We had the opportunity to review a downloadable version of Drawing Around the World: USA, which is published by the Brookdale House.
Does your child know where West Virginia is located on the map? How about the shape of that same state and the states that surround it? Well, by the time your child completes Drawing Around the World: USA, he will know the answers to those questions and more about the states in our country.
Although quite important, geography is one of those forgotten subjects in school. It often gets combined with other subjects, like history and social studies, with not much detail into the subject, but instead just a tag-a-long or mention of where something is located. Drawing Around the World: USA by Brookdale House provides your student with state detail and the skill of being able to draw all of the states in America, in proportion to each other, from memory. That may sound useless, like something that will only be a benefit knowing how to do if you are on a game show. From previous studies, we learned there is a reason for all of the varied shapes of the states in our country, and the stories behind them are quite interesting and worth the time to learn.
We have been having fun working through Drawing Around the World: USA. I appreciate what my children (and me) are learning and that it does not take a large portion of our day to complete the lessons. Depending on the age of your children (ex: third grade and older), they could easily complete the lessons in 15 to 20 minutes, which was a great way to get juices flowing in the morning before continuing through our other school work.
The book comes as a printed book or e-book. Usually, I prefer a physical book, but when doing work like mapping; drawing or art, I like the flexibility the e-book version offers my children. The book may be instantly downloaded, so we may use it right then; pages can be twisted and turned for easier application (labeling and coloring) and pages may be printed multiple times (for practice and especially if mistakes are made) that may be used by all of the children in your family. That convenience allowed us to all be able to work together on the lessons. Drawing Around the World: USA is geared towards students in kindergarten through high school.
I had intended to use this curriculum alongside our current USA history study, where we would draw the states in the order of how we would study them, but decided to do things differently. Although, I could have done that, Drawing Around the World: USA works well independent of another curriculum. You have everything you need to teach geography thoroughly, even with instructions on how to complete the lessons. One suggested resource that you may have to purchase is an atlas. We already have one and it has proved very useful during our study.
We followed the suggested four-day schedule (see schedule), but did spend one week on each state. The program is written to be completed in 27 weeks, which would be accomplished if we were to complete around three states a week. We are not in a hurry. There is also a section that guides you through incorporating timed drills into the learning process. Brookdale House believes the timed drills “can help children memorize large amounts of material in a short amount of time.”We did some unofficial timed drills. I did not tell them I was timing them, because I really just wanted this study to be more about learning and less about competition, for now. We have enough of that in other subjects. We also took the suggestion of using sheet protectors for regularly repeated work. It cuts down on the amount of paper you use in printing.
Something to keep in mind and that is noted in the introduction, this is not a drawing curriculum, but rather a program that familiarizes students with the location and “positions of the states, relative to one another.”
Overall, I really like Drawing Around the World: USA. I could not have done a better job myself, which I have tried in the past for our geography study. The price is also quite affordable.
PRICE AND AVAILABILITY
Drawing Around the World: USA is available for $22.95 as an e-book.
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You can read more reviews of this item by fellow crew members.