You can tell children about the countries of the world from 2 years old. But it is worth remembering that the main thing is to arouse interest and not memorize dry names and numbers. As many people know, they begin to study geography at school. And already in the first term, schoolchildren have difficulties. Children learn dates and names of sailors, names of rocks, capitals of countries. Soon, information gets mixed up in their heads, and children begin to hate geography.
A Country Is Not Just A Geometric Figure On A Map
Parents often do not understand why it is difficult for children to remember information about other countries. The point is that the borders on the map for them are just complex geometric figures. And the names of countries and cities are akin to Chinese characters. To study geography, you need a spatial understanding, and you need interest, amazing facts. Otherwise, classes will turn into memorization. Heavy. Painful. Children dislike them.
How To Explain Geography To A Child?
Start over from the beginning. Answer the questions:
- Why study geography? You have a holistic view of the Earth – the shared home of humanity. In your home, you always want to know where it is, how it can be used.
- In simple terms, geography is a description of the Earth. What is its essence? Scientists have been exploring it since ancient times: they plunge to the bottom of the oceans and seas, squeeze into the mountains, rise into the clouds and even higher into space. And still, the world remains full of mysteries.
Explore countries comprehensively. Modern technologies help explain the geography to a child great:
- See satellite images of the studied countries.
- Watch interesting short videos about inhabitants, animals, sights.
- Share interesting facts.
- Connect to live cameras to view attractions in real-time (Niagara Falls, Grand Canyon and others).
- Install the application on your smartphone with geographic games.
- Play games by geography, complete tasks by age.
- Show beautiful pictures, country presentations. Ask each other questions.
- Travel, visit museums and attractions in person.
Telling Children About The World Map
Maps are unique “pictures” that allow us to view the entire Earth. People have drawn maps from time immemorial. So the ancient tribes knew how to go hunting and not get lost. They explored forests, mountains and rivers nearby and marked them with unique signs.
A large number of different tribes lived in the world, which had their own small maps. People then did not know that our world is a vast planet, a ball with continents and oceans. The ancestors thought they lived on a disk that lies on the backs of either elephants or turtles. As soon as they move, earthquakes occur on land, and the sea begins to storm.
But time passed. People explored the Earth better, combined their observations into one large map of the world. They marked rivers, blue – seas and oceans, yellow – deserts, green – forests, white – glaciers with blue lines. To understand everything, well, you had to know the language of other people.
There are six continents: Eurasia, Australia, Antarctica, Africa, North America and South America. They are located in the middle of the oceans: Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, South and Arctic.
Maps are different. Some show mountains and rivers, others show the division of the world into countries, their borders, capitals and cities. There are even maps with minerals. From them, you can find out where to get gold and where – coal.
Our Earth is massive. The planet is home to 7.5 billion people. People belong to different nations, speak different languages, differ in appearance and many, many others. For example, even what they eat for breakfast. The countries in which they live are also discuss. There are 197 countries in the world. Some of them stand in the middle of the desert, others often snow.
Geography Games And Jobs For Children
Exciting games will help children better understand geography:
Name the city with the last letter
Players take turns listing cities. For example, “Toronto”, “Ottawa”, “Amsterdam”, etc. Whoever cannot name the city by a given letter loses. This way children will have fun learning about many cities.
Draw a map
The child is invited to draw a map of his room, house, yard, street, etc. For interest, you can hide the treasure and mark it with a cross on the drawn map.
Guess the country by description
Mom or educator describes the country’s climate, traditions, customs, sights. Players must guess its name as quickly as possible.
I see country
Ask your child to draw the country as he imagined it. You can make a collage with stickers, create a separate album for your work.
Questions For Children About Geography
It is good if the child asks questions during the story about the country. This will show that the topic is interesting to him. But an adult can also request child questions to understand how involved he is and how well he remembered what he heard.
Questions about geography can be as follows:
- What countries of our planet do you know?
- How many continents are there on Earth?
- On which mainland is Canada located?
- What is the tallest mountain?
- What country do elephants live in?
- Which country is the largest?
- What country would you like to visit? Why? What do you know about her?
Adults should be shown how fascinating and diverse our world is and how interesting it is to study it. Children who study geography have a broader outlook and analytical thinking. Such children are tolerant of people and the world around them.
