Geography - Maps & Globes

This past week, we added geography into Josie's school.

I'm probably the last person in the World that should be teaching geography.  I may or may not have asked my father in law if we were at the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean when we were in Daytona recently.  Turns out we were at neither of the above.  oops.

Thank God for an awesome library and a child that is eager to learn right along side of me.

I'm using "What Your Kindergartener Needs To Know" as a guide for this first half of the year.  There is a chapter on geography and light American history that we are going to work though.  I scoured the internet and the library for some fun books and projects for each theme and am really excited for this subject.

My goal with geography for this year is just to get Josie to see that the World is very big and that people live differently then we do in other places.  I'm keeping it fun and simple, but still challenging her to memorize names and where places are.

This first week we spent some time learning about maps, globes, compasses, and the names of the 7 continents.

Our Snack Map was the biggest hit of the week.

I did a (very) rough map of our school room with an X marking where a treat was hidden.  It took a lot of practice for her to start to understand that the map needed to line up with the room no matter which way she turned.  

She wanted to keep doing this over and over even though she knew where the snack was hidden.  I'm going to do this one again and hide stuff all over for her to find.  She just loved it!

She worked on the continent names for copy work and learned where each one was on our globe.

This year I'm going to use the library for all it's worth. 

We currently have about 35 books checked out on our theme for September.  I was able to find some really cute DVDs on maps and globes at our library.  If you are homeschooling, don't overlook all that the local library has to offer!  You can build an entire curriculum off of the books and videos you can find!

To learn the compass, we used these worksheets from Confessions of a Homeschooler and my iPhone's compass feature.  

For the next 7 weeks we are going to study a continent a week.

We started Monday with Asia and I already feel like an explorer.  Our World is so very cool!  I know I forget how diverse it is.  I know that I am going to enjoy learning with Josie!