A Mom's Quest to Teach is a regular column covering elements of teaching and learning (with an eye towards homeschooling), parenting, crafting, and all of the discoveries, joys, and daily roller coaster rides that occur while being a mom.
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We added an additional workbook into our homeschool routine to supplement our fifth grader's lessons. We used Skill Sharpeners Geography - Grade 5, courtesy of Timberdoodle, to study the world in spatial terms, places and regions, physical systems, and human systems.
Concepts and Lessons
Unlike the second-grade workbook, I didn't assign all the lessons to our son out of the fifth-grade workbook. Some lessons didn't fit into our studies or our worldview. And we also skipped several hands-on activities.
There were quite a few lessons that were great supplements to our regular social studies and history lessons. For example, both hands-on activities from The World in Spatial Terms allowed our son to work on real-world skills. He had to map a route and plan a vacation in Europe using trains. These were great activities that focused on skills he may someday need. We don't just rely upon GPS or Google maps for directions. Physical maps are key to getting where you need to go.
Another lesson in the Human Sytems unit allowed us to talk about farming, crops, and ingredients. From reading about terrace farming to examining food in our pantry for wheat, corn, or rice, our son explored food and farms.
We still have three experiments or hands-on activities saved to supplement our science and geography lessons. We will be making a rain gauge, making mountains with graham crackers, and an igloo.
Units We Skipped
There were more than a few pages, lessons, and units we skipped. Some were a little too complicated to do at this time (dinosaur dig hands-on activity using bones of a whole chicken) and the solar oven. Others discussed ideas we don't necessarily agree with, while many of the application activities did not supplement our lessons. But that is the great thing about homeschooling. You can pick and choose what to use and teach.
My Final Thoughts
Skill Sharpeners Geography – Grade 5 provided many supplemental lessons for our fifth grader. While I don't think I would purchase the grade 6 workbook, I am very happy we were able to review grade 5. If you are looking to add additional geography lessons to your homeschool day, check out the Evan-Moor series of Skills Sharpeners at Timberdoodle.
I received a COMPLIMENTARY copy of
this book from Timberdoodle in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not
required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way.
This post contains affiliate links. Please see my Terms
of Use and Disclosure Policy page for more information. Thank you.
There are several subjects that sometimes get pushed to the side when planning homeschool lessons. Electives like music and art, along with studies that are more like sub-subjects (word?) such as spelling and geography. These subjects may be skipped or shortchanged. With Evan-Moor's Skill Sharpeners Geography - Grade 2, you can easily incorporate educational, interesting, and fun geography lessons. Including geography in your homeschool has never been easier!
Timberdoodle includes Skill Sharpeners Geography – Grade 2 in their second-grade curriculum kits. We were lucky enough to receive both the second-grade and the fifth-grade books to review and use in our homeschool. Our daughter has been using the second-grade workbook for several months as part of her normal homeschool lessons, and it has been very useful.
About the Book
Skill Sharpeners Geography – Grade 2 is a 144-page consumable paperback book. The pages are perforated, so you could pull them out to work on specific pages. And some of the pages are meant to be pulled out, so you can use those with the hands-on activity at the end of the lessons. Including geography in your homeschool with this workbook is easy, as the units include a lot of different topics and ideas.
There are six units that include:
The World in Spatial Terms
Places and Regions
Physical Systems
Human Systems
Environment and Safety
The Use of Geography
Each lesson with the unit has a specific concept and skills that will help your child learn about the world around them. The lessons include:
reading selections
vocabulary and vocabulary activities
visual literacy
what I learned from activities
hands-on activities
A Look at a Lesson
In the "A World Map" lesson, our daughter learned about continents and oceans. She is now able to define the ocean, world, and continent, as well as interpret a map of the oceans. Her hands-on activity had her cutting out the continents and properly gluing them on the map.
My Thoughts
I enjoyed using Skill Sharpeners Geography – Grade 2 to include geography in our homeschool lessons. The fact that each lesson included a hands-on activity was great! Because our daughter was finishing up second grade when we started the book, I could easily assign lessons to her, and she would work on those independently. Sometimes, she did have questions, and they were easily answered. I didn't even need to refer to the answer key at the back of the book.
While some workbooks are geared more toward school than homeschool, I didn't find any activities or questions that we needed to adapt as homeschoolers (although we haven't finished every lesson yet). Questions were about the state or neighborhood and not the school or classroom.
