Geography is falling by the wayside in our school systems! That is my opinion and I feel it is a fact.
I remember that in 5th and 6th grade my biggest obstacle was to learn States and Capitals. We had to pick 2 States to write to their information center for a packet on that State and do a report on it. I picked New Jersey and Hawaii, don't ask me why those States..... I am sure I had good reasoning then!LO
And to this day, I can still get 90% or better on any States and Capitals quiz. One of my few parlor tricks!LOL
I was SO surprised when my own kids went thru public school Kindergarten thru 5th grade and they had no idea on ANY States and Capitals.... not even the State we live in, Oregon. Our first year homeschooling we didn’t touch on it. I had enough on my plate with 2 middle schoolers, new to homeschooling for all of us, etc.
But, our 2nd year homeschooling I knew that my kids were missing out on a large chunk of their education. We added Geography to our curriculum. We added many US 50 States games, both online and on paper. I bought them board games, flash cards and books. We used our State homeschool info to learn more about our State. They each had 26 States and had to do full information sheet on each of them, then they shared their books with each other. I do not expect them to know their States and Capitals in their sleep but I do expect them to know a little about the Country and State they live in!
1 comment:
thanks for your kind comment on my blog. I just read this post and it's funny because I haven't had kids in public school to know what they are or aren't teaching, but just out of habit we have geography lessons once in awhile and I'm teaching my 1st grader a song with the 50 states. I actually teach a music class and we are learning the song in there as well....although I was pleasantly suprised to find out most of them already knew the 50 nifty state song.
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