I only read the first few posts and saw that you ultimately decided to get the African geography book. My son and I are doing it this year and have absolutely loved it. It is difficult, as there are so many countries, but it is so wonderful to know. I’m learning so much myself as well! Definitely read the picture books that are recommended. They are often the most fun!
One thing that has helped us memorize the countries is to put them to music. It was completely random, but I have made the countries fit into the One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians tune. I guess because that’s the same tune we use for the old testament books of the Bible! I just add them into the song as we learn new countries. It started off:
Egypt, Sudan, & Eritrea, Lybia, & Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, Western Sahara…
Then start the tune over:
Gambia, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, and then Guinea, Sierra-Leone, Liberia…
We seriously wouldn’t have been able to remember them all if it hadn’t been to song! Also, there is a great episode of Arthur in Season 10 (available on Amazon Prime and You Tube) called “In My Africa,” that sings about every nation in Africa! Great tricks and finds like that have made geography so fun and fruitful this year! Good luck!
And, HollyS, I was unaware of Geopuzzles. My son will absolutely love those! He has a great world puzzle, but this is even better for each particular continent! Thanks for sharing that resource.
LeAnn, Thanks for the song idea. I’m not sure how much memorizing will be accomplished, due to my daughter’s learning disabilities. I am having her label the countries on an Africa map, but there are so many, I just don’t know how it will go. She does learn best to music, so I’ll give it a try. I guess if she can remember some of them, that’s better than none at all. She likes Arthur, so I’ll have to check out the YouTube.
We used Visits to Africa alongside SCM’s Ancient Egypt module (before using MOH 1) and are currently using Visits to Europe. This has overall been a great program for us. My younger DC have struggled with writing out the names, so we switched to having them color the countries as I say their name. You can also cut out the names of the countries and have them place them on the map…we may try this next time. My DC really love the Material World/Planet Earth books. My mom bought MW when it was new and I loved looking through it as a teenager, so I was thrilled to see SCM using it. I actually have my mom’s copy of MW! 🙂
I hate to throw more at you, but have you looked into Geopuzzles? My DC have really enjoyed these! They are great review and have no writing involved. I hope to have the full set of puzzles by the time we go through the Visits series.
I am having my daughter glue the printed names on the map. It may be tricky getting all of the names in certain areas where the countries are tiny. I have her glue them outside the map and draw a line to the country. It seems to be working out nicely.
Even though my daughter is 12, with her language-based LD, she is not understanding some of the readings in Letters From Egypt. I do not have access to the younger books, so I just decided to do Letters. It is so much information and the way some of it is written is hard for her to understand. But, I am determined to get through it. She will ‘get’ bits and pieces of it. HP and MW are really good to get a picture of what life is like in other countries.