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Geography

11 AWESOME Ways to Learn Geography (Other Than Labeling a Map)

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Slapping down a map to label states and countries has never been an engaging way to teach my kids homeschool geography. Too, look at my page Homeschool Geography for hands-on and simple ideas and tips.

Drill and kill of boring facts to remember only worked for a short time too.

So today, I am sharing 11 awesome ways to learn geography that don’t include labeling a map because geography is so much more than writing out the names of states and countries.

11 Awesome Ways to Learn Geography (Other Than Labeling a Map)

Can you say snore? zzzzzzzz. (okay, okay)

Including ways to teach geography to a variety of ages, I hope some of these help you to get out of your geography rut.

ONE|  Sing geography songs.

You can listen to a sample of these Geography Songs here.

Music helped my boys to remember important key geography terms and countries.

TWO|  Learn landmarks.

Learning about the Grand Canyon or the Amazon Rain Forest brings life to geography.

Even when teaching about ancient civilizations, it’s easier to remember them when they are associated with landmarks.

Look here at my information and free minibook about the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World.

THREE|  Cover geography with science.

History and geography are not the only subjects that go hand in hand.

Geography Bundle

Science can also easily be added to geography.

Whether you have a child that eats up geography and could leave science alone or you have a child that runs from geography to study science, combining the two subjects is a win-win.

For example, we made a fun lava lamp when studying about how convection currents rise and fall.

FOUR|  Eat up and learn about geography.

Talking about eating, geography is especially fun if you can learn about the different foods of a country.

Isolating this idea more, focus on one food like the breads of the world or the spices of a country.

Have you seen the How Did That Get Here series?

And then you can never, never go wrong with making a food from a country or region.

Looked at a few things we have made when studying about certain areas.

  • Make pan au chocolat when studying about France.
  • Make celtic cakes when studying ancient civilizations.
  • Make baklava when studying about Ancient Greece.
  • Make victory soup when studying about the countries of World War II.
  • Make Cherokee pan bread when studying the states in the Southeastern United States.
  • Make soups from South America.
  • Make chili when doing a state study on Texas.
  • Make negrinho when doing a study about Brazil.

FIVE|  Make a DIY atlas.

My boys loved making a diy atlas when we studied geography using North Star geography for middle and high school kids.

Instead of labeling for the sake of busy work or so it seems like it to your kids, a diy atlas gives them a purpose for map making.

Make the project large if you are doing a world geography tour or make it only for a certain area if you don’t want to get too overwhelmed.

I like easy projects that focus on specific areas.

We tend to get more out of our projects when we can sharpen our focus on smaller chunks of information.

SIX|  Unleash your inner artist.

Another way to draw in a reluctant learner or to mix up your geography is to draw it.

Take a look at Geography Through Art or Mapping the World with Art.

Geography Through Art is a multi-age resource and has some terrific resources for hands-on activities.

SEVEN|  Use technology.

I love the free world geography games from Sheppard Software.

Shepphard Softward has been around for years and is another great way to change up geography. Another one we love is the stack the states app. The free version is fun.

EIGHT|  Do a lapbook or two.

You know our love for lapbooks and in most all of my lapbooks, I add in minibooks for geography.

Also, you can do a lapbook just on geography.

Check out the free geography lapbooks at Homeschool Helper Online.

NINE|  Living books and literature.

Another fun combination of subjects is to mix language arts with geography. A living book brings geography alive through a story.

Tell a child a story, adding in hands-on activities and they’ll see a purpose for learning about the world around them.

Though the series of books by Holling C. Holling say they are for upper elementary kids, they are such a precious and meaty resource that I feel you can use them for middle school kids too.

Also, grab this free 166 .pdf supplement to enhance your study of Paddle-to-the-Sea.

Then, I love these free vintage books that are recommend to study geography Charlotte Mason style. They are Charlotte Mason’s Elementary Geography and Long’s Home Geography for Primary Grades.

Scoot by and grab them if you are looking for free geography.

TEN|  Geography games.

Of course, who can deny the benefits of learning through games?

Have you seen GeoDice: Educational Geography Board Game and GeoPuzzle World – Educational Geography Jigsaw Puzzle?

ELEVEN|  Virtual travel.

