Geography, Charlotte Mason style

Here at the VanDusen house, we aren't big fans of workbooks or text books. Which is one of the reasons we homeschool.  So for geography we do something a little different. I love it so much, I figured other people might too and I better share :)

I signed up each child with their own account on http://www.postcrossing.com/. It's totally FREE. Each child has their own profile. I put that we were homeschoolers, and using this as a way to learn about geography. You can send 5 postcards per account at first, and it will increase the more you send. So each child writes their own cards and mails them off. 

Once the other person receives and registers their card, your child's name gets given to someone else to send a card. So its not a straight swap (like penpals, or flat stanleys), which I liked because we have tried those in the past and it never seemed to work out. However, we have been doing postcrossing for  months and havent had any problems with the kids not receiving cards. 

Ok, so once they get the card in the mail they register it. Then they break out their geography binders. Each child has their own . They print out a map of the country where the card came from (unless they already have a map from that country in their binder), and find and mark the city on the map. On the back of the map they have a fun facts sheet where they write the cool things people tell them, and then they put the postcards in a page protector right behind that. 

Here is a pic from Graisan's binder

I really cant rave about this enough! People have been so awesome! We have received cards in the shape of countries and cards with maps. One person drew us out a map and wrote about each building in their city. One lady sent Graisan a pack of postcards and stickers because she used to home school her own daughter. My kids love learning about these places from actual people who live there as opposed to a boring workbook. Plus it's also good writing practice for my 11 yr old that hates to write, but knows she must write her cards neatly so others can read it. For sure one of my favorite things we do! So sign up your family and Happy Postcrossing!