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Value of Visits to Africa detailed maps
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I am struggling with the few detailed mapwork lessons in Visits to Africa. To be honest, so far I have just skipped them. I love the big mapwork for the continent, but would love to hear from someone about how wonderful the detailed ones are.
Part of my issue is that I don’t really get the instructions given. I just get a brain freeze when I read it…and yes, I am having focus issues from a chronic lack of sleep, so I’m sure the problem is with me and not the instructions themselves. I should probably just have my kids figure it out.
In theory I see the value of getting to know some main cities and such…in Egypt in particular…but would love to hear some great stories about kids connecting with a country through the detailed work, loving it, etc. I’m also unsure about ancient vs modern city names, but that’s probably more evident if I looked at it with a rested brain as well.
FWIW, I have been pleased with all the connections my kids have made with countries in Africa, just from incidental mentionings in the news and other places: Eritrea, Gambia, Mali, Sudan, Algeria, Kenya have all come up in daily life recently.
My 8 year old traces the map onto the facing page as instructed. I think it is an excellent way for her to focus her attention on the details of the country being traced. It also builds dexterity. She has to be more intentional in her drawing because it requires more precision than just drawing something for enjoyment. She does not label all things, just the capital and major rivers so far. My six year old does not use the workbook, but listens to the read alouds listed for grades 1-3. I made one copy of the continent of Africa for him to reference throughout the year. Therefore, when my daughter traced and copied the map of Mali for Visit 9, I saved her tracing paper for him. I told him to look very carefully at the map of Mali that his sister traced and then look at his map of all of Africa to see if he could find where Mali is located in Africa. I thought that was a valuable exercise for him to find the country on his map that was the same shape as the bigger outline. (That’s a little more info than you asked for!)
Just wanted to update this thread since I’m the one who brought it up — I decided to have my kids go back and do the detailed Egypt map just the way it’s described in the “Visits” book. And of course… it worked! 😉 It took quite a while, although I think it will go a smidge faster next time. But it didn’t feel like it was dragging, so that’s good.
Overall it was a very positive experience, and we will definitely do the Mali one we missed and any others that come up. I appreciate that the kids essentially end up tracing the some details and marking the same cities/rivers/etc essentially 3x by the time they finish the map, without feeling like they just traced it 3x. Every step was purposeful and thought out.
As always, SCM delivers! 😀
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