courageousbeings-homeschool-blog: December 2011

December 6, 2011

A Note From Karen

It's been a busy few weeks!

We went to California to return our granddaughter, India, to her family. I miss her! We had a great time together. We packed visiting, movies, and sewing into our week (she made two skirts and two dresses!).

While in California, we also celebrated our anniversary on the Queen Mary. We had a beautiful stateroom, but a faulty heater landed us in the Eisenhower Suite! We had a great time exploring the ship.

We had to hurry home, but had one wonderful evening, before we left, where all the California kids and grandchildren met a my father's house!

We spent Thanksgiving in Kentucky! Always beautiful! We had wonderful visits with daughter, Rachel's family, daughter Stephanie, and my brother Craig's family.

We're back in Utah with the fall decorations put away, and Christmas casting it's cozy glow. I've also been immersed in finishing two big programs for Courageous Beings and Heart of a Heroine, due to launch in the first part of next year.

I've added many new posts to the Swords of Honor EPIC Adventure blog, including the one I share in the newsletter today called, Geography - Create a Salt Dough Relief Map! (See below.)

Many families, with children from a few months old to late teens are taking part in this EPIC Adventure. I will include activities of the students of all ages in the posts this year.

There are many more great posts still to add, including some great events happening with the EPIC Adventure this month!

So many inspiring families! I know there is a wealth of wonder in your homeschool, as well!

As always, I admire you and salute you, and I'm here to support you in this most wonderful and impact-ful endeavor!!

SWORDS OF HONOR

EPIC Adventure Blog Updates:

November posts

Until next week, I wish you success in all of your courageous endeavors!

December 6, 2011

"GEOGRAPHY -

CREATE A SALT DOUGH RELIEF MAP"

By Karen Kindrick Cox

Who can resist the lure of an atlas? Once open, it is easy to be mesmerized for hours gazing at every nook and cranny of the world!

Geography is a fascinating study in itself. But how can you bring the maps of the world to life for your children?

How does any learning happen? It enters our brain by way of the senses. The more senses you involve, the greater impact it will have on learning and memory.

Almost everything your children study can be tied to geography. What a valuable effort it is, to guide your children to a solid understanding of the layout of the world, and give them an anchor to their own location and sense of place in it.

Here are a few simple ideas to help your children learn geography:

Keep a globe handy with which to refer regularly, during everyday lessons and discussions.

Sing songs and play games that help students memorize continents, countries, states, and capitals.

Keep maps and atlases available to peruse at leisure. Hang maps on the wall, place them under plastic tablecloths.

Keep maps in the car for your children to follow on road trips. GPS is certainly useful and a great blessing, but it will never give your child the experience that following a map will.

Have your children create their own maps - of their room, the house, neighborhood, or the places and countries they study.

When possible, take children to see local landmarks and geographical features. Plan road trips together, see the world near and far and anchor it to a map.

My daughter, Amanda, has always been interested in Geography, and her boys have a great knowledge of the location of places of the world. They love road trips and have vivid memories of places across the U.S. from first hand experiences.

Recently, in their study of knights and King Arthur, in their Swords of Honor EPIC Adventure, they made a salt dough map of England.

Here is Amanda's blog post:

Salt Dough Relief Map of England

Salt dough is great fun! The boys loved getting their fingers into the dough.