How I Taught World Geography

Making World Geography Fun photo by Heather

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This is part one of How I am Teaching World Geography.

In the past, I taught world geography a bit differently than the way I am teaching it this year.

I am using a spine to help me organize the lessons, but we are doing more activities than the textbook has.

I wanted to keep this interesting. Just going by the text and doing the book work was leaving my student bored.

I just knew I had to step this class up a notch.

I contemplated on changing the curriculum I was using. Then, I decided to keep it.

I thought it wasn't worth spending more money on something else when I could make what I have work.

After all, what I have is a tool to use. I need to make it work for our family, and not have our family work for it.

I just had to get a little creative.

A couple years ago when I taught this class to my older children, I put a world map on the kitchen table, and covered it with a clear vinyl tablecloth. The tablecloth helped to protect it from spills.

This was fun. While we would eat lunch we took turns calling out a country for everyone to locate.

Since my youngest did that with her older siblings, I have decided to use other tools.

We have a globe, several atlases, the spine I mentioned earlier, the map work to go with it, the internet, and a few field trips.

In the beginning, I used the internet to find videos about the climate zones and weather of the earth, waterfalls around the world, and more.

Waterfall in North Carolina Photo by Heather

The fieldtrips we have taken so far this year, have been to places in Alabama and North Carolina to see waterfalls and other natural resources.

It would really be awesome if we could plan a field trip to each country we studied, but that is impossible.

So, as we have been going through each continent, I have gone online to search for videos to take virtual field trips.

When I look for virtual field trips, I usually start with an overview of the continent we will be studying before doing individual countries.

After we watch the video, we begin reading the introduction in the book. Then, she will do the map work and questions.

As we move through each country, I find more videos to add more detail to what we are reading. It makes it much more interesting than just looking at a couple of pictures in the textbook.

Sometimes the videos may be virtual tours of the country or a short documentary. I try to make sure the videos include the landscape, animals, important land marks, food, the language spoken, and other things about the culture. 

We have discussions about each video and country. I ask her questions like: Would you want to visit there? Would you eat what they are eating? What do you like and don't like about that country? I will also ask specifics about the culture, their industry, and more things like that.

Occasionally, I will also have her to write about it.

Our curriculum also includes a study on missionaries. We don't study missionaries in every country, but it gives her an idea of how the gospel has spread, the hard work that goes into it, and how it can be dangerous. It also shows the importance of sharing the gospel with others. This has also reminded us of how blessed we are.

Along with the virtual field trips and missionary studies, we have read or watched a few mini biographies of explorers in the different countries we have explored. 

I also search online for recipes. 

We have included some cuisine of other countries into our meal times using the recipes I find.

We don't do this for every country, but I try to to include this as often as I can.

As we studied Asia, we made Stir fry, beef and broccoli, veggie egg rolls, honey chicken, sweet and sour chicken, and rice. Ok, I cheated on this one. I bought everything prepared and ready to cook for this one.

When we studied Israel, we made Cholent (stew), Challah Bread, had pomegranate seeds on the side, and sparkling white grape juice.

Challah Bread Rising photo by Heather

Challah Bread photo by Heather

For Europe, we made Tamarind-marinated bavette steak.

Italy was easy. We had pizza and spaghetti.

When we moved on to Africa we learned sweet potatoes were very common. 

Sweet Garlic Chicken and Sweet potatoes

While studying Northern Africa we learned they ate lots of chicken and sweet potatoes. So, for lunch one day we kept it simple and had chicken nuggets and sweet potato fries.

Sweet Potato Fries and Chicken Nuggets (lunch)

Ok. I am sure they may not eat their chicken and sweet potatoes that way, but it got the idea across without being stressful.

For Southern Africa, we made African Sweet Potato Stew. It was just ok. My family didn't find it to be a favorite. In fact, I cooked another meal. Although I cooked another meal, everyone was willing to try it.

African Sweet Potato Stew and Cornbread

As we moved on to Australia, we watched an awesome virtual field trip. As we viewed the tour of the land we were able to see many land animals that live there.

We also learned about the Jackaroos (cowboys) and the cattle stations (ranches). It was neat to learn our country has several things in common with Australia.

Not only did this take us all across the different terrains, but it took us out to sea. We were able to tour the Great Barrier Reef. It would be so amazing to travel and see this in person, but I am very thankful we can at least view it through a video. We were able to see a lot of marine animals that live there. 

We learned they eat a lot of the same things we do, but we wanted to try something that was considered a genuine Australian food. So, as I search I came up with Australian Sausage Rolls. They were not hard to make and they were very delicious. 

 

Australian Sausage Roll Photo by Heather

Here is a link to the recipe I used. https://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/australian-sausage-rolls/

As we moved on to North America, we continued to explore through virtual tours. 

We started hitting crunch time as we were nearing the end of the school year, so unfortunately I didn’t capture many photos.

We studied Canada through textbook, maps, and video. 

As we moved on to the United States, we did many virtual tours of the state parks around the nation. As far as making some cuisine, we kept it simple with homemade cheese burgers and fries, barbecue sandwiches, and other simple meals.

As we began to explore Central America, we read a lot about it, and continued to do virtual tours as we did throughout the year. As for the meals we ate…we had tacos, salsa and tortilla chips, Mexican chicken and rice casserole, and much much more. We really enjoy Mexican food. 

We actually studied Mexico the first week in May, so we added Cinco de Mayo to our lessons.

Finally, we explored South America. We used textbook, maps, atlases, and video to explore this beautiful place. We studied more in-depth on the rainforest because my student was most interested in it. 

Although we didn’t make any meals for South America, we did grow a plant that was labeled to be native to Rio. So far the plant is still alive, and hummingbirds love it.

Photo by Heather 

We have all had new experiences by trying new food. 

By trying new foods, watching virtual tours, reading through textbook, finding these places on maps, and growing a plant World Geography has really been brought to life. 

I believe this was my favorite subject I taught this year. It was so much fun. 

One thing I wish I would have had her do for each place we studied is make a brochure. Maybe I will add that to World History.

I would love to hear your ideas.  How do you make your curriculum come to life for your students?