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Geography videos
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This is the one subject I totally and completely stink at. You can smell it for miles. This year I’m trying to make a better effort to teach geography so would appreciate any suggestions you have for curriculum/ideas. I’m not interested in the Voskamp books or Hillyer though. I have boys ages 11, 10, 7 and 5. I would prefer something that they can all do together, at different levels. I do have Galloping the Globe but haven’t found it to be a good fit for us. Maybe I’m must not using it right!
My MAIN question is…..what are some good geography videos/series? Either on Netflix or for purchase. For example, we watched the Jeff Corwin nature series (loads of science!) but would look up each country on the globe and learn a little about it. My kids LOVED seeing the actual country, the animals and learning about some of their customs/foods from Jeff. Sam’s Club has a series right now that travels around different countries, but I don’t know anything about it really.
So, travel videos, geography movies, science shows….what are some fun visual ways to see this beautiful world we live in?
And any games/puzzles/iPod apps are welcome too!
Thank you my wise friends.
Heather
A few things we are doing for Geography:
Geography: A Literature Approach
With this I bought the guide (that I linked to), the blank maps, and the four books. Over the course of a year (or two!) you read a couple of chapters in the books – they are short – and then label the map with what you have read about. I am excited to start this one!
Our kids are also receiving letters every month as part of the Little Passports subscription.
Also, and I’ve found this is a great project for the 5-7 age group, we are in a postcard exchange with a nationwide homeschooling group. As we get a postcard we research a few things about the state, maybe study the state flag and the state landmarks, and put a sticker on our wall map.
A few geography games that we can’t wait to try since they have such EXCELLENT reviews:
The “10 Days in” games –
In terms of videos….I started watching “How the States Got Their Shapes” from the History Channel and it is very interesting so far. Probably good for your older two, at least from the few episodes I’ve seen.
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! 🙂
I made 2 copies of the labeled, colored continents and countries off the Uncle Josh’s Maps CD. I laminated one and put it in a file folder. The other one I cut up by county, continent or states and laminated those pieces. I placed them in a envelope and use those for a fun file folder game review, and just to help familiarize my kids with the places we are studying.
My husband signed up for some free travel brochures (like that will ever happen), but we get mailed tons of stuff. Some of it is really cool and we look it up on our map, and try to find things out about it.
We also really enjoy the videos from National Geographic…Some of the Disney Nature shows are amazing too. I found VHS’ at the library about a bunch of countries and we are working our way through that. What about Planet Earth and others like it?
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.
I’ve heard several people talk about Planet Earth, but have not yet seen it. I’ll have to check if my super small library has it. And the Rick Steve’s stuff…and the National Geographic stuff….and the…….well, maybe I’ll just start with that.
Thanks for all the other suggestions. I now have many things on my Wish List on Amazon.
Heather
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.
Planet Earth is available at Walmart, and sometimes the Disney Nature and National Geographic ones are too. I was checking the National Geographic site the other day and they had a bunch on clearance sale, some were only $2.00 a dvd (not too many though). We enjoyed the one about the Great Pyramid and the new ideas it presented. Anyway, I think with my four kiddos and repeating the modules over and over with them, sometimes it is easier to buy. =)
This thread is from a few weeks ago…just sharing it because the site might have some things that you can use for free to help with geography, as it also has history, literature, science, etc. The stuff is free to get except to pay to return it. I got my first one yesterday. It comes in a reusable plastic case, and it will cost about $2.82 to return. I get to keep it for two months and show it as much as I want. =) Pretty cool.
http://simplycharlottemason.com/scmforum/topic/art-resources#post-42180
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.
We enjoy the Planet Earth and the Blue Planet DVD’s. There is also one by BBC and Discovery called The Human Planet all about people groups living in extreme environments around the globe. Discovery has it for a LOT of money but I found the same title for about 35$ on Amazon. Not sure if its the same or not, narrated by John Hurt. It looks fascinating. I also want to get Wild China. I did order Yellowstone, because we’ve been there and it looks interesting, I just hope it isn’t too full of evolutionary comments. After too many in one show my dd will roll her eyes and say “enough already with the two billion years nonsense” -funny..
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 just put together the Europe GeoPuzzle (bought it when someone here mentioned it was on sale!). It was fun and we learned a lot. I like the idea of focusing on one continent at a time, using a GeoPuzzle, some videos, animals, cultures, etc. I hope to find a “spine” or something to help me pull it together.
Thanks so much for all your suggestions and ideas! I will print this up and go over it the next few weeks.
Heather
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
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