Geography

I planned on spending a week on this Charlotte Mason primer, but it looks like I'll be going into a third week. There are so many topics to discuss.

Charlotte Mason believed that geography, like many other subjects, is best taught through living books. She would supplement with short map drills (remember: short lessons).

One way to tie geography into living books is to have your child pinpoint on a map the location of the book's plot. This is really fun with books that take place in many locations, such as Around the World in Eighty Days. You could spend a week or so drawing and studying geographical features. Perhaps get down and dirty to build relief maps. Like the Book of Centuries, there's nothing like a multi-sensory exercises to get a lesson to stick in a child's brain.

Geography is easily tied into history studies. Just as surrounding events affect people's actions, so does geography. For example, think Waterloo. Napoleon lost at Waterloo because of geography -- his French army could not withstand the harsh Russian landscape and weather.

Map work can also be tied into science. It's not just enough to know where the Alps are located, but how were they formed, what are they made of, what is the weather like?