Sneaky geography
Mar 16th, 2008 by Alicia
I came up with a fun way for Anna to learn geography today. I gave her the world’s best book of countries and told her I wanted her to pretend to be my travel agent. After explaining what a travel agent was, I said that I wanted to go someplace different and wanted her to come up with 5 countries she recommended for me to visit.
She came back with some questions to help narrow the search, which I thought was very smart. She asked questions like did I like seafood, did I want to go someplace crowded or remote, did I like very old & mysterious places, did I speak French, and so on. I asked for some places with interesting things, lots of nature, good local food and not a lot of tourists. I said any language was fine.
Her recommendations:
- Chile, specifically Easter Island
- Finland (lots of lakes and trees, the Northern Lights)
- Mozambique (shrimp is their largest export and lots of local fresh food)
- Romania (gypsies, horse-drawn carriages, acrobats, fairy tale castles, beautiful countryside)
- France (the “wonderfully romantic” Eiffel tower, great breads and “lots of garlic in their cooking so they must know how to be healthy!”)
This little project ended up taking 45 minutes. Along the way she had to use an atlas, repeatedly find places on the world map, study and compare countries, write notes to herself and “sell” her choices with conviction. She loved it! I think this will be a regular feature in our house.
