Geography for Kids - What Is My Home Like?

Early experiences can increase children's awareness of the world around them. Learning about geography begins with children's ability to notice, examine, and think about their own environment. As very young kids have direct experiences in their home and immediate environment, they will be able to build more accurate concepts of the Earth. These experiences will be useful when kids move to the next stage of thinking.

Ages 2-3

  • Toddlers learn about the world through their senses. By playing in water, sand, dirt, and even mud, they will learn about the physical characteristics of their home. By pointing out to them differences and similarities between your home and that of your friends or relatives, you will help them notice the human characteristics of home.

  • Point out the special features of your home. Do you live in an apartment building with long halls, or in a house with a porch? Do most people walk everywhere, or do they drive? Are the buildings all the same color or many different colors? Baltimore has rows of houses with marble steps; New Orleans has houses with second floor porches; Arizona has houses that are only one story; farmhouses are near barns and silos. How do you describe the place where you live?

  • A small pile of sand is enough to keep toddlers busy for a long time. Give them plastic containers with or without lids, old plastic bottles, spoons, scoops, a sieve, and a few small pots and pans. Feeling the sand or water pour through their fingers, pouring it from one container to another, watching it sift through the holes in a sieve, children are learning about their world.

  • Young children are fascinated by water play. By playing with water, children learn its properties--it pours, it can be contained, it can be squirted. You can make water even more interesting by adding a few drops of bubble bath or soap suds. The bubbles will keep children interested. When you are bathing them, let them play in the bathtub, and help them describe the way the water feels and how it acts.

  • Use songs to teach geography. "Home on the Range," "Red River Valley," and "This Land Is Your Land" bring to mind images of a place. Children enjoy folk songs of different countries like "Sur La Pont D'Avignon," "Guantanamara," and "London Bridge." They can even play the game of London Bridge Is Falling Down.

 
 
 
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