Indigo has been working on Geography this Spring. It’s important for her to know and understand her environment in its vastness so as a lesson we have decided to explore our Universe, but first starting with our home.
My thought process behind this was since children are very egocentric when they are young, it can be hard for them to understand that the world does not revolve around them. However they are a part of a larger ecosystem that is more beautiful and expansive than they could know!
So each week we expand our lens to a larger view of geographical locations: from Home, Neighborhood, City, County, State, Country, Continent and finally Planet. While I'm on the topic I want to thank Beth from 123Homeschoolandme.net for the inspiration for creating this curriculum.
For Our Home we began exploring the different shelters some call home. We took a look at RVs, Tents, Modular Homes, log cabins, eco homes and more. Some of the basic homes you can find in America like Apartments, Single family Homes, Mansions, Studios, etc.
From there we took observation of the details of our home. Some questions were:
How many windows?
How many Steps?
What does the porch look like?
Are there any trees or bushes?
Where is the grass located?
How many rooms are inside?
How many homes are inside the structure (apartment building)?
We documented this process by taking pictures of the outside of our home while we took notes in our journal.
Later we gathered some recycled materials and designed our home by using our pictures and a drawing.
Below is the result:
It was a fun experiment that combined areas of measurement, spatial awareness, scaling, architecture and tactile functioning.
If you’re looking for a fun and detailed project I would highly encourage you to try to make your own home replica.
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