September 15, 2011

Wall Map of Egypt

We finished our wall map of Egypt thanks for your help T.J.! We did this a month ago before we took a break, and before we dismantled the school room. So it was ready when we started up again a few weeks ago. I made the map by taking this map and using the poster app in my Publisher software and then pinted it out. It prints out in several sheets of paper so I glued and taped them together as need be and T.J. and I water colored it to add the green belt on the Nile river and the blue waters of the seas surrounding the sandy land.
We ended up cutting off the border with the Egyptian gods on it because we all agreeded we wanted a cleaner simpler map. We are using this map mainly for our map drills each week. We also used it as we read through A Child's Geography: Explore the Holy Lands. to SEE the kinds of geographical terms the book is describing.

Map drill is a method Charlotte Mason used in her school in England at the turn of the 18th century. I think it is a great way to learn about the geography of a country a little bit each week. It works like this.

I give them a blank map each week.
They add one feature to the map, say "The Red Sea."
The following week I give the same map but also blank.
They fill in "The Red Sea" from last week from their memory.
(Though I will write out the words so they can spell them correctly at this age it is needed.)
Then we add another feature, say "Thebes." 
The next week they have two features to add onto the map by memory, "The Red Sea" and "Thebes."
Then we add another feature, and so on.

Some times we paint the map but not always. It takes about 10 to 20 mintues or longer depending on whether there is art work involved or not. By the end of the year after seeing this map maybe 36 times or so, we will know it.

2 comments:

  1. We did this as well with much success. I love your beautiful maps.

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  2. So glad you posted this, I didn't know you could print large items in Publisher like that. I just went to their help section and figured it out. I'm excited that I can create giant colouring pages for my kids now! Fun!

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