children will take an interest in cartography and creating his or her own hand-drawn atlas. Enjoy!
While memorizing geography facts is interesting, it is really the stories and the pictures of real people that are going to stick with your children. I encourage you to attend missions conferences and to invite missionaries over to dinner. Hear their stories and look at their photos. These places will become real in your child's mind, and connections will be made in a way that is meaningful.
How to Teach Geography: Reading & Narration
- Read a geography passage aloud in a comfy location.
- Pick one child (and rotate each time) and ask that child what he or she heard. (This is called Narration).
- Look at maps and pictures together to discover the things you've just read about.
- Have your child draw pictures of what they learned.
That's it! If you would like to schedule independent reading for your children, you may do that as well.
If your children are particularly interested in something they have heard in the day's reading, explore it! Go to the library and pick up more books on the topic, or do a little research online. My family has really enjoyed Google Earth for geography research. For example, we read a book about Benjamin Franklin and learned that he lived on Milk Street in Boston, so we looked up Google Earth to find out what Milk Street looks like today. Have fun!
How to Teach Geography: Maps
Practice drawing maps with your children regularly. With very young children, you may want to start with a map of their bedroom, then a map of your whole house, then a map of the lot or property that you live on. Move on to a map of your town, and then a map of your state, and so on. Teach directions and practice with a compass, too. Walk around the backyard with a compass to see which way is North, etc.
To draw maps, you can purchase some vellum/tracing paper and trace maps at first. Then, look at maps and re-create your best copy of it, free-hand.
Pull out the colored pencils or watercolor paints to add some variety to your maps.
Label your maps, but don't attempt to label everything. It will be impossible to remember every little city and river and mountain. Choose something to label that day--what is your focus? It works well to tie this into the day's reading or memory work.
