Time for me to get back to legit bloging here. Sorry I've been so neglectful to anyone who is still subscribed here... I'll try to make reading my blog worth your while.

To start, today there was an excellent blog entry over at Heart of the Matter -- gave wonderful learning game ideas that I wanted to post here so I won't lose them:

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Looking for some fresh ideas to teach geography to your kids? Try one of these activities and sneak a little learning fun into your day:

• Bingo ~ Put together a list of 9-12 geography terms {land features, continents and oceans, countries within a continents, etc}. Provide your kids with 3×3 bingo boards and have them fill the squares with the different geography terms that you are learning. To play, read the definition of the term, specifics about the continent {largest continent, this continent is an island}, or name the capitals of the countries. They have to mark off the matching answer ~ you can make it as easy or difficult as you like!
• ABC’s of the World ~ Our kids love to play this game. We take turns pointing to places on our world map that start with the letters of the alphabet. A ~ Albania, B ~ Belize, C ~ Canada, D ~ Denmark, until we work our way through the alphabet.
• Destination Jar ~ Fill an old jar with strips of paper listing different destinations. We use famous landmarks we’ve studied, latitude/longitude coordinates or just country names. You can also list famous people: kings, queens, explorers or missionaries. Have your child pick a slip from the jar and find the place that matches on a map or a globe.
• Geography Sleuth ~ Give your child a few hints about a location and then let them discover where it is. For example 1) four of the first five presidents were born in this state; 2) the state bird is the cardinal; 3) the Potomac River runs through this state…Virginia!
• Toss the Globe ~ We recently bought an inflatable globe and play a game of catch with it. Whoever catches it has to name where either of their thumbs have landed. Depending on the kid’s ages, they have to tell me capitals, a famous landmark in the area, important features of that country, etc. This is great for learning map features such as mountain ranges, rivers, and borders as well as identifying the continents and oceans for younger children.

Try out a few of the games and have fun together with your kids. You’ll be surprised at how much they {and you} learn through fun and simple games!