First, choose what aspects of geography you would like to incorporate. Then, you could either assign one subject to a particular day of the week, or you could do what is called a “loop schedule.” A loop schedule means that you have a list on the side of the short subjects you’d like to cover. For example, on the chart below, instead of assigning “Geography Fine Arts” to a specific day of the week, just call that block of time “Loop Time” and during your “loop time” you just do the next thing on the “Geography Fine Arts” list. Some people swear by loop scheduling and others prefer to assign it to a specific day of the week. You can see from the sample schedule below that each subject is short, 10-20 minutes long. They can be longer if your child wishes to continue reading or if you have an older child. (Art Projects will tend to take longer than 10-15 minutes).
Strong Readers
It’s through the books and stories that the student will form an impression of the country. Set one block of your schedule for the informational geography reading, and one block for the science reading. Neither geography nor science has to be every day. If your child is a strong reader, I recommend looking for the Enchantment of the World series at your local library. It’s written in an engaging way and not merely listing facts about the country. Let your child read, either for a set number of pages or a set amount of time. Then ask your child to summarize what was remembered or learned; this is called “narration” in the Charlotte Mason method. In addition, I like to review at the end of the unit by asking the kids: “What did you like most about this country, or what was interesting to you? What was your favorite food from this country? Which book did you like best?” I write it down (or they could write it down) and keep it for our memories to look back on. It’s helpful to have for the homeschool review, too.
I suggest getting as many of the books on the booklist as you can find at your local library. It’s okay if your child doesn’t read them all, but I tried to choose ones that were really beautiful and engaging. You could schedule a “free reading” time every day for them to choose what they want to read, and in doing this, allow them some freedom to choose what interests them.
Beginner Readers
My twins were both halfway through 2nd grade before they were reading well, so I had to read everything to them for first and second grade. I would have a pile of books by the dining room table and read to them at breakfast and/or lunch and/or snacktime. I would eat before or after I read the book (don’t try to eat at the same time, just trust me on this). You have to do it librarian style with the pictures facing out and rotate as you read so that all the kids can see. As your child becomes ready, you can have them read simultaneously, or alternate reading sentences or pages of picture books. And keep up with the phonic readers!
Multiple Ages
Right now, I have two in 3rd grade, one in Kindergarten, and one in preschool, so I do a combination of the above recommendations. The 3rd graders are assigned geography readings (from the Enchantment of the World series) to do by themselves. I have the books displayed leaning against the wall and there is nothing more beckoning than colorful book covers! I read the easy picture books to all of them at breakfast and/or lunch and/or snacktime so the little ones can hear it.