What’s your favorite school subject? Geography? Well, um, er...no. That attitude could change with this product, brainchild of Maggie Hogan (co-author of Hands-on Geography) and Cindy Wiggers (of Geography Matters). This curriculum is designed to incorporate geography with other school subjects so that it will be relevant and memorable, not isolated and disjointed. First, the authors impart enthusiasm for the subject matter, give the teacher a refresher course, and then provide workable, interesting, even (dare I say it) fun ways to intertwine geography with other subjects. Included are teaching tips, geography basics, lesson plans, reproducible activity pages and outline maps, timeline with 300+ figures, all in a non-consumable format. You will need to find a copy of Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates, a basic resource used in the program. As protection for the overachieving teacher, a scope and sequence limits the amount of activities to be used in any one year. A CD-ROM has now been included at the back of the book, which can save you from mounds of copying, especially if you are using this with multiple children! Over 200 reproducibles from the book are contained on the CD-ROM, including worksheets, forms, timeline figures and more. CD-ROM is Mac and PC compatible; requires Adobe Reader 5.0 or above (which is included on CD-ROM). This looks to be a well-designed and helpful product.

Customer Review

 
Kelly B. from Colorado wrote the following on 09/12/2009:
What a great resource for teaching geography across the curriculum to students of all ages! We kicked off our year with the "chocolate chip geological dig" in chapter 5 and my children were hooked. We're using The Ultimate Guide along with Trail Guide to World Geography and Geography Through Art for a very fun, complete geography program that appeals to my children from 1st through 5th grade. What I like most about this book is that the wealth of information and ideas in this book is useful for teaching up through the high school level which makes it very economical. There are also several pages of resources for use in history and science as well as geography. These include the timeline figures, "Who Am I" game cards, landform cards, weather report pages, and maps. Don't miss out on this valuable resource. No homeschool should be without it!