Hey there everyone! I hope your homeschool year is off to a great start! We have been going strong since May and are excited to take a few weeks off in September. Now that we have logged a few weeks of geography I wanted to share with you what we have been doing because I am insanely impressed with not only how easy it is to do but how quickly my girls are picking it up!
For those of you who don’t know me, I have three daughters ages 5, almost 4 & 8 months. I am homeschooling for Pre-K and Kindergarten this year. We combine for everything except Language Arts and Math. This curriculum is something I have pieced together myself and will continue to loop through adding in more difficulty as the girls grow. Okay, without further ado, let’s dive right in!
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Super Easy Geography Curriculum Items:
- You need a giant states map. I picked this one up from Amazon because it was cheap! I wish I had spent the extra few bucks to get the groovy crumple map but C’est la vie.
2. Crayola has these awesome state coloring pages that are FREE! We love all things FREE!!
3. You need a states puzzle. Any puzzle! I picked this one because I like beautiful things and I like everything to match. There is one huge issue with this puzzle, it doesn’t have a border for the pieces to fit inside. This means that they slide EVERYWHERE! This infuriates my 5-year-old. My recommendation is that if you choose this puzzle you also grab one of those grippy puzzle mats to build it on so that it stays put.
4. This 50 States book is HUGE and it is AMAZING! This will be one of those things that stays with us always. It goes into great detail about each individual state with a two-page spread for each one.
5. Remember how I said I love beautiful things and I love things to match?! Well, these cards are made out of what feels like plastic which makes them preschooler proof. We have added these to our morning basket and use them to review each morning. My girls can identify all of the cards that are laid out in this picture just by the shape of the state and where it is located on the map.
6. If you have older children you might want to grab this handy-dandy guidebook that goes with the book and flashcards. We do not have this yet so I can’t say exactly what age it would be good for but I would wait until mid-elementary school if it were me. 
7. Last but not least, you need this link: Homeschool POP They have wonderful and short states videos for every state. I love this because I can turn on the video and go make a cup of coffee!! Let’s face it, any homeschool lesson that mom doesn’t have to be on top of the entire time is a win. Coffee is a bonus!
Now that you have all of your supplies let me tell you what this looks like in our home. We do geography once a week, maybe two days if they lost attention. We start by looking over the information on the state in our book. They love how colorful the pages are! Then they watch the Homeschool Pop video. When the video is over they work on the coloring page. My 5-year-old is a perfectionist and likes to have her iPad with the flag picture pulled up. Some days she asks for the other items pictures as well. When the coloring page is done we locate the state on our big map and do our state puzzle. That is it, geography for the week is in the bag! Once we have completed a new state the flashcard for that state goes into our morning basket. We do a quick review each morning.
For now, we are only working on naming and locating the states. Once we have mastered that we will take a break from the US and learn about the world. When we circle back around to the US we will work on capital cities and recognize the flag of each state. I plan to hit US geography twice before the end of elementary school. The second or third time around we will pick up the workbook that goes along with it all. This curriculum takes me less than 5 minutes a month to print the states for that month and the rest of it is a pull and go deal. So, so easy!
If you decide to try this out I would love for you to leave a comment and tell me how it works for you and what little tweaks you have made to make it your own!
Happy Homeschooling!
Love, Allie
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