The pages are very colorful. All the graphics are colorful clipart or photographs. This makes it easier to identify what each image is of when completing exercises. Sometimes, workbooks are only in black-and-white, which makes assignments difficult to complete.
While the lessons do build on each other, you could do them out of order to accompany your history or social studies lessons with a few modifications. For example, you could include the reading for "A Product Map of Kansas" with lessons on the state of Kansas or "An Ocean Habitat" when studying coastal states or islands.
Our daughter enjoyed this workbook so much that she would complete extra pages after dinner. She asked me on more than one occasion, "How many more pages can I do?" What parent doesn't love it when their child willingly and excitedly completes homeschool assignments?
Skill Sharpeners Geography – Grade 2 is perfect for ages 7-9. You could easily use it with an older first grader or a younger third grader. I would recommend second grade for use in your homeschool. This was a perfect way to help us include geography in our homeschool.
I'll be sharing my review of the fifth-grade book soon!
If you are interested in more from Timberdoodle, please check out my posts about other products here:
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Learning the letters is such an important step for our children. Creating fun ways to reinforce their memory of the letters is one way we as parents can help them on their journey to become well-educated citizens. In this craft, our children used scrapbooking pictures to decorate the letter V to represent an imaginary vacation trip.
2. Either pre-cut the necessary components or have your children cut the letter and pieces you will need to include on your craft.
3. Glue the letter onto the construction paper.
4. Ask your children to pick out the images they will use on their craft.
5. Glue the vacation images onto the letter.
6. Display the craft when the glue is dry.
You can easily tie this craft into a discussion of an upcoming vacation or looking through vacation photographs from the previous year or years. This V is for Vacation craft could also be used as part of a geography lesson where children would pick images from a specific country to place on their letter rather than just vacation-themed ones. Personally, we love the geography lessons from Let's Go Geography which we reviewed in 2020.
Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.
Our younger children love to read. So, we are always excited for the opportunity to review books in our homeschool. As we have previously reviewed books by Carole P. Roman, our first grader was so happy to look through all the books by Ms. Roman that we haven't yet read. Our family was able to pick four books from Carole P. Roman's assorted series:
If You Were Me and Lived in...Peru
If You Were Me and Lived in...South Korea
If You Were Me and Lived in...Ancient Greece
One to Ten: Squirrel's Bad Day
How do you pick from so many GREAT books?
I sat down and took a look at the list of all of the books by Carole P. Roman to narrow down my picks before asking our children. Almost immediately, I was intrigued by One to Ten: Squirrel's Bad Day. I thought lessons of putting events into perspective would be a good one for our daughter. I also knew I would like to add to our collection of civilizations throughout history so we picked If You Were Me and Lived in...Ancient Greece which is full of history facts and gentle illustrations. And finally our first grader wanted two books from the Cultures Around the World series. He wanted to see what life was like for children in South Korea and Peru.
How Did We Use The Books?
With almost any books we receive, our first grader will read through them on his own before I even know he has done so. The first night after they arrived, I was busy and he read through both Peru and South Korea on his own. When asked if he liked them, he said, "They were really good."
One evening shortly after the books arrived for review, I sat down with our daughter and read One to Ten: Squirrel's Bad Day. We took our time going through the book, examining the pictures and discussing what rank we would give experiences on the 1 to 10 scale of the rabbit. One stands for not so bad and ten represents the absolute worst. I am trying to continue to use the scale of 1 to 10 when our daughter gets upset so we can put the problems in perspective.
Our first grader is studying geography so we took time on separate days to read the books about life in South Korea and Peru. We talked about the different names and words used in both books and compared them to names and words used in America and in English.
It took more than a few days to read through If You Were Me and Lived in...Ancient Greece as it is a longer book with lots more details. For example, we were able to talk more about the gods and goddesses of Ancient Greece (as they are sprinkled throughout the text as well as contained in a glossary of names in the back of the book). And we were able to look up more information on the Olympics, the difference between the government of Ancient Greece and the United States of America, and Alexander the Great. We also picked up some extra books from the library to read. (I love books that inspire us to read even more books!)
How Could You Use the Books in Your Homeschool?
There are numerous ways in which homeschooling families can use these books during their day. Perhaps this is why so many homeschoolers love books! With books by Carole P. Roman, there is a great variety of ways to incorporate the books in your homeschool day:
As part of culture studies
As part of geography studies
As a starting point to research food from other nations
Visit art or history museums to view art pieces mentioned or shown the books
As part of history studies
As part of studying character traits
As read alouds
Bedtime reading
What Did We Think?
