My DS5 is a science kid. Among other things, he adores geography. He has a globe, world atlas, world / US puzzles, climate/weather books, detailed books about the U.S. States, continents, the earth and natural world - you name it!
It's pretty comical to watch him drag his globe (it's on a tall stand) around the house to where I am to show me a new discovery or ask a question. Today he became fascinated by Central America as he just learned about the needs of kids in El Salvidor at vacation Bible school.
He asked for "Top Secret Adventures" from Highlights for his birthday...which seems to be a "Where In The World is Carmen San Diego?" kind of feel from what I see (it's a monthly magazine type game). Anyone have this?
Any other fun (and cheaper) games about geography your kids have liked? I would love it to be board game / non-computer since I'm always struggling to limit his screen time as he LOVES educational computer games.
TIA!
For the I-Pad: Stack the States and Stack the Countries. Super fun!
Top Secret is wonderful. DS started it at 5, you might need to help depending on DSs skills with a pencil and logic. The only complaint is the approach doesn't really vary - they have a set number of puzzle games they do and after 12 of these, it's. Little repetitive. We might actually stop it now and replace with something else. But it was so good DS made up his own pretend investigations around it! Also great for the plane - and whoever writes their villain cards makes hilarious puns!
Stack the states is fun too.
Depending on reading level I also recommend horrible geographies and the most fantastic atlas in the world by the brainwaves. My science DS loves all horrible sciences and all brainwave books. Also the basher books. DK encyclopedias are awesome - and their popups space and how things works, are much better science than you would think for a popup. Also great advanced picture books - ms frizzle goes to china, Egypt, ancient Greece, etc. and one I a, blanking on right now where 3 siblings walk into a shop and get a magic book which takes them places - ill see if I can find it! - that was easy - good times travel agency - adventures in ancient china, ice age, etc
DeHe
There are books on preparing for the National Geography bee. If he's not ready for them now, maybe he will be in a few years.
I'd like to relate a story about my 6yo geographer. We have multiple globes, and he has noticed that some countries have changed names. At a gathering we met someone from Zimbabwe, and I asked the little guy what the country used to be called. Our friend was stunned when my son said Rhodesia.
I second "The Scrambled Sates of America" card game. DS6 got that for Christmas last year. I does say its for ages 8 and up, but we all know on here that those ranges mean very little. Connor got it at age 6 and loves it. If we had found it at age four he would have loved it then, too.
Thanks so much for the resources! DeHe...I appreciate the Top Secret review. My DH and I cracked up when my DS put the Top Secret info page from a Highlights magazine under my DHs pillow with a note that explained why this would be the PERFECT birthday present. I can't wait to look up these other ideas. He is going into K in the fall and is reading fluently at about a third grade level...but definetly reads higher level science books better then he reads fiction (if that helps anyone else with ideas).
Update...
We gave my ds the Scrambled States of America book and game to ds, and he ADORES them! Thanks for the suggestions. My inlaws also got him a few "Which Way USA" by Highlights, but we felt he was already getting enough Highlights things. He loved the state maps that came along with the magazine most....so I think we need to start a state map collection on our road trips (the ones at the welcome centers).
I ordered a year of "weekly reader" for my kid. It was due to come when school starts, but it hasn't started yet. I hope it has a good overview of the world for my little planetary native. There's also a Time magazine for kids but I went with weekly reader. You can't have everything. I have a very dry book called Everyday Geography that my dad gave me that size and shape and latitude and longitude of map stuff. My sons asks for me to read it because he thinks the names of the places are funny. I don't get it. I just read it normal. I think I read Peter rabbit much better, but, whatever.
Mm. Almost forgot. I have a book called one nation fifty states by Imagene Forte. I bought a pack of tracing paper and he's tracing and coloring each state with a flag and a state bird on it. I'm going to put these in a 1" binder so when he starts studying American history he can file his stuff under the right states. I'm going to have to put them in page protectors with a blank sheet behind them because they're tracing paper.
Just a couple more suggestions... the Great States board game. My DD6, loves to play that. My DS9 (who finished in the top 12 in the state Geo Bee..brag
..LOVED his talking LeapFrog globe. He got it for his 5th birthday in Oct. and by Dec. was able to rattle off all the capitals of all countries in the world..and pronounce them correctly
He still plays with it.
