Hi ,

This is our first official newsletter with the new service, so it had better be good, right? I think it will be sure to please! I was asked by the Old Schoolhouse magazine to come up with a great list of free geography websites that will be a great help to all of us educators and teaching parents. I'm thrilled to show you what I've found - read below.

Finally, the holidays are officially upon us. You know it all kicks off the day of or the day after October 31st (depending on whether your family celebrates last night's festivities or not). I have also linked to an article which will give you some perspective on holiday giving and receiving, if you could you any insight on that. Lastly, I have a couple of announcements and housekeeping issues to note below as well (if you get to the bottom of this jam-packed newsletter! - I hope you do!)

Best Online Geography Sites
(and they are all free)!

Okay, I am having way too much fun! The Old Schoolhouse Magazine asked me to locate the best free geography sites on the web and I think that I have done just that. I have come up with 15 great sites for helping you teach your children geography while having fun at the same time. And the best part is that they are all free. Let me tell you about these great tools for learning. By the way, the links are in no particular order of preference, so just click on what sounds interesting to you.

ONLINE GAMES AND QUIZZES

1.Sheppard Software has provided many free and fun to play geography games at their website - http://www.sheppard software. com/Geography. htm. There are various levels of play so that your beginners and advanced students alike can find something to hold their interest. You do need to have Flash Player 6 or higher on your computer to be able to play these games, but no other downloading is necessary. The instructions are minimal, so it takes a few minutes to get the hang of the games in some instances (or at least it did for me!). Also, they do have other games across the curriculum, so feel free to check out their science and vocabulary games as well - plus many others!

2.If you or your children like puzzles, then you will love this website! At this website - http://www.yourchil dlearns.com/ geography. htm - you can either play with the on-line puzzle maps, or you can download them to your own computer. If you would rather not download them, here is the direct link to the online map puzzles - http://www.yourchil dlearns.com/ map-puzzles. htm. These are a lot of fun and a great learning tool for kids of all ages (yes, even adults!).

3. Take National Geographic's Geography Bee quiz! These questions can be fairly tough, but you get a second and even third chance to get them right (there are only 3 choices per question) thereby allowing you to KNOW the answer, which you are unlikely to forget. Also, the questions are new every day, so you can play every day and get new questions to answer. Very fun! Here's the website - http://www.national geographic. com/geobee

4. Test your knowledge of world or regional geography with this fun quiz at http://www.lizardpo int.com/fun/ geoquiz/. A great aspect of this game is that children can see improvement quickly, even by their second round at the same quiz. Builds confidence and knowledge!

5.This quiz site - http://www.ilike2le arn.com/ilike2le arn/geography. asp - allows you to not only learn about the countries and capitals of the world, but also the mountains and bodies of water. If you need a hint, or the answer, it comes in the form of a pop-up, so you may need to disable your pop-up blocker. This site seems to add new games frequently. Great learning tool!

6.Another great quiz site - http://www.actionqu iz.com/quiz. php?trivia= geography. Here you can play against other kids and teachers and see if you can win. You do not have to use your real name (no reason to, so don't!) and the game uses a pop-up window. So, if your computer blocks pop-ups, you either have to disable that feature to play, or if you get a message that allows you to open the pop-up, you can go about it that way. Warning: this is a fun game to play and rather addicting. After playing five times against some strong opponents, I finally won!

7.This website - http://www.geosense .net - also allows you to play alone of against another player. You are asked to not only identify countries of the world but cities as well. It is quite challenging and also very addicting. I played six rounds against my opponent and only won twice (and I thought I knew my geography like the back of my hand - reality check!). If you do not mind that your scores are not recorded in their log, you can play as a guest. Or create a login ID to keep track of your scores and establish an identity at this site.

8.This quiz site - http://www.garyradl ey.com/games - has both "find" games and "quiz" games giving your students a well-rounded familiarity with the countries of the world. My only trouble with these particular games was that it was sometimes difficult to click on the correct country because the hand spread over more than one country area. But overall, this is a great site to round out your online geography games.

