The Most Fun Geography Curriculum You’ll Find
Finding a curriculum that not just educates young kids, but also excites them is hard to do! Sure, you can find a curriculum that checks one or two of your “must have” boxes, but to find one that checks them all, is darn-near impossible.
This post is sponsored by Notgrass. All opinions are my own.
I was compensated for my time and received the products for free.
When I’m searching for a new curriculum, I tend to look for a few very specific things:
- Affordable
- Hands-On Learning
- Easy-to-Use
Finding a curriculum that does 2 of these 3 things makes me feel lucky. But when I find a curriculum that hits all 3 things, I feel like I’ve hit the jackpot!
Truthfully, I can count on one hand how many times I’ve found a curriculum that encompasses all 3 of my needs.
But when I stumbled upon Notgrass’ “Our Great Big World” geography curriculum, I knew I’d hit gold!
5 Things I love About Notgrass Geography Curriculum
Plenty of Activities:
Each lesson is jam-packed full of a variety of exciting and simple activities that help drive home the lesson.
- Coloring pages
- Locating places on the globe
- Completing workbook pages
- Colorful maps
- Answering the lesson review questions
- Enjoying songs and folktales of the region
- Reading living books
- Lists of foods
- Reading the relevant Bible verses
- Listening to audio clips
- Creative writing projects
- Hands-on activities for the whole family
Each lesson has about 6 activities to choose from! That’s not including the extras that you can add in on your own!
Awesome Literature:
One of my favorite things about Notgrass is that they are a trusted company in the homeschool world. I know that any book they recommend will be family-friendly, educational and rich literature.
It enhances our homeschool day by adding variety and introducing my kids to the way of life for other people all across the world.
I feel safe reading the suggested books to my kids because I know Notgrass upholds the same Christian morals as our own family. This saves me tons of time, as I don’t have to read the books before introducing them in our homeschool.
The textbook is packed full of bright, colorful photographs and illustrations. These bring the culture to life and keep the kids engaged and excited to learn more.
We’ve learned so much more than just geography using Our Great Big World geography curriculum. We’ve also learned history, literature, music and art.
Instead of just learning about a place, the geography curriculum digs deep and focuses on important parts of culture, like clothing, traditions and animals local to the area.
Pick and Choose:
Each lesson is quick and to the point. We don’t spend hours pouring over the texts. Instead, the engaging stories bring to life the ways of people living in the areas we are studying.
With so many activities, from recipes and crafts to audio recordings and literature, the lessons are one of our favorite parts of the kids’ homeschool day.
But one of my favorite things about the curriculum is that we don’t have to do it ALL.
We have the liberty to pick and choose which activities we want to do, while leaving out the things that don’t work for us, in our own homeschool.
Depending on how much time we have available that day, we choose the activities that fit best with our schedules. Some days we do just 2 activities, while other days, we do all of the recommended activities.
I love including one of the 3 foods introduced in each unit in our dinner rotation! Bear was excited to order pizza when we studied Europe.
The geography curriculum also includes a list of optional supplemental resources, which includes things like field trips, interactive websites and recommended videos. I love using these resources when needed!
I’ve found that the kids love locating the countries we are studying on a map and also really enjoy the audio recordings. I tend to hand them the coloring book on the days that we aren’t doing the workbook. It’s a great way to fill a few minutes of our day, while we’re waiting for the next subject to begin.
Ready to Go:
There are few things in life that make me happier than an open-and-go homeschool curriculum! Notgrass’ geography curriculum is simple to use, even for brand new homeschoolers.
The geography curriculum consists of 6 books:
- Our Great Big World
- Folktales and Songs of Our Great Big World
- Our Great Big World Atlas Workbook
- Our Great Big World Coloring Book
- Our Great Big World Lesson Review
- Our Great Big World Answer Key and Literature Guide
Each book serves its own purpose and brings a new addition to the curriculum. Together, they form one of the most engaging and well-loved geography curriculum I’ve found on the market!
I love the fact that I don’t even need a Teacher’s Guide to teach. Instead, I can simply open the textbook and just start reading!
Flexible:
Notgrass’ geography curriculum, Our Great Big World, requires minimal planning. Since it’s basically an open-and-go curriculum, it also offers the flexibility that busy homeschool families love.
The curriculum is divided into 30 units, with 3 lessons per unit. We aim to complete one unit per week.
We can complete each lesson in about an hour but I like to plan for about an hour and a half. That allows us time to watch a couple of extra videos and even try out a recipe local to the region.
Generally, Bear will ask to do more activities than I have planned, so I like to leave plenty of time in our schedules.
If you’re looking for an engaging and thorough geography curriculum, you can’t miss Notgrass’ “Our Great Big World!”
It’s the perfect way to add some FUN to your homeschool, without much effort.
