Geography Club

• Each month our homeschool group hosts a geography club meeting. We have a different country each month and the children do short presentations on whatever topic they choose that relates to the current country. My kids like to present their information in the form of lapbooks.
• The families study and work on projects at home during the month leading up to the meeting. Each family brings a dish from that country to share. We have a craft and usually a game. The kids bring their passports and get a stamp that represents that country.
• February’s country was the Philippines. One of our own families just came back from 2 months there. In May, they will be leaving to be missionaries in a small village. They shared a lot of information with our group. Most unusual to my kids was that they had to take bucket showers.
• We generally check out several books from the library and start reading the first week of the month. The kids choose their topic and start planning.
• My 7 year old chose to cover wildlife on the islands. We used pictures from the internet. He either does all of the writing himself or dictates to me and I help. It depends on the day. He loves picking from our file of cool templates.
  
• He chooses all of his colors and we work together on layout. I tend to prefer more of a 2-3 color, symmetrical kind of layout. He likes a lot of color and some of his own designs. His mouse deer looks remarkably close to the real thing. I always end up appreciating his creativity.
• The second week we try to complete our lapbooks. Our meetings are the third Thursday of the month. We start at 5:30pm and go until 8:30. Its nice to include the fathers in the dinner and give them a chance to see their own kid’s presentations.
• My 9 year old had an easy time choosing her topic. She is turtle crazy! She has a Russian Tortoise named Noah. His name is kind of ironic because he can’t swim. Anyway, she went with Green Sea Turtles. She spent a lot of time researching the life cycle of these turtles. She did’t like finding out how few survive into adulthood.
• The timing worked out well for this topic. We started Apologia’s Swimming Creatures in January and just got to the Sea Turtles. I love when things like that happen! She did a great job on the anatomy of the turtle. She also likes to include a question, quiz or game in her lapbooks. This one was "How did the Green Sea Turtle get it’s name?" a) shell is green b) body fat is green c) hides in sea grass If you check back, I will give you the answer in the next post.
  

• The week of our meeting, we choose what recipe we want to make. We work on our presentation and practice in front of each other. My 9 year old is shy, so this is harder for her. She improves each time though. I hope this will give her more self-confidence.
• My 12 year old chose to cover art and architecture of the Philippines. It was very interesting to learn about all of the other cultures who influenced their artists.
  She is a little more like me in her layout tastes. I encourage her to break out of the box every now and then. She is quick to point out that she did cut curves around her title.

• We really enjoy participating in Geography Club. It’s only once a month, but it is more than just geography. The kids learn about the culture, history, science and art of the country. They also learn to give oral presentations. Admitedly their favorite part is being with their friends!