Mapping the World by Art

Uh oh, I feel myself being pulled toward the precipice!  This program looks really good!  I wanted to focus on Geography with Josh next year.  This program is recommended for grades 5 through 10.  Well, Josh will be 11th but I bet we can beef it up a bit for him.  But all the kids like to draw and this just looks like such a cool way to integrate history, geography, art history and drawing skills.  I am very, very tempted!

Decorate with Maps

I think one of the main roles of an unschooling mother is to create an atmosphere in the home that encourages learning.  One way to do this is by putting things on your wall!

For instance, maps!

These are both in our study or computer room.

Here's another U.S. map in our upstairs hallway.  I just kind of stuck up there!

Then you can also get those shower curtains that have the map of the world on them.  This one is kind of cool in that it is from a British Co. so some of the place names or the actual places they note seem to be a bit different from what an American publisher would use or show.

This is the globe in our family room.  It's right under the TV.  My husband got this for his birthday about 9 years ago.  Before that we had one of those standard issue table top globes which worked just fine, too.  We refer to this globe all the time.  One of my kids once joked that if our life was a TV show we'd have a 'going to the globe' theme that would have to play every time we used the globe to find a place.  Having the globe near the TV is actually helpful.  For example, the other night some of us were watching a music history dvd and the professor was talking about how the fashion and music of Turkey became quite popular during the late 18th Cen.  My 18 year old son immediately got up to look at the globe to see where exactly Turkey was in relation to Western Europe.

And to conclude the geography theme here, this is our atlas which has a permanent place on our (very messy) family room coffee table.