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How We Teach Geography Without A Curriculum Blogger

Leo Migdal
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how we teach geography without a curriculum blogger

Inside: Incorporating geography in your homeschool doesn’t need to be difficult. Get 14 ideas for how to naturally teach geography without a curriculum. Geography is one of those subjects that can easily get pushed to the back burner day after day, in public schools and homeschools alike. After putting so much effort into math, reading, writing, and maybe science and history, finding the energy to get to subjects like geography can be a real challenge for any teacher. Studies consistently show that U.S. Students are terrible at geography (source).

But raising kids who have a good grasp of geography doesn’t have to be hard – promise! Any parent can use these ideas to raise globally-minded kids, ensuring that they have an excellent grasp of geography, homeschooling or not. The best homeschool geography curriculum is the one that you use and enjoy! A personalized, free homeschool curriculum can be created by you at home, and you can have geography fun with your kids with these world homeschool geography ideas. When a geography lesson becomes real, you will always find time to learn geography at home. Make homeschool geography for kids fun by playing the best geography games for kids, reading about cultures with beautiful geography books for kids, and my favorite, exploring the world through family travel!

With two teacher parents, my brother and I spent summers learning real-life US geography lesson through travel. School world geography curriculum lessons didn’t stick because they didn’t mean anything. It’s the same with our homeschool kids (and us!) and our homeschool ideas. Let’s learn how to teach geography meaningfully and bring world cultures to life. People matter. Let’s meet them.

Keep reading and share this page with your homeschool family friend who needs a reminder. ~~~> Interested in reading more about how we homeschool? Check out this huge list of all the homeschooling related posts located on the Reclaiming Wonders blog! ~~~> Not a full-time homeschooler? Stick with me! All the resources and ideas below can be applied to summer learning, after-school activities, and weekend adventures.

This is family learning for every family. We are on week 10 of our school year and we just wrapped up our United States Geography studies for the year. We started our US Geography homeschool unit early during our summer term, with the benefit that we will wrap up early this year. This makes room for other subjects while keeping our schedule manageable. I didn’t purchase a curriculum, I just bought some atlases and a set of worksheets. And week by week, we made our way across the country.

My goal in this unit study was to methodically introduce the kids to each state. I want them to know where each state was on the map related to it’s neighbors and what was unique and different about the different regions of the country. I was not concerned at this time about them memorizing capitals or other details. Knowing your goals for a study is important and will help you decide how to approach the material and what materials you want to look for. You could decide to introduce the states in a variety of ways. We chose to do them by geographic region.

You could also introduce them in the order they were added to the nation, starting with the 13 colonies. Or you could do them in alphabetical order. We also added a day to review each region and add them to your national map at the end of each region. No matter how you divide it up, teaching 50 lessons is a lot! And that’s what it takes to cover all the states in our great country. For my 6th grader this was the second time through the states.

For my 2nd and 5th graders, it was their first intentional study of United States Geography. Previously, we have incorporated geography by looking at world and US maps as locations come up in our literature and history lessons. This natural learning has given them a strong foundation. I didn’t purchase any lesson plans for this unit study. I gathered a variety of United States Geography resources after previewing them at the library. The first was United States Atlas by National Geographic Kids.

This book had the typical geo-political maps for each state and a 1 page description of the state featuring their major economic products and history. The second book we purchased was The 50 States by Gabrielle Balkan. This book features more on the human interest of each state and fun facts. Each map is stylized and highlights the culture. Famous people from the state and unique places are also featured. It also has a short biography of the state and a timeline of important moments for that state’s history.

Using these books together gave an balanced overview of the geographic features of the state as well as the culture. Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info. Using a geography curriculum can be a challenge for some kids, especially for those who struggle with paying attention — as my son does. We can learn how to teach geography without using curriculum to make sure our kids grasp concepts more effectively. <img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-116969" src="https://homeschoolgiveaways.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/TeachGeographyPin1.webp" alt="How to Teach Geography Without Curriculum" width="600" height="900" srcset="https://homeschoolgiveaways.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/TeachGeographyPin1.webp 600w,https://homeschoolgiveaways.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/TeachGeographyPin1-380x570.webp 380w,https://homeschoolgiveaways.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/TeachGeographyPin1-200x300.webp 200w,https://homeschoolgiveaways.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/TeachGeographyPin1-250x375.webp 250w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />

Raise your hand if you have learned more while homeschooling your kids than you did in your own school-age years. I am typing with one hand right now because the other hand is raised. That is so me. I was amazed by how much I do not remember or how much I just never learned while I was in school. Geography is one of those subjects that I just can’t recall learning at all. It’s quite embarrassing.