And lastly, I love this unique and creative idea of virtual travel without leaving the comfort of your living room. Search for each day on her website. (day 1, day 2, etc. up to day 7)

Don’t settle for boring worksheets to teach geography.

Using one of these eleven ways, I hope will bring a little more pep to your step when teaching geography.

Hugs and love ya,

Also, check out the tips for First Grade Homeschool Curriculum for History and Geography and also 3 Reasons Why Hands-On Geography is Important in Middle and High School.

Are you following my geography board on Pinterest on my first account?

Follow Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s board Ge-og-ra-phy {Earth Writing} on Pinterest.

And are you following my newest Pinterest account too?

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.

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15 Top Homeschool Posts, Tips and Ideas of the Year – You Picked Them!

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

15 Top Homeschool Posts, Tips and Ideas of the Year – You Picked Them Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I love this time of the year because not only is it a time of reflection, but about brand new beginnings.

I have now completed two years of blogging and am loving every minute of it.

Without you, I would not be as motivated to share what I do.

15 Top Homeschool Posts

So thank you first for following because you are my inspiration for writing and sharing what I have learned so far in my journey.

What I did today was round up the posts, inspiration and ideas that rocked your world this year.

It’s true you love homeschool planning, organization and unit studies as much as I do or at least you want to pursue them some more this next year.

Looking Back to Make Tracks Forward

Also, it seams like many of us have strong opinions too on the difference between homeschooling and schooling at home. Be sure to look at each post below by clicking on the link under the image.

And if you’re new to homeschooling, be sure you go through my Free 31 Day Boot Camp for New Homeschoolers.


Hugs and you know I love ya into next year,

Tina Signature 2015c

Linking up @ these awesome places:
Hip Homeschool Hop|Tuesday Talk|Turn It Up Tuesday|Wonderful Wednesday|A Little Bird Told Me|Mom’s Library|Little R & R|WFMW|Think Tank|Hearts for Home|Thoughtful Thursday|The Homeschool Link Up|

Winter Homeschooling Activities and Free Downloads. 5 Days of Look Alive. Day 5 – Free Teacher Guides Bliss

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5 Days of Look Alive Winter Homeschooling. Day 5. Free Teacher Guides @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

If you missed any days, grab them below:

Day 1. Look to the Sea.

5 Days of Look Alive day 1

Day 2. Look to the Sky.

5 Days of Look Alive day 2

Day 3. Look to Pokemon.

5 Days of Look Alive day 3

Day 4.Look to Free Unit Studies

5 Days of Look Alive day 4

Moving on along through our series: Look Alive:Winter Homeschooling Ideas & Downloads, Day 5 is Look to Free Teacher Guides.

If there is anything that will get me pumped about homeschooling during the long cold winter days is the thought of planning.

I love to plan anytime of the year. These free teacher’s guides I rounded up are about a variety of subjects and have tidbits of cool facts in each one.

Some of them are from a museum and they talk about tours, but the rest of the pages have great background information on each topic.

Sometimes you don’t want to plan a unit study, you just want to cover something different for the day and these free guides are the perfect bite size pieces.

The first set of guides are at the Field Museum.

Look at a few of the subjects they have:

Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics.
George Washington Carver.
Plants of the World.
Maps: Finding Our Place in the World.
Nature Unleashed: Inside Natural Disasters.

There are four pages of great freebie awesomeness to look through and a variety of grades. Be sure to download what you want in case it ever goes away.

Then this next site, SunSentinel, is equally awesome and has so many freebies I can’t count them.

Look at a few of the things they have and take your time downloading the overflowing amount of freebies.

ARTS

Opera – It’s for Everyone! Grades 6-Adult
Degas in Bronze-Grades 6-Adult

CHARACTER EDUCATION 

Power of You – Grades 8-12
Your Character Your Choice! It’s Up to You

SCIENCE

Amazing Orchids-Grades 3-5
LegoLand, 4-5
STEAM – Grades 9-12

Then I love this whole page of resources to learn about the winter for the upper grades (6 to 12th). I always strive to maintain the fun and hands-on ideas even in the upper grade.

Look at at just a few of the things on this super page.

From the site:

Lesson Plans

Storm Clouds
Students in grades 6-12 use CERES cloud data and a weather map to explore cloud coverage during a winter storm.

