Steering Your Child's Geography 
Skills in the Right Direction

Geography skills are something that will help your child throughout life. However, helping your child learn these skills are often overlooked at home.

There are several creative ways you can help your child broaden his or her knowledge about geography. Here are a few tips:

Learning direction 
* To help young children learn direction, make sure they know the name of their town 
   and their street address and that they can describe the building and neighborhood in 
   which they live. Then, when you talk about other places, they have something of their 
   own with which to compare. 
* Children also need to know positional words. Teacher children words like "above" and 
   "below" in a natural way when you talk with them or give them directions. When 
   picking up toys to put away, say "Please put your toy into the basket on the right," or 
   Put the green washcloth into the drawer." Right and left are as much directional terms 
   as north, south, east and west. Other words that describe such features as color, size 
   and shape also are important. 
* Show your children north, south, east and west by using your home as a reference 
   point. Perhaps you can see the sun rising in the morning through a bedroom window 
   that faces east and setting at night through a kitchen on the west. 
* Playing games can reinforce their knowledge. For example, once children have their 
   directional bearings, you can hide and object, then give them directions to its location.

Get the map habit 
Put your child's natural curiosity to work. Even small children can learn to read simple maps of their school, neighborhood and community. Here are some simple map activities you can do with your children.

* Go on a walk and collect natural materials such as acorns and leaves to use for an art 
   project. Map the location where you found those items. 
* Create a treasure map for children to find hidden treats in the yard or inside your home. 
   Also encourage children to play this game with one another. 
* See if you can find your street on a town or city map. Point out where your relatives or 
   child's best friends live. 
* Before taking a trip, show your children a map of where you are going and how you 
   plan to get there. Look for other routes you could take and talk about why you chose 
   they one you did.

Location is everything 
Children use all of their sense to learn about the world. Objects that they can touch, see, smell, taste and hear help them understand the link between a model (such as a map) and the real thing.

* Put together puzzles of the United States or the world. By touching and looking at the 
   puzzle pieces, they can better understand where one place is located in relation to 
   others. 
* Use pictures from books and magazines to help your children associate geographic 
   terms with visual images. A picture of a desert can stimulate conversation about the 
   features of a desert - dry and barren. Talk about many different places and what it 
   would be like to visit them.

Excerpts of this column were reprinted with permission from the National School Public Relations Association's newsletter, "It Starts on the Frontline"


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