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Thoughts on Geography Education in the Home

I've been exploring subject-specific home education strategies on the blog in 2024. Child #1 won't start formal homeschooling for a few years, but I love being prepared! Even in toddler years, one can set up children for success in later work by nurturing their love of learning and discovery, as well as being mindful of the destination ahead (a well-rounded, well-educated mind in a healthy body). This week, I will explore one of my weaker subjects, geography. Here are links to my other posts on health education, life sciences, and history.

As with history, geography is an area in which I feel weaker in knowledge and understanding. That's part of the beauty of homeschooling, especially when one spouse has knowledge and interest in areas in which the other is lacking. The Bibliovore has a thoroughly historical mindset and thus a decent grasp of geography (see below). I, meanwhile, have more of a STEM mindset. I look forward to learning about non-STEM areas along with our children as we move into the homeschooling years.

Where's Waldo? Just the Basics




Vocabulary essential to a subject is a good place to start! Here's a selection from a short list of geography terms.
  • Geography encompasses the physical layout of the Earth, relating this to human activity and society.
  • Latitude ("flat-itude" as I always remembered it) and longitude (vertical/meridian) lines provide numerical coordinates to help us specify exact locations consistently.
  • Continental drift, or movement of land masses over time, can explain the presence of some organisms in different places.
  • Hemispheres, or half-spheres/half-Earths, are north/south (divided by the Equator) and east/west (divided by the Prime Meridian--opposite the International Date Line)
  • Poles (North/South) constitute the axis of rotation of the Earth. A compass needle aligns with the poles.

What subjects are most often associated with geography? (Sources are Simply Charlotte Mason and two National Geographic blog posts.)
  • History is the most intertwined subject. It is important to understand both when and where events happened and people lived relative to each other.
  • Just about any social science can be better understood by a sense of location.
  • Physical sciences and engineering relate closely to what the Earth is made of and where substances and structures are in relation to each other.

How is Geography Taught in Schools?

My sources for this section are the National Geography Standards (National Council for Geographic Education) and Geography Education. I found many items from the US Geological Survey in the search results, but none ever loaded - if those load for you, check them out as well!

Generally, across the K-12 timeline, the NCGE organizes 18 standard skills into 6 categories.
  • Category 1: understanding the world in spatial terms
    • Can students use maps and other geographic tools?
    • Can students use mental maps to organize information?
    • Can students analyze how people are organized on the Earth's surface?
  • Category 2: understanding places and regions
    • Can students identify physical and human characteristics of places?
    • Can students recognize how humans manage complexity by organizing into regions?
    • Can students describe how culture influences people's interpretations of places?
  • Category 3: systematizing physical objects/places
    • Do students know the processes that change the shape of the Earth's surface?
    • Can students describe ecosystems on the Earth's surface?
  • Category 4: systematizing human organization
    • Do students understand human migration?
    • Do students understand cultural mixture/mosaic complexity?
    • Can students identify areas of economic interdependence?
    • Can students describe how humans settle in places?
    • Can students discern how cooperation and conflict direct human settlement patterns?
    • Do students understand how human actions change the environment?
  • Category 5: understanding environment and society
    • Can students describe how physical systems affect human systems?
    • Can students identify and analyze how resources change?
  • Category 6: how geography is used
    • Can students use geography to interpret past events?
    • Can students use geography to interpret the present and plan for the future?
On the Geography Education website are not so much grade-specific as otherwise sorted. Sections include faculty-specific resources (including how to evaluate validity of sources), regional resources, thematic resources (e.g., agriculture, culture), geospatial resources (e.g., how to make and use a map), specific digital courses, and presentations. The site is run by geography professor Seth Dixon.




How can Christian Home Educators teach Geography?

Based on the related subjects I discussed above, I would say that whatever you're using for history education, you can use for geography education. (See the post on history education here.)

What are your favorite resources for teaching geography? What have been the results of your own geography education and your children's geography learning? Feel free to share in the comments!
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