I bought the kids this world map puzzle, (because Ben asked for one) which includes some of the nations flags.
While they built it, we talked about what a continent is, and identified some of the capital cities for example, Canberra and Wellington being the two most relevant to them. Both Ben and Emma enjoyed spotting South Africa on the map because that’s where Dad comes from. Emma was surprised to discover that Egypt is on the same continent. She also thought the UK would be as big as the USA and was surprised by it’s tiny land mass.
Afterwards we pulled out the World Atlas and spend a few minutes browsing maps and Ben said he liked how you could see on the map where the mountains are. I showed them the Key to symbols on the map so they could start to understand what they were looking at.
And I spotted Emma in Sam’s bed piled up high with spare mattress and blankets with one of her library books from the Horrible Geography series.
(Unschool Monday is hosted over at Owlet. Pop over to find posts about other unschooly days.)
What a wonderful way to learn! We have a world jigsaw puzzle at CUE Haven and it is amazing how much fun even the older volunteers have with it.
Nice puzzle. We had a small one of the united states and I can’t find it. My friends gave us some wall maps though and we’ve been having fun with those.
I’m stopping in from Owlet Mama’s.
Love the puzzle! We have a similar one of the US States and they learn so quickly this way.
PS I am borrowing your “Horrible Geography” idea- never saw that here in the States, but they look really fun. I found a set on eBay and am looking forward to sharing them with the kids. :D
They are great. There are heaps in the series, and Emma has discovered Horrible Geography as well which are also good. I was reading one yesterday (history) about really Horrible people, and they did a great job of explaining the history of truly terrible and graphic things in a way that is factual but doesn’t frighten the children.
Whoops I misread your comment…MM…The Horrible History books are the first we found which are excellent and what I was talking about above….the geography ones we’ve only just found in the library and are also very good.