Drawing Around the World (Europe) is a 256 page digital printable book, published by Brookdale House as part of their Geography Drawing series. This book is designed to teach students to recall from memory the general layout of European countries, as well as helping them explore some interesting facts about each country as they study it. The course is designed to cover a twenty-four week time frame.

Each week the student learns about a new European country, as well as reviewing those already learned. Students begin the week by studying the new country, tracing an outline of it, and investigating facts about the country, including its area, population, capital, culture, religion, climate, and natural resources. As the week progresses, students learn to draw the country on the right location of a blank map of Europe, using latitude and longitude lines to guide them for proper placement. They also learn the location of the new country relative to the other countries in Europe, and by the end of the program, will be able to draw freehand a scale map of all the countries of Europe from memory, identifying each country in its proper location and recalling some basic facts about each one.

There are many helps built into the program that make it user friendly. The author suggests using plastic sheet protectors with dry erase markers to allow the student to continue using the same sheet of background paper on which to draw their maps. This is very helpful since the student draws the same maps almost daily while progressing through the book. The pages are printable, and make a very nice notebook when completed.

This book works well for elementary and middle school students. It can be completed in a short amount of time and when used daily is very effective at helping the student memorize the geography of the European countries.

We used this book with our fifth grader, who enjoyed the simplicity of first tracing, then drawing the countries. We enjoyed looking up new facts about the countries, and even added in a sketch of the flag of each country as we studied them. As we are working through the program, I am amazed at the near total recall of my daughter. With seemingly little effort, she has memorized the basic country outlines and locations of nearly half of Europe!

I would highly recommend this program to anyone who is currently learning European history, to enhance their study and help their child understand the geography of the countries being discussed in their History lessons.

-Product review by Erica Beyea, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, June, 2016