In light of two year old Lily's incredible knowledge, (see previous YouTube post) who knows more geography than most adults, I thought I'd post on a few ways that we have incorporated geography naturally into our everyday lives.
Having a home based business has many benefits in a family. One of which is mapping all the countries that you send products. We started placing a red dot on all the countries and states and provinces in Canada and the US that we send books. So far we have shipped to Spain, France, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Japan, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Korea, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Portugal, England, and Scotland, including of course, the US and Canada.
The greatest benefits of mapping the countries that we have shipped to is the socio-economic discussions that we have while pondering why we haven't gotten an order from Congo, or Vietnam. "Do many people have computers? IF we did get an order from a distant non English speaking country, did we ship to a university or business? Why do you think that is? Is English a common enough language for the average person to want English material and music in that country? Great discussions and great research can follow the addition of a new country on our map! One of our sons writes to an email pen pal in Namibia. Why haven't we ever gotten an order from Namibia? Finding out the culture and the economic status of the average citizen there has explained that for our son.
Another way that we have brought great discussion is having a world map as a table cloth. Your kids will tend to say, "Please pass the milk. It's over by Malaysia!" Or, "Please pass the Chinese salt."
For many years our main bathroom sported a world map shower curtain. Much time is spent just gazing around in the bathroom so why not capitalize on that imagination time?
Of course, world and continent map puzzles are also great. Even country or continent cookie cutters are great for those creative cooks among us all.
Any other great ideas?
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