Thanks for more ideas! I should've known DS would be s geography nut when he became obsessed with in dash GPS' at 2. We didn't have one, but my sister and BF never heard the end if it when he was in the car
hi ,
can anyone suggest books for preparation for the geography bee
thanks
amom
I'm bumping this because I'd love any more suggestion on this fot my geo-obsessed 5yo. We already have Scrambled States and he is sort of done with US states and capitals.
Haven't tried this. Click on the sample.
http://www.ellenjmchenrydownloads.com/Mapping-the-World-with-Art-Hard-Copy-CD-MPHC.htmI don't have this one either, but it looks pretty too:
barefoot books world atlas
The one I do have is not geography, it's world history. I'm afterschooling from the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History. Are you more into political maps, like in history, or geographical (topicographical?) maps? just because that context could help you find more maps to study.
My DD8 has enjoyed playing with Google Earth/Maps from time to time for the last 5 years.
My son is also obsessed with geography. He loves "How the states got their shapes" which is a History channel show based on a book by the same name.
Another book he loves is "Lost States" about proposed states that never came into being.
We also have board games called GeoDice and 10 Days in Europe which are fun and challenging.
Stack the states is awesome. Also puzzles
We don't have a smartphone or Ipad--prob should have mentioned that. I will look at GeoDice and 10 Days in Europe. His interest is basically where countries are, capitals, and to some extent trivia. US geography is pretty much over, in that he knows all states/capitals backwards and forwards and is not interested in going more detailed than that.
Here is what I did, I notcied when our 5 year old was on the pot he would study eitehr a six flags brochure map or a camping camp site brouchure map, so I got a poster of the US and posted it on the wall in teh bathroom. After about a week he had memorized every state and captail city, so I put up a world map. After he had memorized the couintries I asked him about the oceans and seas, and then gulfs, straights and he learned all of them. Since he was into leggos and I math I though he might be interetsed in fining out about chemistry, same thing! I put a periodic table up in teh batchroom and he he memorized every element, series, atomic number and I had to get a Chemistry grad student from the nearest university to answer his questions because they were over my head. Hope this helps
How about some coffee table books that show aerial pictures of the earth, its features, etc.? We do a lot of browsing in our house...
DeeDee
This may be a bit off what you are looking for, but do you enjoy cooking? We used to pick a country that we'd plan a meal and also learn a few facts about, one night each week when my kids were younger. We didn't do intense research, just looked up things about th entry on the Internet or at the library.
We also used to have the coolest book for yung kids - it was an atlas for little kids, about as tall as a three year old, and it had pictures that illustrated culture in each country. It wasn't very advanced for a 5-6 year old, but it was a lot of fun to look at and prompted a lot of fun discussions, and gave our kids a starting point to look for more info elsewhere.
I've also found that just going to the library and browsing in the youth non-fiction section is a good way to learn about geography!
polarbear
Sorry if this is a duplicate post, I seem to have lost my original. National Geographic geo bee has a great website with quiz questions. We love their app, too. I think the website has book suggestions for the bee- i'm not at home so can't list titles, but i think that is where we found them. We just got a great new book (again, dont have the title handy) that is a geography scavenger hunt done via google earth. When younger, the kids liked Carmen Sandiego (pc games, "Where in the World is Carmen S...) where you solve clues and travel around the world (or the US) to solve mysteties- IIRC good for ages 5-6ish but it was a few yrs ago so dont know if they are still available.
ETA: The Great Global Puzzle Challenge with Google Earth, Scholastic Atlas of the World, Student Atlas of the World by National Geographic, and the Rand McNally Answer Atlas. It has been a few years since our kids used these heavily, so I don't remember specifics about which one we liked for what use, but I'm sure you could find reviews online.
This may be a bit off what you are looking for, but do you enjoy cooking? We used to pick a country that we'd plan a meal and also learn a few facts about, one night each week when my kids were younger. We didn't do intense research, just looked up things about th entry on the Internet or at the library.
I love this idea!! How fun! I've been wanting to start weekly meal plans and this might be a great place to start! Just curious but what has been your favorite country so far?