Personally, my favorite of the four was If You Were Me and Lived in...Ancient Greece. As you may know, I love history, so this was a fantastic add to our bookshelves. While I have other books about Ancient Greece, they are all written at middle school or above reading level. So this book is more easily accessible for our first grader. I also like that it has a pronunciation for each of the new names and terms to aid our children in reading the books aloud.
Our first grader really enjoyed the two in the A Child's Introduction to Cultures Around the World series. He seems to gravitate towards studying geography and maps, so these made him quite happy. I appreciated that the books contain a pronunciation guide to help you read names and words that may be unfamiliar. (This also allowed us to work on proper pronunciation and learning how to use those guides with our son.)
I asked our son what his favorite part was in the series and he pointed out the last page where it says: "So you see, if you were me, how life in Peru could really be." These two pages are in each of the Child's Introduction to Cultures Around the World series that we have read with the name of the country changed, of course. He enjoyed reading about the history, the games, the food, the holidays, and about the culture in general.
My daughter enjoyed One to Ten: Squirrel's Bad Day. She felt sorry for the animal characters when we read about their bad experiences including when fox slipped on the ice, when the frog did poorly in school, and the when the squirrel's hamster died. I liked that we could talk about bad days and how to properly handle them in relation to imaginary characters she could relate to.
Do You Want to Learn More about Carole P. Roman?
Don't forget to check out the other reviews by members of the Homeschool Review Crew! With so many great books to pick from, you will be sure to read about one you might love, too!
Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product
through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not
required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. This post contains
affiliate links. For more information, please see my Terms of Use and Disclosure
Policy page. Thank you.
Our first grader loves to learn about the world, examine maps, and study different cultures. So when the opportunity to review Let's Go Geography (specifically Let's Go Geography, Year 2) was provided to us, we were very happy to take a look and use this wonderful curriculum in our homeschool. Let's Go Geography offers two years of a geography homeschool curriculum that examines and explores different cultures and countries around the world for grades K-5. (Year 3 is currently in production at the time of this post.)
What is Let's Go Geography?
Let's Go Geography follows a very similar pattern with each lesson. Week by week, children are introduced to a new place around the world (or even in their backyard). The goal is to open the eyes of children to the world around them. Not everyone looks the same as them, eats the same food as they do, or lives in the same type of house as they do and Let's Go Geography helps children learn about these differences.
Each lesson contains similar activities:
Explore maps (finding locations and coloring countries or states)
Cutting out flags to include in a passport or on the flag page
Listening to the music of the countries (including their national anthems)
Taking notes on pages provided as part of the curriculum
Looking at a variety of pictures provided in the curriculum
Watching videos provided through YouTube safe links
Reading suggested library books or Internet sites (and as we have done, you can select your own books that are more readily available to you)
Color-themed coloring pages provided in the curriculum
Create one craft a week that coincides with the country or area of the world you are studying
How Are We Using Let's Go Geography, Year 2?
As soon as we received access to the site and Let's Go Geography, Year 2, I downloaded the first two lessons and read through them to see what we would need when we started the curriculum. We had several options as the course can be used for grades K-5. So far, we are using the majority of the materials.
All the information was very easy to find on the website. First, I gained access to Year 2:
And then once I was in Year 2, I was able to access each individual lesson to download the material. You can see that all the lessons for one semester are listed on the right hand side of the screen while the lesson you have open is on the left side of the screen. Everything was very easy to navigate.
Once I started printing out the materials (cover page, map, note-taking worksheets, etc.), I put together a folder for our first grader (and one for our preschooler because she loves working alongside her older brother). The course recommends a binder and we may transfer all our materials to one in the future but for now the folder works fine for us.
Each homeschool day, we have been following the lesson. On some days we are even completing more than one activity as our son has been really enjoying Let's Go Geography. The flexibility of the program is fantastic – allowing us to do what works best for our family. And because of the variety of activities, on some occasions our preschooler can join us.
If you want, you could print out the entire lesson or just read it from your computer or tablet. I have been printing the necessary pages for our children and reading the plans on the laptop. This makes it very easy to then click through the YouTube safe videos (which we love). I love the fact that Let's Go Geography includes videos to show culture, geography, and more. For example, we watched a video about a lumber mill, the Golden Gate Bridge, traffic in Cairo, Egypt; and the Hoover Dam.
The links for the videos are often accompanied with facts and interesting details about the country.
