Yearlong Geography with Visits to…

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  • startabatha
    Participant

    I am interested in doing a full year focused on Geography (no history). Has anyone done a year long Geography using the Visits To series of books? How has this worked out? Can you get through all 6 books in one school year? Thank you!

    Amber
    Participant

    Wow would that even be possible!? So if there’s 6 books you would have to complete a book every 3 weeks, correct? That seems very precocious! I’m interested in hearing what others think! It’s definitely an interesting idea!

    Karen
    Participant

    I’m not sure how much the students will retain going thru it that fast. I think part of what makes Visits to…. work is that it’s repeated exposure, small bits each time, with time in between to make connections.

    I’d be afraid that if you did a week’s worth each day (or more? to make it all fit), you’d essentially have the VBS effect. You know, when your child memorizes a couple of verses in order to get the prize at Vacation Bible School, and then promptly forgets them as soon as VBS is over.

    CrystalN
    Participant

    It would be one book every six weeks. I think you could do it and have a great time. Although I would look at it as a geography overview. Expecting a general familiarity with the region but not a deep relationship. If your kids are young you could read regional picture books and do cultural crafts and food, maybe one shorter read aloud, learn about missionaries, etc. If I did a geography overview I would definately continue to cover a region at a time along with history in subsequent years. I think the second time your kids encounter a country or culture they would make a deeper connection. We did this with My Fathers World one year and although I did not love it my kids each made a “passport” upon “entering” each country. That is all they really remember from the study. I think it was the curriculum though, not the subject matter. Enjoy your tour of the world.

    Kayla
    Participant

    We are doing this this year! It is going so good! We school closer to 42 weeks so 7ish weeks per Visits to Book.(Middle East took 6, Arfroca is going to take 8)  I’m adding in a ton of picture books from Give Your Child The World. My kids are young, 3rd grade and 1st, with a toddler and baby on the way. My goal was not for them to be able to map every country in the world. My goal is for them to love people and understand that how we live is very different from much of the world. We do maping once a week and color in 5-7 countries. I’m going over things that come up as they come, We went over Direction and made compass roses, we’ve talked about continent vs country. We’ve named the continents and oceans. We’ve talked about why Antarctica is a continent but the artic isn’t. Basically our schedule is a book/ reading every day. If you have any questions feel free to email me! K dot dernier at gmail dot com.  I also have an Instagram page just for our schooling that I go over our books each week. @Flourish_with_charlotte

    Kayla
    Participant

    <p style=”text-align: left;”>Also, plan to do which ever Visit lines up with you next years history last, that way of you only make it through 5, you can do the right one with your history guide.</p>

    startabatha
    Participant

    Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. Kayla, I love your approach and am swooning at your instagram page. Which books did you wind up using for Visits to North America? I need to order that book called Give Your Child the World for other book ideas. How did you schedule everything out?

    Kayla
    Participant

    I haven’t done North America yet. We are working through African and we already finished Middle East. For scheduling: I wrote out all the country names in the order they are introduced in the Visits to Guide in one column.  Then in a second column, next to the country it pertains to I wrote in material world, hungry planet, or SCM recommended books. After that I went through Give Your Child the World and wrote in names of books for other countries or if I wanted a second book for some countries. We for sure don’t hit all the countries but we have read a lot of folk tales and just books about every day life in these nations.

    while doing Middle East we discussed he Muslim religion, what we believe, and the differences. We listened to a Muslim call to prayer on YouTube. We’ve talked about child labor, and girls not getting to go to school as long as boys. So many subjects! And of course we’ve eaten middle eastern food! We have a small textile museum by us that happened to have a whole Bedouin exhibit a few months before so my kids recalled the coffee ceremonies and the clothing and the tents. It has been so fun!

    Karen
    Participant

    For when you study Australia, I’ll put a plug in for The Switherby Pilgrims and Jamberoo Road by Eleanor Spence – we thoroughly enjoyed those two last year.  (My girls were in 7th, 5th, 3rd, 2nd grades).

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