6 Ideas for Teaching Homeschool Geography

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What Is Geography?

Geography (the study of the world) is so much more than textbooks flung open to the geopolitical maps of our present year. It’s more than a brief summary of a group of people in a faraway land.

Geography, the study of the world, is a voyage to a person. It’s an adventure to a place. Surely we cannot get there by plane, car, or boat every single time. So, how do we visit the plethora of places we could explore on our planet?

We get there through books.

How might you record your journey into a new place? Why, the commonplace book is our haven for recording thoughts, quotes, proverbs as we interact with what we read, right?

I think this one is pretty amazing:

The commonplace book is for our reading. We process and respond there.

How about having a way to process the visits we take to a foreign land? Well, if you take a literal trip or vacation, then I have just the thing for you! This Travel Four Square is a parent’s dream because kids stay engaged with what they are learning as they visit a new place. (It does not have to be a foreign land! It can be a day trip.)

If you’re looking for a way to work geography into your homeschool’s fabric, then I have a few ideas that might help jumpstart your imagination!

Since studying geography oftentimes gets us out of doors, I wanted to make sure you don’t miss my Year of Nature Study unit. Geography and nature study can be easily integrated, too.

Tip #1: Start Small: Your Home

Charlotte Mason said to start small. Beginning with basic directions (left vs. right, behind vs. in front of), and moving towards larger, abstract map concepts is the way to begin your geography teaching at home.

Go for a nature walk. Map your route.
Map your bedroom.
Map your backyard.
Map your neighborhood.

Follow That Map! (great intro. to geography map skills)

Elementary Geography by Charlotte Mason

Map Skills for Today: Finding Your Way (grade 1) by Scholastic (for a more modern approach)

Map Skills are not the only thing we study in geography. What about the lives and places of other people?

This book is really detailed and has great illustrations:

How Children Lived by Chris Rice (my children love it!)

Tip #2: Get to Know Your City

Take a walking tour in your neighborhood
Walk through historic landmarks in town
Read about the beginnings of your town or city
Map out your routes to activities

Tip #3: Get to Know Your State

Get a state road map (most state Depts. of Transportation have them for free!)
U.S.A. Interactive Map

Map your trips on a state map
Visit your state parks

Tip #4: Get to Know Your Country

Start your U.S. quarter collection
U.S. Geography: Don’t Know Much About the 50 States? This is one of our favorite books!
National Geographic Kids U.S. Atlas
Trace the outline of your country: we use tracing paper
Explore the borders of your country (oceans, other countries)
Locate your country’s major rivers, bodies of water (Paddle to the Sea, Minn of the Mississippi are two great stories taking place in bodies of water)

Locate your country’s major mountain ranges
Put together a puzzle of the U.S.A. (this one rocks because it includes state capital trivia)
Get to know the people of the U.S.A. (traveling helps!)
Remember how the U.S.A. began and our founding principles: We the People by Peter Spier
“America the Beautiful” song and its history
“Visit” through your calendar: my Mom used to get these and I visited so many places from my kitchen table
Keep a log of the national parks you’ve visited: this looks wonderful!
Get to know our national parks: National Parks of the USA

Tip #5: Add on Geographic Formations/Map Basics

Know Cardinal directions (Never Eat Soggy Wheat – North, East, South, West)
Know Intermediate directions (northeast/northwest, southeast/southwest)
Use a compass (whenever you go anywhere!)

Complete Book of Maps and Geography by Thinking Kids

Tip #6: Get to Know Other Citizens of the World

Books highlighting people from around the world: have you checked out the ones below?
Question: If you took a flight to x location from y location, heading east, over which oceans would you fly? Over which continents? Over which countries?
Material World by Peter Menzel
Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel