Geography is such an enormous subject and so poorly taught in schools that many parents feel intimidated and are unsure where to start.\u00a0 Since in truth geography is everything (politics, science, culture, history, etc.) beginning with familiar things and working outward is an easy way to go about it.\u00a0 Starting with animals and their habitats will create an interest in maps and the world in general.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The<\/em><\/strong> Ladybug Game<\/em><\/strong> from Zobmondo is a great way to start learning about the habitat in your own yard.\u00a0 A very engaging first board game for age three and up, it introduces children to the interdependence of ladybugs, aphids and grasshoppers.\u00a0 As an added bonus children practice counting and number recognition as they play.\u00a0\u00a0 Only a few minutes are needed to play, keeping this game well within the short attention span of small children.\u00a0 Instead of dice, The<\/em><\/strong> Ladybug Game<\/em><\/strong> uses cards to determine how many spaces you must move forward or backward.\u00a0 The cards have large numbers on them with a plus or minus sign to tell you which way to move.\u00a0 Some of the spaces have written directions, so an adult or older child should participate.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The<\/em><\/strong> Ladybug Game <\/em><\/strong>comes with a charming story about the ladybugs, which you can read to your child before playing the game.\u00a0 Afterwards, if the season is right, you can go outside and look for ladybugs, aphids, grasshoppers, etc. and talk about the places they like to live and what they eat.\u00a0 If you want a hands-on activity to continue learning about bugs and insects and their habitats, you might want to get an ant farm, a butterfly pavilion or even a little terrarium.\u00a0 A wonderful picture book to go along with your study is The Icky Bug Alphabet Book <\/em><\/strong>by Jerry Pallotta and Ralph Masiello.\u00a0 For a little more information, Pet Bugs: A Kid\u2019s Guide to Catching and Keeping Touchable Insects <\/em><\/strong>by Sally Kneidel is a good choice.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Follow your child\u2019s interest; don\u2019t push too much.\u00a0 Children will give signals when they are saturated.\u00a0 If you try too hard, you can turn them off.\u00a0 On the other hand, when interested, children ask endless questions.\u00a0 The purpose of the games and the books is not to stuff information in, but rather to awaken an interest in something hitherto unknown.\u00a0\u00a0 People, but especially children, only learn efficiently when they are interested.\u00a0 The key is to awaken an interest.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n If you are ready to introduce your children to the continents of the world and the animals that inhabit them, GeoLoto<\/em><\/strong> from Patrix Games, acquaints children with the continents in a lotto\/memory game.\u00a0 Eight continent cards (some are duplicated and Antarctica is omitted) are provided for up to eight players.\u00a0 The sturdy animal picture cards match a segment of each lotto card.\u00a0 When a player finds the six animals for his continent, he wins!\u00a0 No reading is necessary and the game is so simple that even young children can play without an adult although I highly recommend that parents play with their children to maximize the learning value of the game.\u00a0 GeoLoto <\/em><\/strong>is suitable for children ages three and up.\u00a0 While playing this game, your children will learn most of the continents quite naturally without any curriculum guide or worksheets.\u00a0 Better still, they will connect certain animals with each continent, giving them a start on learning that different animals live in different habitats.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n It\u2019s good to have a variety of games for a change of pace. \u00a0Wild Cards: Baby Animals Around the World\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>from Birdcage Press is a card game suitable for all ages from about age three up.\u00a0 The slightly oversized cards contain stunning photographs of baby animals from every continent but Europe (the locations are labeled). Three card games are included: Memory, Old Maid and Go Fish.\u00a0 There is interesting information on each card, but reading ability is not necessary.\u00a0 Children who can read will quickly absorb the information on the cards, while pre-readers will simply enjoy the animals.\u00a0 Baby Animals <\/em><\/strong>also comes with a 28 page fact book about all the animals pictured in the game.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n For slightly older children (approx. 4-12) Explore Photo Safari, <\/em><\/strong>also from Patrix Games,introduces animals in the context of their continents and teaches some facts about them.\u00a0 Using a world habitat map with beautiful graphics as the base for a \u201csearch and find\u201d race, Explore Photo Safari <\/em><\/strong>is designed with three levels of play.