In addition to reading about the country and watching videos, your children can also use the notebooking pages to write down what they are learning to include with their maps, coloring pages, and other activities. The curriculum truly encourages note-taking and reading comprehension. Our son was very excited to research the different areas and take notes on his findings. There are suggested books, an online site, and even a brief description as to where to find geography books in your library. Flexibility again plays a part in how great this program is because we are able to use books we already own or borrow those available to us from our library. For example, I was able to share some of the many books I own on Ancient Egypt with our first grader to help him complete the coloring page.
Each week contains a different coloring page. Here is our son's partial completely one for Egypt.
What Did We Think?
This has been such an easy curriculum to incorporate into our homeschool day. To prepare for each week, all I need to do is read through the PDF and print the applicable pages. Sometimes I need to make a trip the library if I can't find appropriate sites for our son to use for his research and on occasion I needed to purchase a few items for the crafts (most of the materials we already have in our home), but in general it does not take long to prep for each week.
There is a checklist at the beginning of each file. If you print this page, your child can work their way easily through the week. And if your homeschooling children need consistency in their day, you will see the checklist is very similar from week to week as they will be completing a map activity, a flag activity, listening to music from the country, exploring the country through videos and books, and finally completing an arts and crafts activity.
The checklists make it easy to keep track of what we have done and need to do.
And there is also a list of craft supplies which I really appreciated. It was quite simple to look ahead to the next week and see what materials we would need. I could put them all together in our folder or set them aside with our other homeschooling materials for the week. In the screenshot below, you can see the craft supplies needed for studying England.
Our son loves having the opportunity to read about different places and decide what he wants to write down on the notebooking pages provided in the curriculum. He finds it fun to do the research. He also enjoys the videos and the crafts. His favorite video so far was one about the Sequoia known as the "President" which was included as part of the Pacific Northwest Lesson Plan. Of the four crafts we have completed, his favorite so far was the first one: using watercolor paints to recreate the mountains of the Pacific Northwest.
I think one of the favorite parts of the curriculum was the weekly crafts we completed. Each week was a bit different. We painted a picture of the mountains, recreated a sunset in the desert, made a standard barn, and a picture of a camel next to the great pyramids so far. (This week we will be making a lion craft as it is the national animal of Ethiopia.) The three crafts shared below were all from the second to fourth weeks while studying the United States.
Painting mountains of the Pacific Northwest
Creating desert sunset scene while studying the Mountain West
Crafting a traditional barn while studying the South Atlantic states
As I have said before, I really like the flexibility of Let's Go Geography, Year 2. During the review period, we started with the first four lessons and then we skipped ahead to lessons 21 and then 22 as our son wanted to study Egypt (and then I picked Ethiopia next). I figure during the first week of March, we will study Ireland – just in time to create a cool Shamrock craft and learn about Ireland before St. Patrick's Day. (And even though we haven't used Year 1, I do not think that is a detriment to our using Year 2. The flexibility is great!)
Who would enjoy using Let's Go Geography, Year 2 in their homeschool? I think anyone looking for a flexible and fun geography curriculum for teaching multiple ages at the same time. As this curriculum is for grades K-5, you can use it for all of your elementary students. Our first grader thinks that a child who likes history would enjoy using this curriculum and I agree.
Let's Go Geography is also very easy to incorporate other activities into your week that connect – like cooking food from the country or visiting local museums so that you can learn more about the place you are studying. The Let's Go Geography geography curriculum is fun and exciting!
Do You Want to Learn More?
Our family was not the only homeschooling family who was studying geography these past few months. Please check out the other reviews from the Homeschool Review Crew.
Let's Go Geography provides an excellent overview in this video:
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My family are huge fans of history, so children's books that focus upon history, culture, and geography like those from the Carole P. Roman books and collections are perfect for expanding knowledge about far away places or times. I was very happy to review three books by Carole P. Roman from the Carole P. Roman books and collections that would introduce our children to the culture of Hungary and the histories of Colonial America and the American West.
If You Were Me and Lived in...Hungary: A Child's Introduction to Cultures Around the World, introduced our children to the sights and sounds of modern day Hungary. We learned about the capital, Budapest, names for different members of the family, vacation spots, food, holidays, sports, and even the inventor of the Rubik's cube.
I think one of my favorite parts of the book was that there was a pronunciation guide not only in the back of the book but also with the naming of each Hungarian word on each page. For example, while discussing food at your grandma's house, the pronunciation for Nagyi (Na-dges) or grandma, goulash (goo-lash), and paprika (pap-reek-ca) is all provided within the story's text making it really easy to read aloud to your children.
