A knowledge of our world is central to all other knowledge.

This knowledge provides context to everything - science, history, literature, math, fine arts, and more.

Providing our children opportunities and resources to build their geography knowledge is simple, but it requires commitment and intentionality. It should be part of our ongoing committment to continually set a beautiful educational feast before our children in our homes.

Through homeschooling, we are able to provide this knowledge so much more effectively because we can immerse our student in the world - literally.

Following are 5 simple strategies to foster a love for geography in your children. I've seen these work with my own children.

Their knowledge of the world amazes me. It has inspired me to reclaim my own geography education.

Recently, I posted a free hand drawing of Africa that my son had completed - I was shocked by the response this picture received.

So many of you asked what I did to help him achieve this.

The answer is simple: provide tools, opportunities, and inspiration

This post outlines what we've done in our homeschool to inspire a love of geography.

1. Surround Children With Geography

We've always surrounded our children with geography. Easy ways to do this:

Invest in Globes

Keep a learning globe in a place where your child can easily access it. Encourage them to play with it often. Talk to them while they play. Play together. Show a fascination in the globe and your child will follow your lead.

Hang Child-Friendly Maps

Dry-Erase Map Decals are fun in a child's room.

A simple map of the world hung in your home will always provide a point of discussion.

Use Map Placemats

Don't you remember these from when you were a kid? (I do!) Geography placemats are one of the most simple way to cement that geography knowledge, and it's so easy to strike up a conversation or an impromptu quiz during a meal, right?

Talk to Children When You Go Places

Even if it was a simple day trip, I always was talking with my kids about geography.

When they see you in the car with a physical map (shocker - don't use your phone with Google Maps!) they make the connection that following a map leads to interesting destinations and events.

When we would take trips I would print notebooking pages and have the kids create a notebook for that journey - a great way to learn more about the place, but also to help with our knowledge of geography, too.

(Pictured below are the state pages, but we've used Notebooking Pages for tracing countries of the world, too!)

2. Create a Geography Table - Blobbing & Tracing

This is the SINGLE MOST effective thing I did to nurture an interest in geography.

Read this post and watch the video below to see exactly what I included as part of our table and also what time of day we used the table.

In the post and video I mention blob mapping quite a bit. My dear friend Brandy has an excellent post and printables that help with this!

Have your children blob map DAILY. I had five and six year olds in my CC Foundations class who had such a wonderful grasp of the continents, bodies of water, and things like the Tropic of Cancer, Capricorn and the equator.

A whiteboard and a dedicated five minutes each day can go A LONG way!

Trace maps - A LOT of them!

Tracing maps turned out to be a bit of an obsession for my son. There's something about tracing paper, Ultra Fine Sharpies, and a collection of wonderful maps that just excites kids.

Once your child is good at blobbing and tracing then they will move on to drawing freehand. This takes time, but with enough exposure and time, it will come naturally to them.

3. Own Atlases & Geography Books/Read Widely

I've included my favorite geography books below. We have a geography section in our homeschool shelves that my children use liberally!

What's hard to include, however, are all of the beautiful picture and chapter books we read that took place ALL OVER the world. Each time we would read I would point out where things took place in the world.

This goes back to surrounding your children with geography - have that globe nearby and talk to your kids about where stories and events take place.

4. Play Geography Games

Anything is more enjoyable when it is a game.

We started a collection of the 10 Days games a few years ago - these are hard to find, so if you see them at a thrift store or garage sale, or a used book sale, grab them!

At some point in time, we have played each of these games, and they all inspire more geography knowledge.

Even my youngest (who is 13 and in Classical Conversations Challenge A) asks me to sit down quite and often and play a geography game with him. It is just part of his daily geography time, and I LOVE that.

Kids are never too old to play games!

5. Challenge - Draw the World!

Because both of my children went through Classical Conversations Challenge A, they were required to draw the entire world.

This is an incredibly valuable skill. Not only did they learn every country, capital and feature in our world, but they also developed a habit of discipline and perseverance to learn the sheer amount of geography knowledge necessary to complete the task.

My son is steadily working his way through each continent and takes a tremendous amount of pride in his drawings.

Keep in mind, this has been accomplished in large part because of a commitment to geography we've had for many years.

I'm so impressed with Challenge A and the geography strand in particular.

Five Ways to Foster a Love For Geography

Geography is one of the most accessible, enjoyable, and valuable subjects we can expose our children to in our homeschools.

We have a unique opportunity with ample time, resources, and motivation -- seize the opportunity and give your children the WORLD!

Do you study geography in your homeschool? What does it look like? Leave me a comment below!

Why can't we just let children be CHILDREN?

Why can't we just let them be little?

There are many ways in which our public schools fail to educate children. We are failing to cultivate wonder in children.

