Courses · Geography · Kindergarten to Grade 12
Geography
Rivers, mountains, deserts, straits and natural harbors have set the borders of nations and still steer the world’s trade. And people have answered them with the boat and the sail, the compass, the canal, the railroad, the steamship, the airplane, the container ship, the undersea cable and the satellite. Each lesson starts with a real moment from history, walks the place on the map, explains why it mattered, and then has the student map, measure or build it at home.
Choose a grade
Grades 4 through 8 and Course C are ready now. The other grades are on the way.
Ages 5–6
Kindergarten
God Made the Earth: a map of my room, the globe, hills and valleys, rivers and the sea, weather and the seasons, seven continents and five oceans, and how we get there.
Coming
Ages 6–7
Grade 1
Maps and Journeys: map symbols and keys, the compass rose, the shape of the land, the water cycle, hot and cold places, animals and their homelands, and explorers by land and sea.
Coming
Ages 7–8
Grade 2
Our Country, Coast to Coast: the map of the United States, its regions and great rivers, mountains, plains, deserts and coasts, the first peoples and the land, and trails and travelers.
Coming
Ages 8–9
Grade 3
Around the World: the globe and the grid, the continents and oceans, the compass and the sail, Marco Polo and the Silk Road, and the first voyages around the world.
Coming
Ages 9–10
Grade 4
The United States: the township grid of 1785, New England mill towns, the Great Lakes and the Corn Belt, the Erie Canal and its locks, Fulton’s steamboat, the golden spike, time zones, Yellowstone and Powell’s Grand Canyon, and a study of your own state.
Ages 10–11
Grade 5
Explorers, Navigators and Missionaries: the Portuguese open the ocean, latitude and longitude at sea, mapping the world, Captain Cook, missionaries as geographers, and judging explorers honestly.
Ages 11–12
Grade 6
Physical Geography: topographic maps, the moving earth, volcanoes and earthquakes, rivers and erosion, climate as physical geography, biomes, ocean currents and living with natural hazards.
Ages 12–13
Grade 7
Regions of the World: Europe, Russia and Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Africa, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania, and the Americas.
Ages 13–14
Grade 8
Rivers, Ports and Straits: fords and fall lines, the Nile and the Indus, Venice and Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Singapore, McLean’s container, Gibraltar and Malacca, Suez and Panama, compass, orienteering and GPS, and a capstone on your own city.
High school
Grades 9–10 · Full year
A. Geography and History
Why borders fall where they do: rivers, mountains, deserts and steppes, seas and islands, harbors and choke points, the North European Plain, treaty lines and the surveyors.
Coming
Grades 10–12 · Semester
B. Geography and Commerce
Sea lanes, straits and trade routes: the Silk Road, the spice routes and the monsoon, the great straits, resources, and the modern trade map.
Coming
Grades 9–12 · Semester
C. Technology Overcoming Geography
The stern rudder and the compass, Harrison’s chronometer, Roman roads to the Trans-Siberian, Suez and Panama, the telegraph and the Atlantic cable, the jet and the container, GPS and undersea fiber, and what technology has still not overcome.
Grades 11–12 · Semester
D. Geopolitics: The Great Ideas
Mahan and sea power, Mackinder and the heartland, Spykman and containment, taught as ideas to weigh with their strengths and their critics, and a capstone.
Coming
Grades 10–12 · Optional
E. Human Geography
An AP-style course: population, migration, culture, political geography, agriculture, cities, industry and development, and stewardship.
Coming
How every lesson works
Each K–8 course is one school year: 8 units of 4 lessons, one lesson a week in two sessions, plus an optional 4-lesson Map Lab of map games and puzzles. Map skills grow a little every year, from a map of the child’s own room in kindergarten to scale and grid in Grade 4 and bearing, orienteering, GPS and GIS in Grade 8.
The high-school courses are one full-year course and three one-semester courses of 25 lessons, each lesson taking three sessions, with unit tests, a midterm and a final.
- Warm-up. A few minutes of noticing, predicting or finding a place on the map.
- Watch. A hand-picked YouTube video from a museum, a national park, a historical society or a trusted teacher, with a note on when to watch it and what to look for.
- Learn. The story, the place on the map, and why it mattered, in short sections a parent can read aloud.
- Picture study. A public-domain painting, photograph or historic map to look at closely and talk about.
- Map it or build it. Measure by scale, draw the route, build the lock or the levee, and record it in a map notebook.
- Practice. Worked examples first, then practice with answers, common mistakes and a game.
Climate is taught as physical geography: latitude, altitude, winds, currents and rain shadows. Peoples and places are described factually and respectfully, and the stories of explorers and missionaries tell both their courage and their wrongs. Each lesson has a verse of Scripture (KJV) where it fits.
Every course can also be downloaded as one printable PDF, with the video links printed in each lesson.
Videos open on YouTube. Each one was checked for the lesson and for the content, but YouTube shows its own recommendations and ads around them, so parents should stay nearby.