Classical Mamas: Geography??

[Savoir Faire]

Hello! We're busy planning our first grade year...which will start in May. (We unschool for kindy and I'm so ready to go!).

We're following a relaxed classical and have FINALLY decided to use Story of the World for history. We're doing two lessons a week, so a chapter that has been divided into 3 lessons takes 1.5 weeks to complete.

But...when to do geography? I'm a huge geography geek and would love to get my kids started on states.

So far...this is what we have going. Can I fit in geography here without being too much?

Story of the World: 2 lessons a week (on Monday and Wednesday)
Math: Right Start Math-- Most weeks we do one lesson on Thursdays, but some weeks (the light ones on history) we will do two on Tues/Thurs.
Science: Curric we found online via Guest Hollow. It can be anywhere from two to four days a week, but this isn't too heavy. Looks like a lot of fun.
Handwriting: Teeny tiny bit of copywork (such as "the dog sat") on the days she doesn't have science. Mostly one or two times a week.
Art: From "The Way They See It;" one artistic activity a week.
German: Watching the videos of Muzzy, a little bit of counting, greetings and colors in German.

I'm waiting for my new reading book to come in...so I don't know much about that yet. We'll be starting it ASAP. I would love to know if you think I could add geography in. I don't want to try to do too much and would like to keep things fun, if possible.

If doing geography, we'll be using "Fifty States Under God for Young Learners" with The Little Man in the Map, Train of States and Scrambled States of America as supplements.

THANKS!!!

[theretohere]

That looks like 1.5 to 2ish hours to me, I think you'd totally be able to add in geography. Go for it!

[skueppers]

Personally, I would just do the geography connected to SOTW studies.

Am I reading this right that you plan to do math only once or twice a week? That surprises me -- I wouldn't expect that you could adequately cover the subject if it weren't done at least 4 times a week.

Based on the subjects you want to cover, I'd probably use a schedule like:

Reading - 10-15 minutes, MTWRF
Math - 30 minutes, MTWRF
Handwriting - 5-10 minutes, MWF
History - 30-60 minutes, MW
Science - 30-60 minutes, TR
Art - 60 minutes, F
German - A few minutes mixed in wherever seems appropriate (numbers, colors, counting , etc.), plus watching the Muzzy videos a few times a week at a time separate from sit-down school hours.

This schedule has you doing about 2 hours a day of sit-down schooling, plus watching Muzzy videos, which seems reasonable for first grade. One hour of the "3 r's," and one hour of other subjects.

Of course, it's always possible that some History, Science, and Art projects would run longer than the allotted time, but as long as everyone is having fun, that's no problem!

If I wanted to do U.S. Geography, I'd do it in the afternoon or evening. But I think it might be too much.

[Savoir Faire]

Hmm...I don't know how I got that in my head about math. I probably read something and then something else and confused the two.

Luckily I write my lessons in pencil

I'm thinking we might be able to get one or two days of geography in...but now I have to go back and fix that math.

Oh and btw, can I just say how much I love you guys??? You help me so much.

[MyLittleWonders]

We use this series for geography. It's basically map skills but it does talk a bit about landforms and bodies of water. It's fast (we do it orally on the couch).

[dotnetdiva]

We did a quick basic map/geography skills the months before this semester. Now that we're actually doing SOTW, we'll be focusing on the maps in the activity guide and such.

Just to share... We did our second SOTW week this week, and I wasn't sure she was going to get into the maps part, but she was so excited, she drew 2 maps of Egypt, when I wasn't looking. She included the delta, the Nile, the Mediterranean (she spelled it "Medi" hehe), the Red Sea, and some cities. I was like, woah, you remembered more than me. Then she ran down to tell daddy all about Egypt and the Red and White Kings. It made me entire week!

Oh, and I also think math should be done at least 4x a week. We're doing it 4 days, but I want to add a 5th day to do Living or Family Math type stuff.

[LauraLoo]

Originally Posted by skueppers

Personally, I would just do the geography connected to SOTW studies.

(snip)

If I wanted to do U.S. Geography, I'd do it in the afternoon or evening. But I think it might be too much.

I agree with this. It's very, very easy to incorporate geography with history - and I can't imagine not having some geography discussion with history. And I think for simplicities sake, keeping US Geo. separate might be the way to go so it doesn't become too confusing or overwhelming. Once you get into your schedule, you might find that you can easily roll it into your day, but I'd go slowly at first.

We've found that having a "specials" day from time to time where we focus on only one topic is a nice way to break up routine and devote a lot of time to something of interest. Just something else to consider.

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by Savoir Faire

Hello! We're busy planning our first grade year...which will start in May. (We unschool for kindy and I'm so ready to go!).

We're following a relaxed classical and have FINALLY decided to use Story of the World for history. We're doing two lessons a week, so a chapter that has been divided into 3 lessons takes 1.5 weeks to complete.

But...when to do geography? I'm a huge geography geek and would love to get my kids started on states.

So far...this is what we have going. Can I fit in geography here without being too much?

Story of the World: 2 lessons a week (on Monday and Wednesday)
Math: Right Start Math-- Most weeks we do one lesson on Thursdays, but some weeks (the light ones on history) we will do two on Tues/Thurs.
Science: Curric we found online via Guest Hollow. It can be anywhere from two to four days a week, but this isn't too heavy. Looks like a lot of fun.
Handwriting: Teeny tiny bit of copywork (such as "the dog sat") on the days she doesn't have science. Mostly one or two times a week.
Art: From "The Way They See It;" one artistic activity a week.
German: Watching the videos of Muzzy, a little bit of counting, greetings and colors in German.

I'm waiting for my new reading book to come in...so I don't know much about that yet. We'll be starting it ASAP. I would love to know if you think I could add geography in. I don't want to try to do too much and would like to keep things fun, if possible.

If doing geography, we'll be using "Fifty States Under God for Young Learners" with The Little Man in the Map, Train of States and Scrambled States of America as supplements.

THANKS!!!

links? where can i see these? they sound intresting.

thanks

[phathui5]

SOTW seems to cover world geography really well. We've mostly done games for US geography so far.

[dotnetdiva]

The Little Man in the Map and Scrambled States of America are things that I hear talked about a lot. A quick google brings up Amazon for the first hit except the last, in which Amazon is second.

http://www.amazon.com/Little-Man-Map...3941266&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Scrambled-Stat...3941326&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Scrambled-Stat...3941478&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Train-States-P...3941308&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/States-Learner...3941289&sr=1-1

http://www.statehistory.net/fifty_states

Here's another game, we got this for Christmas (haven't played yet):
http://www.amazon.com/International-...3941550&sr=1-2