Geography by osmosis

Updated to add: This may Work for You.

It all began with one map. I thought needed a map for our homeschool, for our life. Surely everyone should have a map somewhere. I envisioned a wall map of the world, framed nicely and hung by our breakfast table. I imagined dinner conversation about places, children gazing at it and soaking in knowledge as they ate, and a reference for all those places we read about.

I bought a package of two maps from Amazon.com. Cheap maps, but nice looking. They fit into my color scheme so well with yellows and blues and greens. The map had an antique look which I loved. When it arrived I was excited to pick out a frame. It was a big map (50" X 32"). I had to consult Hobby Lobby for framing needs of this size and I had to consult them on a half-off framing day. Even so, the $200 price tag made me dizzy.

I walked back to my van convulsing slightly at what I had done. I said to my friend waiting in the car, “I just spent $200 on a map. Do you think that’s crazy?” She did.

When it was finished and hung I loved it. Though, every time I thought about the cost I had to mentally push that image away, but otherwise, it was exactly what I wanted. One of my children’s first comments was, “I didn’t know there was a real Madagascar!” And I knew it was just what I’d hoped for.

I don’t have a lot of wall space. My dining room turned homeschool room has two windows in it and the rest of the wall space is covered in our history timeline, bookshelves and art. But I did manage to squeeze in one small map of the United States.

In my bedroom I hung the other big U.S. map that came from Amazon.com. Unframed. I also put a small map of the world in my children’s bathroom, right by the toilet. Now they can make good use of their time there. We have two globes and a map of Arkansas in the office. After that first one, I kind of went crazy with maps. Somehow, I reasoned, simply by hanging maps, my children will be penetrated with the knowledge of geography.

But slowly, without curriculum to guide me, we’ve been doing some geography lessons. When a missionary visits our church we draw a picture of the place where they are going, color it and put it in a folder. When we read a book about a specific place we do the same thing. We talk about continents and states and mountains and rivers.

Yesterday my mom and step-father left on a trip through Tennessee and North Carolina. When they called to check in we found out where they were and charted their course. We drew Tennessee, learned it’s capital and put it in our folder.

I already spent the $200 that could have been used for curriculum, so now I have to fly by the seat of my pants and hope that just having a few maps makes a difference. And right now, it seems to be good enough.