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How to do map drills?
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I’m starting geography and I’m trying to figure out how to do map drills that makes it interesting. We like it simple. Any suggestions would be great. We are doing US History so I want to cover the 50 states.
Thanks,
toni
When my older children were younger, I printed out lots of blank US maps and they slowly learned the states by filling them in. With lots of copies you can keep drilling and practicing. After they did this, we did state birds (but didn’t memorize those…it was more like an art project/geography)
Nanci
I’m not sure of the ages of your children, but here are a few ideas:
- Get inexpensive placemats of the U. S., and during lunch, practice tracing some fun “trips” or identifying where certain friends and relatives live. For example, you might see which states you would go through if you took a trip from your house to Washington, D. C.
- Get a puzzle of the U. S. for the children to play with during the year.
- You can read this description of how we do map drill at our house. If you have young children who would find it difficult or tedious to copy the states’ names each week, you could make slips of paper with the states’ names that they could just slide into place on the map.
My son is 7 1/2 and really enjoys maps/globes/etc. I’m leaning towards the Uncle Josh’s Map because they are very straight forward. I know alot of ladies are using Map Trek but they seem very detailed. I may hold off for later years on those.
thank you -)
toni
Just a clarification…
- The Knowledge Quest Map Trek Maps (or the Homeschool in the Woods historical maps) are historical in nature and useful for helping to understand what we’re studying in history. The expansion of the Roman Empire, Battle Locations, etc.
- The Uncle Josh’s Blank Outline Maps are for drilling and learning the current political locations of countries.
Globes, puzzles, games are all great additions, too.
Christie
Christie (and anyone else), which would you suggest working on first, current political locations or maps linked to the history module….or what combination of both? This is our first year doing map drills (1st year with CM method), and I have a 7th grader, a 5th grader, and a 4th grader.
To simplify things, I am using history module 5 with all of them. For geography, we are following the SCM curriculum guide’s recommendation to focus on South America and Australia. Last week, we did our first map drill on the countries of South America. My oldest dd got every country correct (she remembered some map work she did with last year’s curriculum), and the other two got 4-6 countries correct. They seem to enjoy map drills.
Sue
For young kids learning the states, I recommend The Scrambled United States. I know it looks like twaddle (I thought so at first and ignored it when we received it….and while I ignored it my kids learned the states with it!). In a very rare occurance, I think the DVD is better than the book.
Simply posting a map in your home where it gets lots of attention will work wonders.
Now that my kids are older (not beginners), when we study a place, we draw our own maps and label them as we learn facts and stories about the place. This is been so much fun, and you really learn a lot when drawing – it’s impossible to draw a map without REALLY looking at it and noticing details. I do this project with the kids….and it can be frustrating, so be patient if first maps turn out looking like blobs. Skills will improve.
Ahh one more thing to add to our school day. Perhaps I can wait until after the first of the year to add this. I love that you all share this info. It really keeps me on my toes!!
We are doing US history this year too. We are doing geography (learning states) like listed above by quietwaters. We have added the The Scrambled United States GAME to our weekly to do list. The whole family (children 19 yrs, 9, and 5) all love it including us, as parents. You can get it at your local Barnes and Noble with your teacher discount for about $12. It’s our favorite game to play right now.
I forgot I had this website saved away for using with geography. It has plain outlines and detailed. Best of all it is FREE!!!
Wow! That map site is fantastic. It will come in very handy. Thanks for telling us about it, thehauserfamily!
We all have fun playing on the freerice.com website. They have geography drills, grammar, etc and even artists/paintings. It’s just an extra thing we do.
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