\u00a0 For non-readers, there are pictures: find the animal first to claim your picture.\u00a0 For older children, there are two levels of clues to guess and find the animal described.\u00a0 While playing Explore Photo Safari <\/em><\/strong>your child will begin to get a visual understanding of \u00a0\u00a0the habitats of the world (mountains, deserts, oceans, grasslands, etc.) as well as some of the animals that live there.\u00a0 You may find that your children want to learn more about many of the animals pictured. Look them up online or get appropriate books to answer their questions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0It takes time for children to get a picture of the earth in their minds; having a beautiful map as the backdrop of this game is a big plus.\u00a0 The more time your children can see and study maps, the better.\u00a0 Play this or other map games several times a week and you will soon find that your children are comfortable with the world, the continents and much of the wildlife that dwells in it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Remember that children are learning all the time.\u00a0 Try not to segregate \u201cschool time\u201d and \u201cfree time.\u201d\u00a0 Talk to your children wherever you are about your surroundings.\u00a0 It does no good to learn facts about the world, animals or habitats if you don\u2019t put that information to use in your life.\u00a0 When you travel outside your home, look for signs of erosion, wetlands, grasslands, forests (even a park!).\u00a0 Talk about what animals and insects might be found there.\u00a0 Play car games finding animals (do billboards count?) or naming them.\u00a0 Make your own car bingo games with the names of animals in your vicinity in the bingo squares and then watch for local birds and other animals as you drive on errands.\u00a0 You can also take along the Baby Animals <\/em><\/strong>card game and practice describing and guessing the animals.\u00a0 Make the most of your time in the car!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Geographers classify habitats by their characteristics including rainfall, temperature, vegetation, surface terrain, elevation and more.\u00a0 This can be learned little by little by utilizing picture books, games, videos and outings that will gradually expose them to all these concepts. \u00a0Hit the Habitat Trail! <\/em><\/strong>is a new game from Jax, Ltd.\u00a0 Created to familiarize children age eight and up with animals and their habitats, it is a large board game with a trail that circles through eight beautifully illustrated habitats: forest, ocean, grasslands, wetlands, mountains, desert, arctic and jungle.\u00a0 Two to six players move along the trail, answering interesting trivia questions and collecting cards from each of the eight habitats.\u00a0 The questions are either true\/false or multiple choice and focus mainly on animals, although there is a variety of other geography related topics represented in the \u201cKnowledge\u201d (question) cards.\u00a0 The game provides enough \u201cchance\u201d situations to make it fair for younger children playing with older ones.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n About 25% of the stepping stones in the path are \u201cblue\u201d spaces containing a situation like \u201ctrapped in ice \u2013lose a turn\u201d or \u201cdust storm \u2013 roll again.\u201d\u00a0 Another 25% of the spaces are \u201cWisdom and Consequence\u201d spaces where you are directed to pull a card and follow the directions.\u00a0 These are the environmental consciousness cards; the \u201cWisdom\u201d cards give you ideas for conservation and reward you with a habitat card and the \u201cConsequence\u201d cards name some environmental disaster and take a card away or send you back a few spaces.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0I recommend this game; it\u2019s fun, interesting and unpredictable.\u00a0 That said, if playing with children (especially age 8-12), I would pull some of the more hysterical consequence cards (\u201cAnother bug extinct!\u201d).\u00a0 There are only a few of those and it would not affect the game to remove them.\u00a0 Children are impressionable and some are very sensitive.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think it\u2019s helpful to scare them.\u00a0 They\u2019ll get plenty of information about endangered species in multiple other venues and the \u201cConsequence\u201d cards contain no educational information.\u00a0 For those who are sensitive about evolution, there are only three or four questions that mention it.\u00a0 You can remove them if you object, or use them for a discussion of origins.\u00a0 Hit the Habitat Trail! <\/em><\/strong>is valuable for learning eight major habitats and interesting facts about our world in a fun way.