Getting Physical: The Physics and Other Science Behind Winter Olympic Sports
Students in grades 6-12 research, write, and perform sportscasts that explain the physics behind their favorite sports in these cross-curricular activities.

Glacier National Park: “Hibernation-Migration Fascination”
Students in grades 7-12/ compare two different types of hibernation — the hibernation of bears and marmots.

ICS — Energy ( PDF, 901 KB, 21 pgs.)
In this module, students in grades 9-12 investigate how energy absorption and water affect temperature.

Physics and Biomechanics
A learning module for grades 11-12 that uses the sports of luge and figure skating to teach four basic mechanical concepts: linear kinematics, linear dynamics, projectile motion, and conservation of angular momentum.

Games & Activities

Don’t Be Too Flaky
Students measure the relative densities of water, ice, and snow. Data can be submitted to the website and displayed with data from around the world.

I hope you have enjoyed this 5 days series of winter homeschooling and now we have enough activities to keep us planning through the long cold winter days.

Are you ready for winter? Grab the other ideas below!

5 Days of Look Alive Winter Homeschooling. Day 1 Look to the Sea. @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus featured

Hugs and love ya,

American History Through the Life of Wyatt Earp – Free Notebooking Pages

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, our American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp that we started more than a month ago I continue with some free notebooking pages. Also, look at Free American History Lapbook The Old West Through the Life of Wyatt Earp.

I had my first son move back to the states, a graduation party for Mr. Awesome 2015 and a trip back to the states. And I still thought I was going to keep on homeschooling Tiny? Insane!

American History Notebooking pages - Life of Wyatt Earp @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I tout all the time about not being super mom and to slow down for life changing moments in homeschooling, but I still tried to go on as normal. What is normal anyway?

I’m back to reality and am ready to kick off our school year soon.

Because our unit study is a focus on key events from modern American history, I prepared two notebooking pages that Tiny will be using this next week to go along with the minibooks he has already done.

ABOUT WYATT EARP

Though we had read about the life of Wyatt Earp in our history magazine, I guess it really wasn’t until we honed in on the year he was born, which was 1829 and when he died, which was 1929 that I realized what amazing events he must have witnessed.

The frontier was still wild and untamed while he was a boy.

Conflicts between the US Army and Native Americans were going on until the end of the 1800s.

He was a teenager when the American Civil War started and probably knew first hand the tragedy of all the lives lost.

Notebooking Pages - American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus 1

Then the beginning of the 1900s ushered in the opening of the Panama Canal and the US going to war again, but now, it was a much more global war –  World War I.

Wonder what he thought as the US forged ahead into the modern world?

Notebooking Pages - American History through the Life of Wyatt Earp @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus 2

Tiny will be doing some research on his own since the events I have on the notebooking pages are significant key events and there is plenty of information both in our encyclopedia and online for him to read.

I am not looking for him to write a research paper with the pages, but I am looking for him to imagine, wonder and step back into time to see events possibly through the eyes of Wyatt Earp.

Both notebooking pages have 4 key historical events on them.

Have your child research the event, write in the date and then add a few facts about that key event.

On the right margin of each page is a box where they can write about life during the 1800s and life during the 1900s, which will help them to focus about something that draws them in about this time in history.

I am finding this unit study to be quite helpful to help Tiny learn about sweeping events in modern American history and still learn about a person in history that captures his attention. Win-win.

MORE ACTIVITIES FOR LEARNING ABOUT WYATT EARP AND THE COWBOYS

HOW TO GET THE FREE WYATT EARP LAPBOOK, NOTEBOOKING PAGES & BOARD GAME

Update: The lapbook is now complete. Download all the freebies below.

  • Art cards by Frederic Remington about Wyatt Earp
  • Cover pages for the outside of notebooking pages 1800s and 1900s. Look here how to fold ordinary worksheets to interactive minibooks.
  • 8 Features of the SW United States
  • The 4 Southwestern states
  • American History during the Life of Wyatt Earp 1800s notebooking page
  • American History during the Life of Wyatt Earp 1900s notebooking pages
  • Who was Wyatt Earp
  • Who were the Cowboys
  • Who Was Doc Holliday
  • Gunfight at the O.K. Corral Tombstone, Arizona – About Tombstone – Ed Schieffelin
  • Printable Game with Game Pieces – The Most Famous Shoot Out – Gunfight at O.K. Corral

Now, how to grab the free lapbook. This is a subscriber freebie.

