February 14, 2024 – Learning Geography through History

Mercy Every Minute

Deborah Wuehler, TOS Senior Editor

Geography Through Biographies

Instead of feeling like a poor geography teacher because you know you can’t add one more thing to a busy schedule, just look at what you are already studying and add the geography layer!

Around 5^th grade, I had most of the children learn about all the different states and each of their flowers and birds and insects and main production. But aside from that, we learned geography in a more integrated way—basically from any books they were reading.

Most of my kids read through YWAM’s Heroes of History and Christian History Then and Now biographies. Through these, they learned about many different countries and customs and we could map those easily. (The company also offers unit study guides for each book that include writing projects, geography, history, and devotional applications.)

Reading Christian biographies of strong saints is a wonderful way to, not only learn strong Biblical character qualities, but geography as well. Find a blank map of the world and write the names and dates of the people or countries you are reading about and put them on the map.

Another way to learn geography is to find an online prayer map such as this one: Loving the Lost prayer guide: Loving the Lost Through Prayer – IMB.

There is no better place in the world for your children to learn geography than at Home. Where They Belong.

~Deborah

Here are more great resources, ideas, and ways to teach geography:

Geography Product Reviews: Product Reviews – The Old Schoolhouse®
5 Ways History and Geography Can be Fun! by Cole Austin
History Comes Alive! by Meredith Curtis
History and Geography Bring the World to Life! A Study of the War of 1812 by Libby McNamee
Pilgrim: The John Bunyan Story by Christine Hage
Resource Guide: History and Geography
Missionary Geography WeE-book by Maggie Hogan

Discover online and offline multi-subject lesson plans on HomeschoolPlus.com that include history, geography, and more.

Beth Mora

Adventure Is Out There!

The nations are built and shaped with the resources that surround them. Geography influences all parts of history; you can only teach one with the other. But I don’t know about you; my past with both subjects left me dazed as the teacher droned. Then, I became a homeschool educator, and the doors to adventures swung wide!

First of all, I am thankful for all the fantastic Christian history and geography curriculums out there. I didn’t realize how deprived I was! They gave me a framework and filled in the gaps–no, chasms–that my public school education lacked. Geography was always taught separately, and this distinct disconnect squashed my love of learning.

I use Christian history textbooks as an outline, which launched us into many different cultural bunny trails! Geography is the setting of history’s story. You need to understand the story’s setting to understand the story, and this is where our history lessons took flight!

Literature: I used historical literature to transform facts and figures into stories that are remembered forever. We always had a map to locate the places we read about.

Take a Trip: We “visited” the area we studied through a click and made a travel book with the highlights. Always take the opportunity to visit a museum or plan a trip.

Recreate the Culture:

• Feasts—Nothing in your lesson plan gets remembered more than researching the foods, picking the recipes, and cooking the foods!
• Play the games—Children and teens connect history and geography through the games of yesteryear.
• Speak the language—With Google translator, you can translate any scripture into a different language for copywork.
• Dress the part—Some of my kids enjoyed creating whole outfits, and others enjoyed creating paper dolls.
• Celebrate the holidays— Every culture celebrates differently, and it’s fun to celebrate the differences!
• Enjoy the music—While preparing for feasts, we would listen to the music of the people we studied.

Don’t settle for ho-hum geography; experience the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of countries around the world! Please give them the facts and figures of geography wrapped up in the spirit of historical exploration that your students will remember forever!

About the author

Beth Mora is creator/teacher-on-camera for Here to Help Learning’s Homeschool Writing Program (grades 1–6) and homeschool conference and women’s events speaker. She loves to blog at Home to Home. She serves up HTHL’s Writing Tip of the Week for those teaching their kiddos to write. Everything she does, whether laughable or heart-gripping, is done to honor One. God’s grace is the salve that has healed her own life and is what she offers liberally to others.

What motivates your teen? Find out with TruSpark. Use code SCHOOLHOUSE for $10 off at TRUSPARK.ME (expires 2/29/2024). Self-discovery + career exploration!

Kristen Heider

Learning Geography through History

History has always been one of my favorite subjects. My mom and grandpop instilled a love of history from an early age. While my mom and I visited historic sites and museums, my grandpop would open his books about Egypt and World War II to share stories and memories with me. But within the social studies discipline, I never really enjoyed geography. So how can you tie the two together to make learning about geography through history more interesting and exciting?

When I was teaching public school, I was blessed with several great resources that incorporated mapping with history. My Advanced Placement U.S. History class would label and color code maps of the United States through different historical events and periods. For example, while we studied the colonies, we not only labeled a map with the thirteen colonies but also wrote dates and answered questions about the map. This mapping resource took it beyond just writing the names of the colonies.

Another resource provided history text, questions, and map labeling. Gone were the days of simply labeling the ancient civilizations of the world. We read about civilizations to discover what to label on our map. Bringing the different disciplines together helps children take strengths from one area and apply them to other areas. A simple map labeling project may not help your children remember which states were part of the Union or the Confederacy, but if they read about why, when, and how the states left to form the Confederacy, they may retain the information more easily.  As homeschool parents, we can seek out resources or create our own. Use your favorite history book to build your geography projects. Grab outline maps online and create your worksheet with reading and labels. Joining geography with other disciplines such as history or even foreign languages will help bring the subject to life and make important connections for your children. The more connections we can build, the better our children will retain knowledge and be able to transfer it to other areas of schooling and their lives.

About the author

Kristen is a housewife and mother to three, having worked at a national park site, a metropolitan zoo, and as a history teacher. Kristen blogs at A Mom’s Quest to Teach, where she relates her family’s learning experiences. Her site is a regular column, covering elements of teaching, crafting, and all the roller coaster rides that entail being a mom

Pillar of Knowledge

Roger Smith

How Do You Get Anywhere?

Children are all about going!

But do they know how to get there?

Maps are sooooo outdated! But they are designed for understanding, not for memorizing. So, get your child a map of your town, city, or state, and expand his mind.

Geography begins with knowing where you are in the world, understanding where the next thing is, and seeing the path between the two. The language of geography is essential.

Kids must understand that “up” is the same as “north,” “down” is the same as “south,” but right and left may not be the same as east and west.

Now, I’m really confused!

Make it a game to find a prize at a destination that requires the children to use a map to locate. Give clues with east/west, north/south and distances or landmarks.

Make prizes real stuff, create teams, and have your own family “Amazing Race!”

Giving your children an appreciation of maps for real or imaginary places is the beginning of a love of geography.

Joy is found not in arriving at the destination, but rather in the journey.

About the author

Dr. Roger Smith is a family doctor in rural Louisiana, where he and his wife, Jan, raised four adventurous children who are all grown, making their own mark in the world. He speaks and writes on parenting issues and produces brief videos that can be found on Facebook @ParentingMattersNow.

Would you like to take your family on a historical tour through America? With Drive Thru History: American History, you can visit the places where America was born without leaving your home. Join host Dave Stotts, as he takes you on a journey from the discovery of the New World to the end of the American Revolution. Use it to supplement your current history course or to introduce American history to your students.