Around the World in 180 Days - Reviews or other suggestions for Geography?

[Stacey in MD]

I am looking for a geography curriculum for next year for my 2nd & 4th grade boys. This curriculum looked kind of interesting to me, but it seems like it is also to be used for history. We are already planning to do SOTW 2 next year and I'm really just looking for something to do for geography. Do you think this would work or would it be redundant? I was also considering Galloping the Globe. Is there any other geography curriculum that you love?

Thank you so much!!

Stacey

[Sue G in PA]

Perfect for you age groups but it is very Christian so if that isn't what you were looking for...accept my apologies! Basically it is a year of World Geography with History mixed in as you read about each country/culture. I'll explain more once I find out if a Christian curr. is okay with you! :)

[Stacey in MD]

Perfect for you age groups but it is very Christian so if that isn't what you were looking for...accept my apologies! Basically it is a year of World Geography with History mixed in as you read about each country/culture. I'll explain more once I find out if a Christian curr. is okay with you! :)

Christian curriculum is perfect :) So I would love to hear more about Exploring Countries and Cultures! Do you think it would be okay to use it in addition to SOTW 2?

Thank you for your help!

Stacey

[Sue G in PA]

Let me caveat this by saying I haven't personally used it yet but plan to once our current History cycle is over! My info is second hand. If you give me your email, I can email you a response I got from somebody on the MFW board re: the ECC curriculum and it's merits. Okay, basically MFW has a 5yr. cycle...a year of ECC (World Geography) followed by the standard 4 yr. cycle. MFW uses SOTW as ONE of it's History texts w/ other more biblical texts to round it out. We're doing Rome to Reformation next year (I'm so excited!). MFW is a complete curriculum (you need to add math, LA, foreign lang.) in that it covers History, Bible, Science with Art and Music as "extras" if you want them. MFW is a great combination of classical education methods and Charlotte Mason approach. Others might be able to elaborate. Currently we only use MFW K but I've researched the other years of MFW quite a bit and gotten some great responses from others who have btdt.

In answer to your quest. re: SOTW 2...MFW doesn't schedule it in ECC rather in Rome to Ref. ECC is strictly a World Geography study w/ history incorporated by country rather then chronology, KWIM? It might be too much to cover SOTW2 along with ECC. If you liked MFW, you could do ECC next year w/ BOTH your dc and move onto Rome to Ref. using SOTW2 the next year. I'm assuming you did Ancients this year? I'm still new to the curriculum, but so excited by what I see and hear from others. Check it out at www.mfwbooks.com. HTH a bit!

[Ruth in NC]

one I found recently. My 11yo and I are doing this once a week. We have only done the first month but it has been fun.

http://www.ncge.org/resources/geoclub/

We are also doing Mystery Class
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/mclass/About.html

Ruth in NC (http://travelingjews.blogspot.com/)

[Trivium Academy]

I'll just list the things we like and you can determine whether they are right for you:

- Galloping the Globe by GeoMatters
- Home Geography by C.C. Long (free) (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12228/12228-h/12228-h.htm)
- A Child's World of Geography by Hillyer as recommended for Year 2 of Ambleside (http://www.amblesideonline.org/ChildsGeographyWorld.html)
- The Geography Book by Caroline Arnold

We plan to use Galloping the Globe for ds's K year but dd will participate too in her 4th grade year. There are helpful lists of wonderful books and I plan to have both of the kids create a passport as we go around the world.

Home Geography for the Primary Grades, I intend to use this for first grade for ds but dd will probably do it for 3rd grade (next year) instead of waiting for ds's first grade year. Short and sweet.

The Seven Sisters Who Live on the Round Ball by Jane Andrews (also titled float in the air on a round ball)- free
http://www.fullbooks.com/The-Seven-Little-Sisters-Who-Live-on-the.html
We're going to use this as a read-aloud.

The Geography Book by Caroline Arnold- we used this for Earth Science this year and LOVED it! We're not quite done but it is very effective with experiments that are super easy but majorly effective. The text is written in an engaging style as well, it is very comprehensive.

A Child's World of Geography by Hillyer. This is an oldie but a goodie, Hillyer is very engaging as you take a trip around the world with him. I don't know when we'll use this but we will. You will need to buy the book used b/c it is an old book, I found it for $1.00 at an antique store.

Just sharing the gems,

[OnTheBrink]

I have the TM for Around the World in 180 Days and personally, I think it's too old for lower elementary aged children.

I'm using a Spectrum workbook for geography right now. It's not the best, but it gets the job done for now. I'm interested in seeing some of the free materials others have posted about in this thread!

[Cadam]

We use My Father's World (mfwbooks.com) - Exploring Countries and Cultures (http://www.mfwbooks.com/ecc.htm)

We are a little more than half way through the year. It is a geography and culture study. You change countries about every 2 weeks. There is a missionary focus and as you learn about countries you learn about missionaries or christian leaders that either came from or went to minister in those counties. ie. in Germany we learn about Martin Luther. Science is about different habitats so while we are in Brazil we learn about rain forests exc. It is a unit study and covers everything except math and LA. They do have recommendations for math and LA but you can use whatever you like.

MFW has a 5 year cycle which is ECC and then 4 years of chronological history. Next year we are skipping ahead to "Rome to the Reformation" because we have already done SOTW 1 and I wanted to make sure my oldest gets through Modern times before he hits high School. SOTW is used in their history programs as a main spine there is just other stuff added that all works together and it is all laid out for you.

If you want strictly geography, in ECC this year we are using "A trip around the world" and "Another trip around the world". They cover different countries. In each country there is a flag to color, interesting facts about the country, some statistical information, a recipe or two and either "classroom activities" or a little game of some kind to choose from. I make copies of the flags, then my kids color and cut them out. Our school area is getting slowly decorated in flags. The ECC curriculum is really fun. When I decided to go for it I wasn't sure I wanted to give up my plans for history and science exc. Then I saw that they use Apologia for science and SOTW for history which are both things I had planned to use so I relaxed, trusted their other resources would be just a good as these and I haven't been disappointed.