GREAT REPORT SITES

Atlapedia and CountryReports are two great sites for general information. If your child or student needs to find some facts on a given country or view/print some maps for a particular region of the world, Atlapedia is a great all purpose website for gathering information for research papers, etc. - The website is http://www.atlapedi a.com/index. html. Full color physical and political maps are available. Also, CountryReports lets you drill down on a world map to the country you are interested in and gives you some great facts and information and maps of that area. The website is http://www.countryr eports.org/ .

JUST MAPS - BUT REALLY COOL MAPS!

Do your kids like all kinds of maps - satellite, physical, political, even weather? Then they will enjoy creating their own maps at this site - http://plasma. nationalgeograph ic.com/mapmachin e/index.html.

Would you like to see what the earth looks like a night as seen from space. This view of the world was taken from photos of the earth at night from a satellite. The earth is lit only from the city lights of civilization. Spectacular! - http://antwrp. gsfc.nasa. gov/apod/ ap001127. html

Okay, everyone knows about Google Earth, right? This is an incredible piece of software that is taken from actual photographs of the earth. In fact you can zoom right down into your own backyard. Mind-boggling! The software needs to be downloaded onto your computer. It is located here - http://earth. google.com/

FUN VIDEO SITES

Yes, this is one of my favorites! At this website - http://www.animated atlas.com - you can watch a five or ten minute video about the growth of our nation. Superb and educational!

TEACHER RESOURCES

Are you in need of some worksheets to print out that will reinforce the geography you are teaching to your students. Here is a great site with lots of printables (my computer tells me that is not a word, but I think you know what I mean) - http://www.tlsbooks .com/geographywo rksheets. htm.

This site gives you contact information of places where you can receive free geography materials - http://www.ed. gov/pubs/ parents/Geograph y/free.html

This has been so exciting researching these free sites for you. If these games are played often and these resources tapped into and used, your students will gain tremendous knowledge and retention in the realm of geography (SO WILL YOU!). And it will be painless! That is the part I love! Have fun!

Get Rid of the Gimmees!

9 Steps to a Meaningful Christmas for You and Your Family

Christmas can be a magical time for children. Yet this holiday can also bring out whininess, disappointment and an ungrateful "gimme, gimme" attitude in our normally sweet children. How can we, as caring parents, counter-act this contagious and disheartening attitude? Let's use the word CHRISTMAS as an acrostic to remember some key thoughts and actions that can help our children (and ourselves) gain a proper perspective and appreciation for this most holy of holidays.

Read the rest of the article here - http://www.knowledg equestmaps. com/article10. htm

A FEW ANNOUNCEMENTS. ..

1. For those of you who ordered our newest book, What Really Happened in Ancient Times, we apologize for the delay. Our printing company had some internal issues, our customer service rep left the company, and there was some miscommunication, but it appears that everything is resolved and that our books will be delivered to us by the end of next week. You should have them by the middle of the month. Thank you for your patience!

2. Next month, we have some new products to announce. These will be GREAT ADDITIONS for your children's stockings. Truly! Fun and Educational! You will love it. Plus we will be giving some gift packs away for free. So stay with us!

OFF TOPIC...
Okay, this one is completely off topic, but I promised that I would let you know if Steve Beck's course on starting an online business ever came up for sale again. It will be back up for sale next week and for one week only. Many of you asked me to let you know if it came back on the market because the timing wasn't right for you last Spring.

If you have EVER thought or dreamed about starting an online business, then this course is for you. It is beginner level, and yet we gained tremendous benefit from it when we purchased the course last spring. We put many of his concepts into practice in our business and have seen growth as a result. I recommend it highly. Here is the link - Building Websites that Sell.

Just go to this website and sign up for his "first to know" list. He will send you more information. Of course by signing up, you do not have to buy the course, just get to learn more about it. You will receive free usable information and get a notification the minute his course goes back up for sale. He only has 80 courses left, so you will want to be on this list. It sold like hotcakes last time.

Sign up at his website - Building Sites that Sell.

Until next time, enjoy your days and your moments with your children. The time is fleeting, just like the colors of fall...
Best Regards,

Terri Johnson
Knowledge Quest, Inc.
www.knowledgequestm aps.com
877.697.8611

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