How is it that I don’t remember much about geography? It is said that Americans know less about geography than other nationalities do. Although this is statistically correct, I have actually witnessed this first hand. The holiday season offers a fantastic opportunity to travel the globe without ever leaving your homeschool classroom. Exploring Christmas traditions around the world transforms a The days are getting shorter, the air is crisp (or downright freezing depending on where you live), and the cozy vibes are calling.

If you The forecast was right! You peek out the window, and a thick, white blanket covers everything. School is officially canceled… except when you homeschool, the […] 30+ Ways to Teach Geography Without a Textbook By Samantha | Filed under homeschool, math | Tags: learning without a textbook […] I tried for a short time to use a geography curriculum, I really did, but it didn’t work, so now I teach geography without a curriculum to my kids.

It makes our homeschool geography more fun, and one they look forward to. My method is the same regardless if it’s a country study or a state study. Right now for our United States geography, I am moving across the country from West to East. For no other reason than I haven’t particularly studied it that way before. We studied Alaska, Hawaii, and just finished California. For country studies, we are right now studying Europe, primarily because Superman really likes Italy, and Princess had a friend who likes France.

Batman was cheering for Asia. He lost. Starting this coming week we will be learning about Ireland (oh my Future Ticia 2022 says I super need to update that post). Future Ticia 2022 also wants to add I learned just studying through one continent can cause problems as you cook dishes from each country and you run into several countries with similar flavor profiles... If you’re hopping all over the world you don’t constantly frustrate people with the meal. Filed Under: Social Studies · Strategies & Tips · Free Curriculum · Games · Geography · Social Studies

It's easy to teach geography without buying a formal curriculum. We've done it for years by making our own homemade geography lessons with an atlas, maps, flashcards, games and online interactive sites. I've always loved geography, but I wasn't very good at it until we started homeschooling. In fact, I've learned more in the last three years about geography than I did in all my years in school, including five years of college! My two oldest kids, currently ages 9 and 10, have learned most of their geography knowledge without the use of a formal geography curriculum. In fact, most of the time all we used was a set of 3 by 5 index cards, an outline map of the world, and a couple of toothpicks (to use as pointers on...

Of course, we also have a great atlas, a large world map on the wall in our hallway (to which I constantly send them whenever we hear a country mentioned on TV that we... I started off at the very first by teaching them about landforms. We made up a set of index cards with the names of the landforms, and we learned them like flashcards. I would explain what each landform was as I turned over each card, and then I'd go through the deck again, asking them to repeat back to me the correct description. We also picked up a poster at the store that illustrated the major landforms which was a great way to reinforce the concepts.

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Inside: Incorporating geography in your homeschool doesn’t need to be difficult. Get 14 ideas for how to naturally teach geography without a curriculum. Geography is one of those subjects that can easily get pushed to the back burner day after day, in public schools and homeschools alike. After putting so much effort into math, reading, writing, and maybe science and history, finding the energy to...

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But raising kids who have a good grasp of geography doesn’t have to be hard – promise! Any parent can use these ideas to raise globally-minded kids, ensuring that they have an excellent grasp of geography, homeschooling or not. The best homeschool geography curriculum is the one that you use and enjoy! A personalized, free homeschool curriculum can be created by you at home, and you can have geogr...

With Two Teacher Parents, My Brother And I Spent Summers

With two teacher parents, my brother and I spent summers learning real-life US geography lesson through travel. School world geography curriculum lessons didn’t stick because they didn’t mean anything. It’s the same with our homeschool kids (and us!) and our homeschool ideas. Let’s learn how to teach geography meaningfully and bring world cultures to life. People matter. Let’s meet them.

Keep Reading And Share This Page With Your Homeschool Family

Keep reading and share this page with your homeschool family friend who needs a reminder. ~~~> Interested in reading more about how we homeschool? Check out this huge list of all the homeschooling related posts located on the Reclaiming Wonders blog! ~~~> Not a full-time homeschooler? Stick with me! All the resources and ideas below can be applied to summer learning, after-school activities, and w...

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This is family learning for every family. We are on week 10 of our school year and we just wrapped up our United States Geography studies for the year. We started our US Geography homeschool unit early during our summer term, with the benefit that we will wrap up early this year. This makes room for other subjects while keeping our schedule manageable. I didn’t purchase a curriculum, I just bought...