Our homeschooling schedule included three main parts: a morning routine, a time of world geography, and our afternoon studies. There's a bit more about that here. Since it took a bit of time to coordinate our geography plans, I thought I'd share it with anyone interested.
Studying geography was a great focus for us to do together. There are so many resources out there! We used two main books as our spine, our foundation. The first, called Trail Guide to World Geography is made by a company called Geography Matters. (Yes, geography does matter!) It's a practical guide that takes you around the world with daily questions and mapping assignments. Our second main resource is an old book by V. M. Hillyer. Hillyer wrote his book in 1929 - my copy is an updated version from 1951. This dear man has a great conversational voice as he describes to his readers the places he has seen in his travels.
So these two resources together gave us a rich combination of the gathering of facts, the creating of maps and delightful anecdotes and stories. The countries we studied came alive!
For us, a typical week began with our reading from Hillyer. He whetted our appetite to learn more. We would sit together on the couch and open the book. But reading from 1951 Hillyer is not like most read-alouds. Several times in each chapter, one of us would say, "That's cool! Let's look up a picture" or "Really? Is that still true today?". We always read this book with the laptop nearby, and my children took turns looking up things we were wondering. It was fascinating, disjointed and a load of fun.
Sometimes, Hillyer's opinions about other cultures is offensive. He's a voice from the past, sharing a viewpoint held by many at that time. I approached these comments with a simple, "I didn't agree with that sentence. Any ideas on why?" or "Mr. Hillyer is telling us how people used to see the world. That's a pretty narrow way to think, wouldn't you agree?" We entered into some great discussions; as we read further, we usually just skipped over it with a simple comment.
On Tuesdays, we would usually do the questions from 'Trail Guide To World Geography'. The questions are given at three different levels, so my three children each took a different level. The questions are designed to be done a few each day, but we liked doing all the questions on one day (it felt like a scavenger hunt, with atlases strewed across the table as we all searched for facts). We did the mapping assignments separately, often on Wednesdays.
The other days might include a travel DVD from the library, a cooking session, an art project, the writing of a country report, a visit to a restaurant or ethnic grocery store, or maybe a get-together with a friend who was from or had traveled to the country we were studying. Sometimes we would plan a hypothetical visit to the country. (I thought the book (100 Countries, 5,000 Ideas: Where to Go, When to Go, What to See, What to Do by National Geographic looked great for this! Never did get a chance to buy it, though.) We also had a stack of fiction and non-fiction books from the library and some days we just lounged around the living room and read.
(We bought from Geography Matters their cookbook and their art book. For the record, I found both books to be nice, but not necessary. The library has many books on these topics. I found the recipes and the art projects were sometimes on the basic side - I would have preferred more authentic ingredients and art projects, even if it meant getting a few extra supplies. But if purchasing books is not a big deal for you, I'd go for it. It's nice to have it on hand. If you want to get only one of the books, I'd pick the art book. We did use it a lot.)
The Trail Guide to World Geography lined up quite well with Hillyer's book. Here's how it looked for our family. Our 38 weeks of school are listed on the left. We followed the weekly plans of the Trail Guide for the most part, but extended several lesson. We had to jump around in Hillyer's book, but the chapters are often separate entities anyway.
Hope this is helpful for you! Happy traveling!
MY WEEK
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TRAIL GUIDE TO WORLD GEOGRAPHY
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HILLYER’s GEOGRAPHY OF THE WORLD
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1
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Introduction: The World
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Introduction and Chapter 1
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2
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Introduction: The World
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Chapters 2, 3, 4
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3
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North America
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Chapters 5-8
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4
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North America
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Chapters 9-12
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5
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North America
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Chapters 13-16 (westward expansion)
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6
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North America
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Chapter 17, 18 (Canada, Mexico)
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7
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Central America
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Chapter 19, 20
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8
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South America
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Chapter 21
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9
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South America
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Chapters 22, 23
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10-11
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Northern Europe
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Chapters 24-26 (England)
Chapter 27 (Wales, Scotland, Ireland)
Chapter 38 (Germany)
Chapter 39 (Denmark)
Chapters 40-42 (Norway, Sweden)
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12
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(my own focus on the Netherlands
-‘Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates’ study [in 'Trail Guides']
-geography of our ancestors
-tied in to the Dutch Christmas celebrations in early December
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Chapter 30 (Belgium, Holland)
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13-14
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Netherlands continued
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15
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Eastern Europe (“Week 11”, pg 51)
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Chapter 45 (Finland, Austria, Poland, Hungary)
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16
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Eastern Europe (“Week 12, pg 53)
(The table of contents calls this “Central Europe”, but the actual
assignment is Eastern.)
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17-18
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Southern Europe (“Week 13”, pg. 55)
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Chapters 28-29 (France)
Chapters 31-32 (Spain)
Chapter 33 (Switzerland)
Chapter 34-37 (Italy)
Chapter 46 (Greece)
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19
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Northern Africa (“Week 14”, pg. 57)
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Chapters 64, 65 (Egypt, Morocco)
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20
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Western Africa (“Week 15”, pg. 59)
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Chapter 66 (Niger, Liberia)
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21
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Central Africa (“Week 16”, pg. 61)
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Chapter 67 (Africa overview, animals, etc.)
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22
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Southern Africa (“Week 17”, pg. 63)
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Chapter 68 (South Africa)
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23
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Review (“Week 18”, pg. 65)
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24
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Asia: Middle East (“Week 19”, pg. 67)
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Chapter 47-51 (Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Dead Sea)
Chapters 52-54 (Iraq, Persia, Iran)
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25
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Middle East continued, on my own
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26
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Middle East continued, on my own
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27
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Central Asia (“Week 20”, pg. 69)
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Chapter 61 (Siberia)
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28
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South Asia (“Week 21”, pg. 71)
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Chapters 55-56 (India)
Chapter 57 (Burma/Myanmar, Thailand)
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29-30
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Asia: Russia, Far East (“Week 22”, pg. 73)
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Chapters 43-44 (Russia)
Chapter 58 (Tibet)
Chapters 59-60 (China)
Chapter 62-63 (Japan)
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31
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Southeast Asia (“Week 23”, pg. 75)
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32
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Australia (“Week 24” pg. 77)
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Chapter 69
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33
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Australia, Oceania (“Week 25”, pg. 79)
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Chapter 70 (Pacific Islands)
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34
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Antarctica (“Week 26”, pg. 81)
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35
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Review (“Week 27”, pg. 83)
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Chapter 71 (Coming Home)
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36
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Unit Study: pp. 85-106
‘Around the World in 80 Days’
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37
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Unit Study: pp. 85-106
‘Around the World in 80 Days’
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38
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Unit Study: pp. 85-106
‘Around the World in 80 Days’
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