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Wondering how to teach your child geography naturally without a curriculum?
We care deeply about geography in this house and not just finding places on a map.
I want my children to grow up with a love of people, their cultures, and understand how they live differently from us.
Geography is so much more than good map work.
In my house, geography is a lifestyle. It’s a heart posture.
It’s learning to love the world God made and the people that live in it.
You can use geography in your homeschool to teach about landforms, different types of governments, animals that live in different types of habitats, what languages other people speak and so much more.
How to Teach Geography Without a Curriculum
Hang up maps
Simply hanging up maps in your home will invite conversations about different countries, rivers, and landforms.
We’ve always had maps on our walls where the kids can see them. Right in the living room where we do life.
I have a map of the United States with the states and capitals clearly labeled, and a world map with countries and capitals labeled.
When we watch documentaries or animal shows we look on our maps to see where the country or land is at.
Any news I want to share with the kids, we use the maps to locate the areas to learn what’s going on.
We refer to these maps at least several times a week just living everyday life.
Use Puzzles
We love these GeoToys Geography Puzzles and they do a wonderful job of helping your child learn where the countries are and how they connect.
Doug and Melissa USA Floor Map is perfect for teaching the states and wipes clean.
Use the library
For several years when the kids were little, we would pick a country and locate it on the map, then check out library books about that country.
- What kind of people live there?
- What foods do they eat?
- What kind of government do they have?
- What animals live there?
- Is it a desert, jungle, farmland,?
These are the kinds of questions you can answer with beautiful library books and a map.
Use Youtube to teach geography
Video is such a powerful teacher for geography.
Here are just a few Youtube channels/videos that teach or show geography.
Map Placemats
Using laminated map placemats will allow your children more access to the world and help instill geography.
You can quiz them to find certain states and countries during dinner or use the maps as part of your school time.
Have you ever made homemade playdough?
Try having your kids create shapes of states and countries from their placemats with the playdough.
Your kids will have hours of fun with these map placemats.
Geography Apps
Stack the States for Apple
Stack the States for Android
Seterra Geography Games is an online interactive map with tons of quizzes and printables. You could easily use this for your entire geography for middle school on up.
Our kids have learned a lot of geography just using fun apps like Stack the States.
How to teach geography without a curriculum is more about adopting a lifestyle of learning and not so much school time.
Geography needs to be fun and adventurous.
Try eating foods from other countries or listening to languages that are not your own.
Universal Yum is a subscription box that sends you snacks from other countries each month including information on that location.
However, you teach geography, make it fun and teach your kids to love the world that God made.