Our four-year-old son liked learning about the different names of of children living in Hungary - like Lazlo or Erzse-bet. Our two-year-old daughter liked the picture of the children in front of the Hungarian Parliament. I think she really liked the little boy and girl smiling at her.
The book opens many conversation topics - one of which was talking about how our family has enjoyed goulash and other meals that are seasoned with paprika. Another conversation we had was about water polo and handball, both of which we enjoy watching during the Olympics.
Both books in the If You Were Me and Lived in...An Introduction to Civilizations Throughout Time series, were longer than If You Were Me and Lived in...Hungary: A Child's Introduction to Cultures Around the World, so we spread those out to more than one sitting with our two- and four-year olds. A ten- to eleven-year-old history-loving child would have no problem reading through these entire books in one sitting, though.
If You Were Me and Lived in...Colonial America: An Introduction to Civilizations Throughout Time, introduced our children to the world of pilgrims and settlers who arrived in America on the Mayflower. We learned about their journey to America, how they built their homes (with wood, daub, and wattle), and their daily lives (tending chickens, mending, cooking, or working in the fields).
Our four-year-old son's favorite part was where the little boy made friends with the Native American boy who taught him about fishing, while my two-year-old daughter liked the part where the family faced their first December in America. In fact, she kept finding that picture and saying "Brrr, they are cold."
Personally, I can't wait to re-read this book during November as we talk about Thanksgiving. It will provide a great anchor for lessons about Plymouth and the first Thanksgiving. With the vocabulary provided as well as the brief biographies of historical figures, our family has lots that we can learn from this book by Carole P. Roman.
If You Were Me and Lived in...the American West: An Introduction to Civilizations Throughout Time, our children journey with Carole P. Roman and Paula Tabor as they took us on a journey across America to Oregon.
When we started looking at the book, If You Were Me and Lived in..the American West, my son and I talked about maps of the United States so we could plot the journey of the settlers. In fact, I think that would be the only change I would make to the book - add a map showing the trails - but then again our four-year-old is a map enthusiast so it might just be a feature that only our family would appreciate.
Our four-year-old son's favorite part was learning how the family crossed the rivers they encountered - the Platte and the Columbia Rivers. Our two-year-old daughter's favorite part was hearing about the different foods they brought with them on their journey. And they both liked hearing about the gathering of buffalo chips! I think my favorite part of If You Were Me and Lived in...the American West were the details regarding how each day was spent by the children and parents. Being able to compare our daily activities to those of early settlers is a plus for this history-teacher-turned-homeschool-mom.
All three books present so many opportunities for families to create individualized lessons for their children. For example, I used the vocabulary list from the American West book to introduce my four-year-old to new words. We talked about blacksmiths, bonnets, outhouses, and homesteads among other vocabulary words and practiced writing and spelling them. If our children were older, I would probably have them create their own model of a Conestoga wagon and perhaps even sew their own period-appropriate clothing. Our son did draw his own Conestoga Wagon with a bit of guidance from me after we read the book.
Drawing a picture of a Conestoga Wagon. Coloring in the the patches on the canvas.
I would recommend If You Were Me and Lived in...Hungary: A Child's Introduction to Cultures Around the Worldto families with children as young as our two-year-old daughter. While children ages seven to nine may be able to read the book independently, younger children can listen or read along with their parents or older siblings and learn about places and cultures around the world. I think this book would be a great place to start when discussing the geography of Europe.
I recommend the If You Were Me and Lived in...An Introduction to Civilizations Throughout Time series of books to families with children four-years to twelve-years-old. These books are more detailed with a plethora of vocabulary, people, places, and events to interest young students of history. They are fantastic additions to any family's library because of their attention to detail. And because they are written from the perspective a child who lived in that time period, your own children feel as if they are right alongside their new friends in the past.
There is only one objection I have in regards to the books (other than the lack of maps but, as I said, we are a map-loving family): each book that we reviewed is told from the perspective of a boy. (Information is provided for the lives of both boys and girls and moms and dads, but – when reading the stories.
Edit: The two history books we reviewed are told from the perspective a boy but there are others in the series (If You Were Me and Lived in...Elizabethan England for example) that are told from a girl's point of view. And after a quick re-read of If You Were Me and Lived in...Hungary, I now see that it is told from the point of view of both children narrating the tale.
Looking through If You Were me and Lived in...the American West before bedtime.
.jpg "A Mom's Quest to Teach: Including Geography in Your Homeschool: A Review of Skill Sharpeners Geography - Grade 2")