 1) Sign up on my list.

2) Grab the freebie now.

3) Last, look for all my emails in your inbox. Glad to have you following me!

3 Reasons Hands-on Geography is Important in Middle and High School Homeschool

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

It’s easy enough to understand the importance of hands-on geography in the younger years, but it is equally important to understand why hands-on geography is important in middle and high school. Also, look at my page homeschool middle school and how to homeschool high school page for more fun tips. Too, look at my page Homeschool Geography for hands-on and simple ideas and tips.

Having one child who rolls his eyes at the mere mention of hands-on and prefers taking a hands-off approach and another child who fails to comprehend anything unless it’s hands-on, I want to share tips on why it’s important to keep homeschool geography hands-on.

3 Reasons Hands-on Geography is Important in Middle and High School Homeschool @ Tiina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Hands-on geography requires participation or collaboration.

The tendency when teaching this age group is to assign a boring text, drill and kill and then move on.

Geography is a subject that is fascinating because it is not only about describing the earth, but it includes pictures, maps, diagrams and it includes a description of life here on earth.

It is a subject that is overflowing with possibilities because to some extent it also includes man’s interaction with the resources of the earth.

With all of these facets to study about geography, collaboration gives the middle and high school student the teaching reins.

Hands-on geography requires active and not passive participation or studying in isolation.

My sons have taken the teaching reins as we have studied North Star Geography.  That is one reason too why we didn’t just crack open the curriculum and study the first page.

When my boys studied together, they skipped around to hone in on a part of geography that interested them first.

Guess what? You can do this when studying geography because geography covers so many topics.  You can have several trails in geography and decide which topics interests you.

homeschool high schoolgeography north star geography @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Contrary to what some people may think, hands-on learning shifts the focus of learning to the responsibility of your child.

Middle and high school years are about teaching them more independence and project learning is one of the best ways to do that.

That is one reason we use North Star Geography because it has projects that foster independent learning skills.

Geography Bundle

I will continue to use North Star Geography, which is for middle and high school kids, with Tiny now that Mr. Awesome 2015 is about ready to graduate.

Our middle and high school students just don’t know geography.

Just because a child is in middle or high school doesn’t mean his learning style has changed.  We are in a visual world and visual learners are valued now more than ever.

Too, the conventional method of throwing a map to outline at the student and a textbook to read is not working.  More and more students, including homeschoolers are graduating with little to no knowledge of geography.

Visual learners who learn best through hands-on still need projects and activities at the high school level. Rote memorization does not work for all kids.  We need to abandon the notion that hands-on geography is not for mature learners.

We want to avoid turning out middle and high school students who are geography illiterate and conventional methods are not working.  Returning to what did work in the elementary grades which was hands-on learning without doing babyish projects is key to helping our upper grade kids make meaningful connections.

Hands-on geography instills a greater awareness and fellow feeling for other cultures and historical activities.

When we studied about the American Civil War, geography took on another whole meaning when we tied it to our family roots where our ancestors fought in the battles.

It is one thing to read about history and geography in a dry text book and another to visit the physical area and walk the grounds.

Connecting geography with a physical location helps a middle and high school student to develop higher critical thinking skills.

For example, after studying together and creating maps of the battlefields during the American Civil War it lead to discussions about whether or not man learned anything about history from that bloody war?

At the high school level, my boys have formed strong opinions about the war and I am able to pass on our family values.  If they studied this in isolation, they might not have reached some of the same conclusions.

Middle and high school should be a time for activities and projects that are selective and purposeful.

It’s true that many times I didn’t insist that my son who preferred a hands-off approach to join us, however, many times I did insist and not give him a choice.

Our high school kids still need guidance, direction and interaction with us. They are preparing for adulthood, which means they are not ready yet.

I am so grateful that North Star Geography sees the value of hands-on learning in the upper grades and I will continue to use it with Tiny for the next couple of years.

When I asked both of my oldest sons what they remembered about geography, it never was about a book, but it is always about a hands-on project we worked on together.

Also, you may like to read:

Hugs and love ya,