My heart sank this week as I read about a kindergarten gun control walkout in Connecticut.

What has the world come to when we use five and six-year-old children as political pawns?

Have we become so SELFISH that we are willing to sacrifice our precious children on the altar of "making a point"?

It appears so.

Let Them Be Little: The Crime of Vanishing Childhood

The irony in this is that the more we remove "childhood" from our children's lives, the less capable adults they will become. When we force our children to bypass childhood we fail to realize the detrimental effects this will have on them in later life.

Parents are fooling themselves if they believe schools are going to preserve and nurture childhood.

I was once among a large number of trusting parents who believed the public schools had my children's best interest at heart - or maybe I should simply say the interests of the public schools are misguided. As I watched my kindergarten student participate in "Just Say No" week (the anti-drug campaign) - when she had no idea of what drugs even were, I wondered why political agendas were part of her school day.

I was so conditioned to just ACCEPT these things as part of the public school's duty to children. I didn't question what the public schools did. They were the AUTHORITY on education. We just sent our children to school - the teachers had their job and I had mine.

Then one day I started getting an uneasy feeling about all of this. A friend loaned me some homeschooling books. The principal at my child's school didn't appreciate me asking so many questions about the WHYS of what they did. The idea of homeschooling began to take a foothold in my mind.

Finally, we abandoned the ideal of public school and decided to just let our children be LITTLE.

Three Ways Homeschooling Lets Our Children Be LITTLE

Homeschooling gives children time to discover the world.

Children learn best through DISCOVERY.

Plopping them in a sterile environment with worksheets and prescribed activities leaves no time for a child to explore and wonder.

If we are trying to teach our children about birds - and most of all, how to APPRECIATE THE BEAUTY of birds - setting up a bird feeder and observing beautiful birds is of much more value than reading about birds in a textbook. As small children are going about their daily work of PLAYING, they may stop at intervals to admire the birds at the feeder. They will ask their mother, "What bird is this?", which can lead to discovery, which makes a memory, which then cements that knowledge.

“Of the evils of modern education few are worse than this - that the perpetual cackle of his elders leaves the poor child not a moment of time, nor an inch of space, wherin to wonder - and grow.”

— Charlotte Mason, Volume 1, p. 18

A no-twaddle bird study put together by the parent is of infinite value and allows our children to learn in an unrestricted environment. It challenges them to learn more, builds an appreciation of all things beautiful, and serves as a building block in a lifetime of knowledge of the natural world around them.

Giving our children permission to indulge in these things is a gift.

Homeschooling gives children time with their parents and siblings.

How very old-fashioned and un-evolved of me to suggest children should be home with their mother (or father) all day!

It certainly isn't in vogue to suggest the family be the primary unit of socialization and support, is it?

I have seen first-hand how happy and healthy children are when they have the security and being with family all day. Time with family builds security, self-confidence, and happiness.

This time at home with parents and siblings allows our children the space they need to PLAY, EXPLORE, and LEARN.

How much more valuable is a walk in the neighborhood with the family than sitting through a "Just Say No to Drugs" presentation?

We love to use the buzz words "quality time", but I would argue that TIME with our children is important - not just set aside time we deem as "quality", but giving all of our time to our children in their youngest years.

I cannot measure the learning that took place on our walks (especially in the fall) when my children were young. I look back on this now and am so thankful we just LET THEM BE LITTLE!

Jump in leaf piles. Get muddy. Collect bugs. Play make-believe baseball games by yourself in the backyard. Snuggle with mom.

Homeschooling Preserve A Child's Innocence

But they will have to function in the "real" world one day, so why are you sheltering them now?

Isn't this the most tired argument you have heard? I grow weary of hearing people say this.

I am, however, long past caring what others think about the way we educate our children.

Am I going to protect and shelter my children? YOU BET!

Elementary age children have no business:

worrying during active shooter drills
taking part in sex education
participating in political agendas
and a myriad of other things!

Childhood is virtually passed over when a child takes on so many things they aren't emotionally or physically capable of handling.

I vividly recall a day when my child was in third grade (our last year in the public schools) - there was an escaped convict on the loose in our area. They were searching cars on the main road near our home. The elementary school was locked down. I remember being so concerned about my daughter that day - I knew she would worry.

Wouldn't it have been so much easier to have had her at home - safely in my care with our doors locked and her being none the wiser - than subjecting her to worry?

I will fight tooth and nail to preserve my children's childhood and to LET THEM BE LITTLE.

“The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

If you are interested in more homeschool encouragement, please visit the page I have dedicated to that subject.

It is important to let our children be LITTLE. We owe it to them, and ultimately our society will benefit if we give our children everything they need and deserve in their younger years.

My greatest desire is to equip and encourage you in the homeschool journey. Please leave me a comment if I can help you in any way!

Five Ways to Foster a Love of Geography