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Once your children have a basic concept of animal habitats, Professor Noggin\u2019s <\/em><\/strong>games are a great way to delve into individual habitats.\u00a0 All the Professor Noggin\u2019s <\/em><\/strong>games have the same simple format.\u00a0 They contain 30 cards, each with three easy questions, three hard questions and a clue picture on the other side.\u00a0 One player rolls the die (numbered 1,2 &3) to determine which question he will be asked.\u00a0 Use easy questions for beginners and hard questions for teens and adults.\u00a0 This is a very popular family game which is compact enough to travel and versatile enough for the whole family to enjoy.\u00a0 There are eight Professor Noggin\u2019s <\/em><\/strong>nature games: Rainforests of the World, Freshwater Life, National Parks, Reptiles & Amphibians, Birds of North America, Wildlife of North America, Insects and Spiders Life <\/em><\/strong>and in the Ocean.<\/em><\/strong> They also have four additional Geography games: Geography of the United States, Geography of Canada, Countries of the World<\/em><\/strong> and Countries of the World II.\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>Any of these can be used to complement the study of habitats.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n If you want your children to become really familiar with world geography, maps must be handy.\u00a0 A nice wall map is great if you have the space.\u00a0 You can also lay out a big world map on your table and put a clear plastic cover over it.\u00a0 The map will be right there even while you are eating or working at the table.\u00a0 There are many types of maps.\u00a0 Political maps are the most common and are the ones that people think of first, but physical feature maps are also available.\u00a0 I find them much more interesting because they show where the deserts, mountains, etc. are located.\u00a0 Try to have one of each if possible.\u00a0 Atlases are great for looking things up and get a detailed view and I particularly like the graphics in the Usborne Atlases. However, a wall map is right there whenever you need it and will be a constant reinforcement to whatever bit of geographic knowledge your child learns each day.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Placemat maps are available at www.excellenceineducation.com<\/a> for all the continents, the world and the U.S.\u00a0 You can play games like 20 Questions<\/em> using the place mats.\u00a0 Find out the countries of origin of the ingredients in your meal and search your maps to find them.\u00a0 Look up the countries you hear about on the news.\u00a0 Use erasable markers or crayons to mark routes, find a relative\u2019s location or mark an interesting landmark you learned about. \u00a0If you play Kathy Troxel\u2019s Geography Songs<\/em><\/strong> often, your children will soon know every country in the world by continent or region.\u00a0 Once they can place a country within a continent, there are a number of other games they will enjoy to enhance their political geographic knowledge.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Don\u2019t forget to have some map puzzles available for your kids.\u00a0 Puzzles are a great way to learn geography.\u00a0 In order to put the puzzle together, a child must look closely at the puzzle pieces.\u00a0 I found a great series of free geography puzzles online at http:\/\/maps.nationalgeographic.com\/maps\/atlas\/puzzles.html<\/a>.\u00a0 These are physical maps rather than political, so they will help your child learn about the rivers, oceans, mountains, etc. on each continent.\u00a0 I tried the South America puzzle, which looked somewhat intimidating at first, but it only took me 10 minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Sheppard Software has an amazing set of tutorials and games to teach United States geography.\u00a0 See http:\/\/www.sheppardsoftware.com\/web_games.htm<\/a>.\u00a0 These range from beginner games to super-expert map games.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Geography is a wonderful adventure.\u00a0 This is only the beginning.\u00a0 Don\u2019t stop with games and maps.\u00a0 You need a reason to look at them.\u00a0 Read books from around the world.\u00a0 Find their locales on your map and keep track of the different places you have read about.\u00a0 This makes the places on the map real and meaningful \u2013 and unforgettable.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Carolyn Forte<\/strong>, a former elementary school teacher, homeschooled her own daughters for 14 years.\u00a0 Along with her husband, Martin, she founded Excellence In Education resource center in Monrovia, CA in 1991.\u00a0 In addition to writing and speaking to homeschool families, she and Martin are certified Learning Success Coaches.\u00a0 Carolyn can be reached at: eiebookstore@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Most of the games mentioned can be purchased at www.excellenceineducation.com<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n