Around the World Introduction

We started our summer study with two weeks (not working every day) with an introduction to maps and mapping.

The "spine" for the first part of our study was Evan-Moor's Beginning Geography. Big Brother is still essentially a pre-writer, but we completed the first 16 pages of map skills as it's mostly coloring, drawing lines, arrows, etc. Little Brother was very interested too and "helped" with some of the pages.

After we had learned a little bit about the four directions, we labeled them on our wall map then went outside to try out our compass.

We walked around our backyard and mapped the four directions. We learned that there's a tree in the north corner, the swing set to the south, the porch to the east, and the sandbox to the west. After that we took a walk around the block and took note of the direction we walk.

Another day we labeled continents and oceans on our map. A bit later I plan to return to Beginning Geography to do more with continents and oceans. I also printed the World Map Kit from Montessori for Everyone and we're going to color and label continents, oceans, and directions on those.

We read parts of Maps & Globes and Geography from A to Z. We'll revisit these as we continue. I also pulled out one of our favorites- Katy and the Big Snow- as it also provides a fun introduction to directions and maps. The boys love to examine the city map in it and trace Katy's path through the city.

I have two more activities planned for this week before we move on to our first country: we are going to draw a map of our backyard highlighting the landmarks mentioned above and create passports for our trip around the world. Then it's on to China!