Choosing The Right Geography Curriculum For Your Home School Program

By Author: Sunil Punjabi
Total Articles: 2565
Comment this article

Most parents remember Geography as the memorization of state capitals or being able to name what countries are on what continents or even naming the mountain ranges of the United States. Regardless of how we remember some of these trivia for the non-geographically oriented, they do play an important part of our society and the lay of the land. Where nations are or where States are located are things many of us take for granted, but we were taught about these locations along with many other facts about the world we live in through a good Geography curriculum as it is an essential element in any primary or secondary education program.

When looking for a Geography curriculum for your children's home schoolingprogram, one of the first places to look is the content requirement on the state's education site. This is very important to ensure your home schooling program is covering the topics and knowledge requirements that lead to completion of a K-12 program and credentialing of the home school program. Nevertheless, parents should check the home schooling standards for their state ...
... before making a Geography curriculum selection and checking it every year for the upcoming year and at least the following two years. Through time, States modify their basic skills requirements in every subject to coincide with new teaching curriculum developed by the federal or state departments for education.

Subjects in the Geography curriculum are usually the Geography of the United States and of the world and they should be more complicated in each step in the progression, depending on the grade level. There are many sub areas of Geography that can be included that may be of particular interest to your child. An example might be studying the rivers and oceans of the world because your child is interested in how they were formed and that may lead to a career in earth sciences or geology. Since Geography and earth sciences are among those career fields that have a shortage of scientists and experts in these areas it is important to expose school children to some of these areas to heighten their interest in these shortage areas.

They may show interest in those special people who study the earth; who document and project changes in the earth and its climate; who may track earthquakes and fault lines to help develop early warning systems; or, who evaluate how the changing river flows impact upon the society that lives near them. All of these are extremely important areas within Geography that many parents and others forget about unless you are building a strong Geography curriculum for your child's home schooling program.

Parents need to know the state standards, but can easily modify those standards or supplement the Geography curriculum with additional subjects. Nevertheless, parents are encouraged to ensure the goals and standards of the instruction are well identified, that there is a common vision in the Geography curriculum and that there is a challenging, but not overwhelming level of information discussed for the grade level. This type of Geography curriculum in your home schooling program may be what triggers something within your child to pursue a career in one of the many areas of Geography.

A good Geography curriculum has unified concepts and processes that transcend the disciplinary boundaries - or conforms to other subjects in the home schooling program including the knowledge and grade-levels of those being taught. Another issue is that many states now require testing at the various stages in the K-12 process. Make sure you check with your state's board of education to get the testing schedules and find out how to get your child tested. One last issue is the Gifted and Talented Program. This can be done without fanfare within your normal home schooling, but ensuring and advanced content is coordinated to that of the state's Gifted and Talented program.

There are numerous benefits of home schooling a child. Benefits include choosing an appropriate and proper home school curriculum, which includes math, History curriculum, writing, science, and a
geography curriculum for your child. For more information about Home School and Curriculums, please do visit our site - http://www.homeschoolcurriculum.org/