Pages

Friday, January 22, 2010

Inexpensive Homeschool Fun

Since we have been using My Father's World this year and we have been studying Countries and Cultures, my kids have learned a great deal about the countries on each continent. One of the reasons that they have learned quite a bit is because of the homemade Geography game they get to play at least twice a week.


To make this simple and fun game, you need blank boundary maps of each continent. I found a website that has those free for your to print. Click HERE to access them.

Once you have your maps, color each country a different color so you don't have the same color beside each other. Label each one with a number and a circle that is smaller than a penny. Once you have done this step, you will want to make copies for each child to have their own map.

After making the map, you need to make the playing cards. I used a back of index cards and cut them in half. You will want to make 3 sets. On the front of the card, write just the name of the country like this:

 
 
On the backside of the card, write the country name, the number that it is on the map, and the continent that it is located on. The back of your card will look like this:

The reason for writing the name of the continent is because at the end of the year, you will play a mega Geography game which will include all continents.

Once you have your cards written out, you are ready to play! Here are the directions:

Turn the cards face down so all you see is just the country name on the top. Give each child a map and a pile of pennies. The first child goes and sees the name of the country on the card. He/she will take a penny and put it where they *think* that country is on the map. If they got it correct, the penny stays on the map. If it was incorrect, they pass the card to the next player and gives them a chance to see if they can guess it correctly(no one is allowed to blurt anything out about where it is at!)

The object of the game is to get your map filled up with pennies first! The first child to do so is the winner.

This is my kids favorite part of geography!

No comments: