Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Homeschool Crew Review: Let's Go Geography

Let's Go Geography

This year I wanted to do some geography with the children, but I did not want to use something that was incredibly time intensive or had to be used every day.  I was excited to see Let's Go Geography appear on our vendor list and thrilled to have an opportunity to use and review their weekly homeschool geography curriculum.  We were given a one year subscription to year one of this three year elementary geography curriculum.
Let's Go Geography

Let's Go Geography is a digital geography curriculum geared for ages K-4.  Each week's lesson covers a different country.  There are lesson plans for a 36 week school year with a week's break every 9 weeks and review lessons built in. You download the PDF for the country to your computer.  You can print out the entire lesson or choose to only print the pages the student needs to complete.  Each of the lessons follow a similar format.   The first part of the lesson is an Are You Ready section that gives information on the country's size and languages, plus an itinerary, and list of other things you might need. The next section is the Map It section and includes a continent map, and a map of the area to be labeled and/or colored.  Next you will find the flag section with a country flag to be colored and added to your map or travel passport.  The Music is the next section with the National Anthem for the country and a link to listen to it. The Let's Explore section contains fun and interesting facts about the country, links to YouTube videos to watch about the country, along with suggestions of where to look in the library or online for additional information.  There are also pictures to look at highlighting specific things from that country.  The Create section of the lesson has a hands on craft to make and a coloring page.  It also includes a notebooking page for students to record the information that they think is important to add in their notebook.  The last section has the printables that need to be printed out to be completed.

The lessons go in a specific order, but you can choose to do them in any order you wish. Each lesson is a stand alone lesson and does not build on the week before. Year One covers the following countries:

U.S. The Northeast
U.S. Hawaii
Canada
Haiti
Nicaragua
Belize
Greenland
Chile
Colombia
Ecuador
Finland
Norway
Sweden
Denmark
Iceland
Hungary
South Africa
Libya
Tanzania
Ghana
Afghanistan
Iran
China
Mongolia
Cambodia
Philippines
Thailand
New Zealand


I have been using Let's Go Geography with my 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 6th graders.  We are completing one lesson each week.  We work on geography every Monday and it takes us less than an hour to go through the lesson.


We really have been enjoying Let's Go Geography!  I like the way the lessons are laid out.  It is very easy to teach.  The night before I download the lesson and print the pages that we need.  The rest of the lesson I read off of the computer so it is easy to get to the items that are linked.  I love the information that is included with each lesson.  Last year when we were studying geography I wished the curriculum we were using had included links to videos so we could see what they were talking about.  I just did not have the time to hunt down information. I was so glad to see video links included in Let's Go Geography!  It has been so cool to see volcanoes that are erupting or different views of the country we are studying.  It helps the children really understand what they are learning about if they can see it themselves.



I love the inclusion of a hands on craft or coloring sheet.  There are times that there is a lot going on in our lives (like the last several weeks!) that we just do not have the time to do a craft.  I have been thankful for the coloring pages the last few weeks.  But when things slow down a bit or on days when the weather is bad and children are stuck inside, its great to have a craft included. 


We are loving our geography lessons with Let's Go Geography!  We will be continuing to use this curriculum and can't wait for years two and three to be released.

To see what my Crew Mates had to say, stop by the Crew Blog!


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