This is the first year we actually have a subject on the schedule called Geography. We do this subject three days a week for about 1/2 of an hour each lesson, so it is not a huge time commitment but it is fun! Maybe it's fun because it is Europe we are studying or perhaps it is just that maps can be a beautiful thing to learn. Our lessons are varied but regular and we all are loving this. The first lesson of the week is a read-a-loud lesson. This year I will be reading from Lucy Fitch Perkins Twins Stories. We plan to read the following twins stories this year: The Belgium Twins The Dutch Twins The Irish Twins The Eskimo twins The The Italian Twins The Swiss Twins The Scotch Twins The Second Lesson of the week is adding pages to our country book one week and a short half hour to an hour long you tube about the country the next week. Here are a few you tubes I m=have bookmarked to choose from. Austria (Part 1/6) Each part os about 10 minutes Belgium the whole movie is about 1 hour Denmark A little over 9 minutes England: Oxford/ London Bridges/ Hampton Court/ Villages/ Berkeley Estate less than 10 min. ea. France: travel by train(10 min)/A trip to Paris(10 min)/Visit France (23 min) Germany(1 hour)/ Neuschwanstein Castle (4 min) Hungry, Budapest (part 1/3 each 17 min.) Iceland (43 min.) Ireland (44 min.) Italy the great cities part 3(14 min.) part 4, part 5, part 6/ Italy Revealed (1hour 37min.) Norway (23 min.) Beautiful Norway (14 min) A Norway Passage (1 hr.) Spain: Village (6 min.) Sister Wendy in Madrid (9 min.) Taste of the Sea made in Spain (24 min.) Gaudi's Barcelona Sweeden: The Real Stockholm 1/2(10 min.) Switzerland part 1/2 (14 min.) The pages for our country book include a notebooking page on the country we are focusing on, other cool icons like the Belgium coat of arms below that we found online when we researched about Belgium and a map drill page. The cover I designed myself in Publisher. We bound our book together with the Pro-Click Binder. The Third Lesson of the Week is a map drill. Lesson one: With a blank map and a map with labels, practice finding Belgium on the blank map. color it in and copy it's name. Memorize how to spell it. Add all the flag labels to the large, colored map of Europe. (includes 20 countries and three seas) Lesson two: Add Belgium to a new blank map without looking. Color it in and spell it correctly. Then, practice finding Austria on the same map but now using the map with the titles. Color it in and copy the name learning to spell it correctly. Add all the flag labels to the large, colored map of Europe. Lesson three to twenty: Add another new country and review the previous ones in the same way. Add the flags each time to the large, colored map. Sometimes we play games like the one below, Viking Voyages, on project day, the last day of the week. Viking Voyages is a FREE game you can download, paint, and tape together your self. My boys helped me make this game.