I have found that the geography assignments are in much greater detail than my 2nd grader needs. Same for the maps on Map Aids.

I hate to skip over so much. Does anyone else feel the same way?

Leigh

The needs of different kids are so different! You are the teacher; you choose what to skip. A first-grader will need less detail than a third- or fourth-grader; a student will need less detail on his first year with Tapestry than on his fifth. I think that the detail is provided to cover all these different situations. Feel free to stick with what you think your particular child needs at this moment.

Myself, I'm coming from the other direction: my first-grader loves maps, and we need every bit of detail that's provided. I'm glad the detail is there; it's harder to add in detail than to take it out. But it's not necessary for every kid.

You can decide what to cover briefly, and what to require students to learn thoroughly. You can decide what to skip entirely. Your student will cover these time periods, and these areas, again in future years.

Does that help?

Hi Leigh,
The MapAids are just the blank maps and teacher maps that fulfill the assignments that you see in your Year-Plan.

Also, some people miss the fact that most of the time, lower grammar students just need to be shown, or they need to point to, the places on the maps. They don't have to label the blank maps. At the top of the new MapAids disk, it will say this in the grammar column:

Lower grammar students often have the option of pointing out locations instead of completing a paper map.

Teachers should consider the amount of work given in a particular week before assigning all labels.

Does this help? If not, please feel free to ask more questions.

Blessings,

I am working with a K and a grade 2 this year. What we have done for maps is to copy and paste the geography assignment to a Word document and increase the font size to a 12 or 14, depending on the size of the map and number of labels. Then I sit down with my kids and look at the atlas version of the map. I tell them the name of the feature I am looking for, and describe it (ie, it is a river, it is near the top of the map. We have gotten into map directions as well. Or if we are using a political map, I will tell them the color of the country, and describe the shape or what it is near). When we have found it on the atlas map, I will ask them to find it on their paper map, and then I will give them the label cut out for them, with a little glue on the back, and they can stick it right on their map (I just drag the little paper label over the top of a glue stick; it's a little messy for me, but far less frustrating for them). We don't always do all the labels, just the ones that I feel are important for them to know, or are mentioned in their history reading for the week. Of course, there are also some maps we skip entirely.

Blessings,

Carol in Canada

We're in 2nd grade, using Lower grammar TOG2. We have a laminated map that is right behind our sofa, where we read. I take a dry erase marker and draw on the map to show where we are talking about. The Netherlands was so small I had to get out the Atlas.

I just figured out to print out both the lower grammar and rhetoric maps from MapAids. The Rhetoric level has the answers to the geography threads in the year plans.

We've done a salt map of Japan and that was very effective.

Hth,
Jessica

When my children were that young, I had large wall maps put on bulletine boards. I had a poster USA map that my dc liked. I found a fun one. Then at one of the fabric stores, I found a great panel of fabric in primary colors of the world. Whenever we received mail, got information from a missionary, or studied about a location, we put pins in the locations and marked them. Their aunt traveled a lot for her job. She'd send me an itinerary and we'd track her on the maps. Now you can track airline flights on line and my kids have enjoyed that immensely. Then the aunt would send postcards of where she'd been and the dc would find those pins on the map, retracing her routes. We also had a globe and when the Olympics were on, and the different nations came in, we'd find them on the globe. When we travel I give them a junior size atlas highlighting the route. Then when they ask, "Where are we?" "How much further?" I ask them to tell me! Today they are 12yos and almost 15yod. They have competed in the local National Geography Bee. DD has won 2nd place in the last few years (I think her presentation and focusing skills resulting from her Sensory Integration Disorder hurt her more than anything else.) My son won this year! However he did not make it to state. Right now they are D students and they do the paper maps and some salt maps now. You can do it light in LG and pick up the level in D years with great success!