United States Geography – planning ideas

I finally had a chance to look at the free sample, and although it looks thorough, it lookks like a lot of work on my part.  But, I would like one place to go to (my downloaded copy) for printables and then just do what I’d like to do for a binder.  I know the boys would like it, but I would definitely NOT use the whole program and would probably omit the very things that she says could easily be omitted.  It is a unit study, which I’m not crazy about (always seems like a lot of work on the parents’ part), but I think that I could make it work in the way I’d like. 

We’ll see….maybe it’s too much for me.  I’ll have to look it over again.  I’m really just looking for state symbols to color, some help in teaching the regions and capitols, hmmmm.

Thanks sheraz.  I’m not the OP but I am basically looking for the same thing.

One question: Do you have to be a member to get the state notebooking pages??  I guess I could find out for myself, but I was hoping you would know .

Here is the link – http://notebookingpages.com/shop/geography-notebooking-pages to the pages.  You can purchase all the state pages (each state has 44 pages) for $3.95.  If you keep going down the page, you will see other things that may interest you.  She has pages for all the US presidents and the first ladies under famous people, as well.  I love the convenience of a membership because she is always adding things, and I just get them.  I download it all to my computer and have it anytime I want without even using the internet too.  One of the things that I like is that she has both Primary and Regular lined papers in each thing to make it easier for me to use with multiple children of different levels.

Sarah’s links sound interesting as well. =)

Just wanted to share my experience with using the state books by Sleeping Bear Press. Our library had some, but not all. So when I planned out our year, generally when we would use them, I would buy 2-3 at a time, used, on Amazon or through Bookfinder. Yes, over the course of the whole year it was a big investment, but if you like the books (which we all did) and you’ll be using them for multiple children in different years, it may be worth it. There were only a couple I thought were not terribly well-written. I also got lucky and found a couple for $2 at a local used book store. For the young kids, we just did the rhymes but as they get older, they can advance on to reading the more in-depth stuff in the margins. Our week looked like this (for a K age child):

Day 1: Read the book, look at the state on the map, point out border states

Day 2: Look at the state on the map, write state name on blank map (we use Uncle Josh’s Maps CD-ROM…a great resource), and look at pictures of the state on the Internet (state parks, beaches, famous landmarks, etc.) or in a book

Day 3: Look a the state in an atlas and add in lakes, rivers, parks, or anything else interesting to you (I usually did 3, worked for copywork, too!)

Day 4: Read the state book again, then have him draw something he learned about the state (drawn narration, his choice)

We really enjoyed this study and I’m excited to do it again next year, adding and tweaking how we do it. One thing I’m excited to add is to occasionally make food associated with that state from this book, and to do a state by state scrapbook (still working on these plans).

Hope this is helpful! All the best.

We used the game, too, and it was actually pretty hilarious. My oldest ds and I were competing against each other, I won’t say who won. I saved that one for sure.