Geography videos

Have you tried searching Netflix for the Michael Palin videos?  There are several that I haven’t previewed yet, so I’m not sure if they are appropriate or not, but they look interesting.  There is also a video on Netflix called Wild China which we have watched a few sections of.  Sometimes I type in the name of a country or continent to see if any videos come up.  There is also a game called Setera, I believe that is a geography game for the computer, and the last time I saw it it was free.  My kids love to play Stack the Countries on my iphone.  One thing that I have done and still continue to use are these continent sets that I found on a Montessori website called Montessori for Everyone.  It includes a labeled map, a blank map, and cards with animals, landmarks and plants from that continent.  It also has these little labels with the names of the countries on them, and I attach them to stick pins (the kind with the colored balls on top) and then I attach the map to a corkboard and my kids push the pin labels into the map.  They can also write the name of the countries on a seperate map.  Just some things I thought about that you might be interested in!  🙂

My sister is moving to Germany this weekend. This last month her family has been watching Rick Steve’s Europe DVD series and learning about how to travel, what to see and do, etc. I don’t know how appropriate these are for children, but I haven’t heard anything from her that they were inappropriate. The Germany and Scandinavia series is on hold for me at the library.  My family wanted to get a glimpse into where they were moving to in Germany. Sonlight sells a DVD called Unreached Peoples that is two hours and described as including “live footage from every continent, cultural and spiritual insights, and prayer points.” http://www.sonlight.com/FH21.html  We also enjoyed Planet Earth as mentioned above by Sheraz.

Here is a link to check out. 

http://www.sjbproductions.com/   this is a company who attends homeschool conferences and offers many travel videos as well as videos about sea life and wild life.

We have enjoyed BBC Planet Earth and Blue Planet.

For travel shows, we like Rudy Maxa and Rick Steves. Beware of Globe Treker: one from Germany showed a nude beach.

I choose one country to focus on at a time. Sometime the kids influence my choice. I use whatever books I have on that country. I add books from the library. The newest edition of All Through The Ages has an expanded geography section. I am familiar with the Sonlight catalog and some of those are focused on a country.

We color the country in Dover’s Around the World coloring book. We have made each child their own “passport” out of two file folders taped together. The outside, I printed, cut and paste the US symbol and USA written out, just as you see on a real passport. They decorated with stickers. On the inside left is a 8 X 11 horizontal outline map of 50 united states. Inside right is their passport photo and their name, address, passport info. at the top and Mexico and Canada at the bottom. On the next pages of the passport are the remaining continents of about 3 X 5 outline map. Last page is divided in three: Australia, Antarctica, Arctic Circle. As we study a country, they color that country in on the outline map and number it. The same colored number is next to the country’s flag which they draw and color and write the country name under. They also add stickers and drawings here and there. They love to look at them and they make it their own. I write in the dates next to the flag of when we “traveled” there.

I also intend to do a travel journal when they are older and can write better themselves. This would include written narrations of what they learned and drawings from their travels.

We also add timeline figures as we come across historical events in that country.

Not a DVD but also not a book – what about GeoPuzzles?  They have pieces cut in the shape of the countries so the child begins learning them from the start?  We have the Europe one right now and love it.  They can be found on Amazon.

We are on Mod 3 so doing countries around the Med. Sea.  We are reading some of the recommended books, but for other countries here are websites that I am using.  They have info on other countries as well so just search for the country you are looking for.

http://www.kidport.com/RefLIb/WorldGeography/WorldGeoIndex.htm

http://www.travelforkids.com/main.htm

http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0212302/italy.html#

http://www.homeschoolmo.com/2011/04/free-geography-resources-for.html