‘Where in the World is Katmandu?’
Help your child learn geography
Geography is a way of thinking, of asking questions, of observing and appreciating the world around us. While the study of geography takes place mainly in the schools, the seeds of geographic thought can start at home at a very early age. You can help your children learn by providing interesting activities for them and by prompting them to ask questions about their surroundings.
Set a good example, and help your children build precise mental images, by always using correct terms. Say, “We are going north to New York to visit Grandma,” or “west to Dallas to see Uncle John,” rather than “Up to New York” or “Down to Dallas.” Use words such as highway, desert, river, climate and glacier; and explain concepts like city, state and continent.
When you take your children for a walk, you can be teaching them geography. Help them learn right and left, and north, south, east and west. Tell them to turn north at the next corner, left at the one after that. When you get home, have them draw a map of where you have walked indicating the houses of their friends, or show them on a road map where you live and where you went.
Get a good atlas as well as a dictionary. Atlases help us ask, and answer, questions about places and their relationships with other areas. Many states have atlases that are generally available through an agency of the state government.
The activities suggested in this article are only a few examples of the many ways that children learn geography. These activities are designed to help parents find ways to include geographic thinking in their children’s early experiences. We hope they will stimulate your thinking and that you will develop many more activities on your own.
Place: Physical and human characteristics
Every place has a personality. What makes a place special? What are the physical and cultural characteristics of your hometown? Is the soil sandy or rocky? Is the temperature warm or is it cold? If it has many characteristics, which are the most distinct?
How do these characteristics affect the people living there? People change the character of a place. They speak a particular language, have styles of government and architecture, and form patterns of business. How have people shaped the landscapes?
Investigate your neighborhood
- Walk around your neighborhood and look at what makes it unique. Point out differences from and similarities to other places. Can your children distinguish various types of homes and shops? Look at the buildings and talk about their uses. Are their features built to conform with the weather or topography? Do the shapes of some buildings indicate how they were used in the past or how they’re used now? These observations help children understand the character of a place.
- Show your children the historical, recreational, or natural points of interest in your town. What animals and plants live in your neighborhood? If you live near a harbor, pay it a visit, and tour a docked boat. You can even look up the shipping schedule in your local newspaper, If you live near a national park, a lake, a river, or a stream, take your children there and spend time talking about its uses.
- Use songs to teach geography. “Home on the Range,” “Red River Valley,” and “This Land Is Your Land” conjure up images of places. Children enjoy folk songs of different countries like “Sur La Point D’Avignon,” “Guantanamara,” and “London Bridge.” When your children sing these songs, talk with them about the places they celebrate, locate them on the map, and discuss how the places are described.
Learn about other cultures
People shape the personality of their areas. The beliefs, languages, and customs distinguish one place from another.
- Make different ethnic foods, take your children to an ethnic restaurant, or treat them to ethnic snacks at a folk festival. Such an experience is an opportunity to talk about why people eat different foods. What ingredients in ethnic dishes are unique to a particular area? For example, why do the Japanese eat so much seafood? (If your children look for Japan on a map they will realize it is a country of many islands).
- Read stories from or about other countries and books that describe journeys many children’s books provide colorful images of different places and a sense of what it would be like to live in them. Drawings or photography of distant places or situations can arouse interest in other lands. The Little House in the Big Woods, Holiday Tales of Sholem Aleichem, and The Polar Express are examples of books with descriptions of place that have transported the imaginations of many young readers. There is a bibliography at the end of this booklet, and your librarian will have more suggestions.
Regions: How they form and change
How can places be described or compared? How can the Earth be divided into regions for study? Geographers categorize regions in two basic ways – physical and cultural. Physical regions are defined by landform (continents and mountain ranges), climate, soil and natural vegetation. Cultural regions are distinguished by political, economic, religious, linguistic, agricultural and industrial characteristics.
Examine physical regions
- Help your children understand physical regions by examining areas in your home. Is there an upstairs and a downstairs? Is there an eating area and a sleeping area? Are there other “regions” in your home that can be described?
- Look at the physical regions in your community. Some neighborhoods grew up around hills, others developed on waterfronts or around parks. What physical regions exist in your hometown?
Examine cultural regions
Take your children to visit the different political, residential, recreational, ethnic and commercial regions of your city.
- Go to plays, movies and puppet shows about people from different countries. These are often presented at libraries and museums.
- Give children geography lessons by tying in with ethnic holiday themes. Provide children with regional or ethnic clothes to wear. Some museums and libraries provide clothes children can borrow. Holidays provide an opportunity to learn about the customs of people around the world. You can use the library to discover how other people celebrate special days.
- Compare coins and stamps from other lands. They often contain information about the country. You may be able to find stamps from other countries where you work, your children may get them from pen pals. Stamps tell many different kinds of things about a country, from its political leadership to native bird life.
- Learn simple words in different languages. Teach your children to count to 10 in other languages. They can also learn simple words like “hello,” “goodbye,” and “thank you.” Look at the different alphabets or script from various regions. All these activities expose children to the abundance of the Earth’s cultural treasures. Many libraries have language tapes and books, some especially for children.
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If you have friends who are from different countries or have either traveled or lived abroad, invite them over to talk with your children. If they have pictures, so much the better. What languages do they speak? How are their customs or dress similar to or different from yours?
Excerpted from Helping Your Child Learn Geography, prepared by Carol Sue Frombuloti, published by the U.S. Dept of Education in cooperation with the U. S. Geological Survey and with assistance from Hammond, Incorporate
