Teacher makes kids Map World Freehand!

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=287936

Ok, I know this is not homeschool, but it does raise an interesting topic; Memorization of redily abailable facts. Is it a waste of educational time, or one answer to a more rounded educational understanding?

I think it is wonderfull!

The teachers, like my cousins PS High School English Teacher who gives out the answers because "No one would do the work, anyway, are a "waste of educational space" and are a main reason why we do not want our children in PS.

So what do you think? Is this simple rote memorization? Or does it serve a bigger purpose?

 

No one has an oppinion about this?

Would you expect your child to be able to do this?
I think it is cool.
I think it is definately not a waste of educational time. I mean, they have plenty of room to memorize plenty of useless things, right?

 

I think it's great! Finally a teacher is working to teach these kids Geography.

I play online games and tlak to people from all over the world.. it's pretty common for them to say stuff like, "I live in Greenland (or Albania or i even had an Austrailian say this) But you're American... You wouldn't know where that is!" This is common.. not ment to me personally, just an accepted fact, Americans don't know Geography. Often I DO know where they live but in a group with several Americans 9 times out of 10 IF I know where they live the other Americans there don't.

This is sad. And now that the internet is so typical of every household.. and air travel across the world is getting easier and less time consuming, being able to interact with people from across the world is getting more and more important.

Our country has a bad reputation of not being aable to find our way from a 7-11 to home on our own. Lets not make it worse by being lax in geography.

**Syele gets off her soapbox.

 

I think it DOES have to do with homeschool! I think it's GREAT that they do that, and that kids, people Americans, need to know this stuff!

 

Well, Jen, you know I ALWAYS have an opinion, lol! I think it's great. And no, it's not mindless. It gives the children an understanding of the world around them. My kids can tell you that Camaroon is the "armpit" of Africa, lol!

 

my kids have been using Alpha Omega since first grade, for geography and I bet they could pretty much do the world freehand, oh they might miss a few here or there but they would get most of it right!
We love history and geo here in this house! My oldest who went to private school this year, got an A in History, was teachers pet because he actually did the work! Plus was ready for his tests!
But, I found some of his teachers promised the kids grades or points for some things like turning in an assignment early , they could get an automatic grade raise on a test, and silly things like that.
I told him I would be speaking to what ever teacher that was!
ITs not about the grade as much as it is about what they are learning.

 

We now have only one tv, and when we watch something, usually a PBS or Nature special, if they mention anything about a certain country, my kids, especially my oldest, jump up and find it on the map that's up on the wall! They can find places quicker than I can---which is great. When I was young we moved a lot, so I got a rather haphazard education that didn't always quite fit together, so I always wished for more and better for my children!!! We do a lot of geography and history stuff here too. It's so interesting and helps them understand how things fit together so well! I love the way we're making our books in history! Now we have two years worth done---there's a lot of stuff there now! Wait 'til we have the next two years done! WOW! I love it, and the kids love looking back at what they've done! I'm already getting excited about moving on in their schoolwork. We have things going on for the next 3 weeks or so, but then we'll start gearing back up for the full-time school day!

 

I thinks its pretty cool. I think if the kids enjoyed it then they probly got more out of it too. I think its a great idea.

 

Now I remember when I was in school we didn't have to freehand the world but we were given maps that we had to label everything. I think it is a wonderful idea. It gives a wonderful base for understanding other countries as well. And I know for myself it does make you respect where you live lol.

 

amen! helps me today when i teach my kids too, to know that we had to fill in the maps...so I'm not such s mean teach

 

We spent 3 years doing geography. By the end, my kids could map the entire world by heart, drawing it out, they knew every country and most capitals (except Africa, it has so many), plus each countries major features.

They LOVED it! It was so much fun to that every day. And it really helped them. Now, when they here news or history, they understand where things are, the effects of lanscapes and terrain on history, and how God uses that in His plan.

Plus, it was just fun! LOL

What we did is take one area at a time, depending on size and details involved and each child created their own large scale map, very detailed. Each day we'd go through a quiz, covering all the locations and features. They made BEAUTIFUL maps to see. They put sea serpents and ships in the water, used colored pencils.

Anyway, it took anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months for any area.

I had originally purchased the program "Mapping the World By Heart" but found it was set up for classroom use more than homeschool use, so I had to modify it and make up my own program.

My kids still smile when they think about those times.

 

That sounds like a significant feat. I am interested to know how old your kids are, and can they do something like name all the states on a blank US map (if not capitals). I am about to try working on the US states with my oldest, now 6. He can read and do math now so I think it's about the right time to start.

 

I suppose that if you know that this is the end game requirement, and practice and drill all year for it, perhaps it is okay.

I think that it is a bit much to require the students to draw it all, I would give some partial lines and marks as guides.

 

They are grown now. But I believe we did it around 4th and 5th grades for my oldest boys. My daughter was a little younger and it didn't stick with her as well, though she still enjoyed it.

I'm thinking it was more like two years than three. We even did Antarctica, learning the land features and science stations.

We used big poster sheets, or even bigger newsprint rolls.

First we picked a good map out of a book. Made copies of it for each, and then I had them draw grids over the top. Then we lightly drew(so erasing was easy) grids on their own map papers and they simply drew the maps, one square at a time.

For practice, usually, I made up a blank map, along with them, and little pieces of paper labeled with all the stuff they were to remember. Each location had it's own bag and blank map. They took turns pulling something out of the bag and putting it on the map in the right place.

Switching things up is good, though. I remember watching movies about locations and such as well. Bringing the terrain to life. Discussing how it affected storylines and history.

Yes, at that time they did name states and capitols. The link for a states game I found this morning on this forum would be awesome for that. We also got a tape that had a song on it about state capitols. For some reason, US states and capitols proved the hardest to learn of anything. Maybe because we are so used to the names we don't do associations when we learn them or something, I'm not sure.

 

oaky, I am wondering, didn't you all learn that in school too? We had to learn that in public school, to mape the world, of course I did take geography as an extra Senior Social Studies course but wasn't eveyone learning to do that back then? That is why I want my kids to learn it too! I dont remember it all but I can find MOST countries with otu effort. and am going to have fun teaching my kids the capitals now that I read that ! I didnt think to teach them that far yet,

 

We studied all the countries, as in where they were located and which continent, when I was in 7th grade, but we didn't have to draw them on a map.

 

Must be fun when every six weeks a few nations change names etc. LOL

 

i think its a fabulous idea! we have a freehand map of the world ds 9 is working on (not from memory tho) he pulls it out a couple times a week to add a country he has learned about or make some progress on coloring all his oceans. i never thought to give it back to him as a test tho, maybe in a couple of years that will be great! thanks for sharing

 

I think that is a GREAT idea!!!

 

We're in the process of learning something about every country right now. I made up a series of standard questions....population, major religion, relative size, 3 major exports, and several other statistics. Plus, they have to find one fact about that country that they find particularly interesting. We use CIA factbook website. They then locate each one on a blackline map they have and label the capitals. We are almost done with Africa and they are absorbing everything.
We might do that freehand maping after each continent.
I think it is great.