Defining Geography

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  • March 30, 2012 at 2:05 pm
    eawerner
    Participant

    I’m having a hard time decided what direction to go in for dd’s first grade year because I’m not sure what the end goal of teaching geography is…

    Is it learning how to read and use maps? Knowing what the continents and climates are? Specific countries, capitals, and land formations? Is it more about knowing the past or current culture and people of the differnt parts of the world? (Although I suppose past peoples would be more history so just current boundries and cultures?)

    March 30, 2012 at 2:18 pm
    MamaSnow
    Participant

    Personally I think it is all of those things. And I would say the history aspect is tied very closely because all present cultures have been impacted by history. I think the end goal of teaching geography is to develop a love and appreciation for people of all cultures around the world (not just our own country/culture) and to have a sense of geographic literacy – when you hear about something or read about something you have an idea in your mind of where it is. My approach is to start with the culture and people aspect of geography since that is (IMO) the most interesting and engaging and work backwards from there. Read interesting stories from various places around the world and then find those places on the map. Talk about different climates and land formations as you come across them in your reading, or as you visit different places. As you read about more and more different places you can compare and contrast, etc.

    HTH some.

    Jen

    March 30, 2012 at 2:22 pm
    suzukimom
    Participant

    Well, I imagine the goals would vary from person to person / family to family.

    Here are my goals, in general – and of the top of my head.

    1st priority for me is that my children know and understand Maps of various types and scales, and how to find things in an atlas or on a globe or world map (using an index or other help.)   So basically, how to be able to find information themselves.

    Then I want them to know the 7 continents, concepts like Lattitude / Longitude.

    Then some concept of different geographical types of features – what is a mountain like?  Flood Plains?  Prairie?  lakes, streams, woods, etc.

    After that, I want them to have a good enough knowledge of locations to be able to understand (in the future) locations so that they understand more about current events and where things are happening… as well as a concept of where historical events occured (in general) – and what is there now.  This may or may not be very detailed…  

    I also want them to know the geography of their own country.

    anyway, that is my thoughts.

    March 30, 2012 at 5:45 pm
    Tecrz1
    Participant

    I have this little niggling quote in my head – I don’t know if it’s Charlotte Mason or one of the people who have written about her ideas. It I remember reading that history is the study of people in time and geography is the study of people in places.

    Who knows where that quote really came from but it always stuck with me.

    Tara

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