Recommended Website:
Geographic.com

Age Range: 9 and up (approximately, although young children may enjoy aspects of this site with parental assistance)

ClickScholar MaryAnna suggested this website that is essentially an archive of resources for learning about geography.

When you get to the site, use the menu to explore these items:

• Climate – Learn all about the climate and temperature of different countries, as well as the geological aspects that contribute to the climate
• Flags – See the colorful flags of every country
• Maps – Get maps of the countries of the world, including population maps, world language maps, earthquake maps, time zone maps and more!
• Countries – Learn about the history, population, geography, economy, transportation, communications, education, religion, government and military in every country. Find out which countries are the “greenest” and the most livable places on earth (Much of the information at this site is from the CIA’s fact book).
• Geology – Explore a glossary of geologic vocabulary words and terms

You’ll also find convenient country codes and airport codes here too.

Don’t miss reading the publication “Early Childhood: Where Learning Begins” – Geography” that provides simple activities and ideas on how to teach geography to young children.

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Are You The Parent of a Preschooler? You’ll Love Universal Preschool’s Learning Calendar! It’s chock-full of fun, easy activities & time-saving resources for learning with little ones all year long! Get your copy today…

Recommended Website:
Geography4Kids.com

Age Range: 8 and up (non-readers will need assistance)

ClickScholar Maureen Morales suggested this website that provides kids (of many ages) with an introduction to geography through earth sciences.

This is brought to you by the geniuses who developed Chem4Kids and Biology4Kids, that we’ve featured previously on ClickSchooling.

When you get to the site, read the introduction as it contains good info on where to start and how to navigate for best use. To get started scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the “Next Stop On Site Tour” arrow, or use the site map that lists all of the topics, or use the menu to explore:

• EARTH ENERGY – Explore global Geometry, electromagnetic radiation, waves and particles, solar energy, atmospheric interaction, and temperature including Fahrenheit, Celsius, and Kelvin scales.
• EARTH STRUCTURE – Learn what the Earth is made of including the plates, mantles, the liquid inner core, the magnetic fields, rocks and minerals, and discover what tectonics has to do with earthquakes and volcanoes.
• ATMOSPHERE – Find out what composes the atmosphere, thermosphere, stratosphere, and troposphere. Learn about temperature and air pressure, altitude, the Coriolis Force, and the Greenhouse Effect.
• HYDROSPHERE – Discover how all kinds of water moves through the world including freshwater, seawater, and groundwater. Learn about wetlands and aquatic biomes. Learn how to identify cloud types.
• BIOSPHERE – Investigate Earth’s Biosphere and learn about ecosystems, food chains, natural resources, and recycling.
• BIO-GEO-CHEMICAL (BGC) CYCLES – Learn about the interactive cycles of our ecosystem that include carbon, water, oxygen, nitrogen, Iron, Phosphorus, and rocks.

You’ll also find information on climatology, weather, seasons, hurricanes and more!

When you are through exploring each section of the site, you can take interactive quizzes to test your knowledge. A bonus feature is that this site provides links to its “sister” sites for further study in the fields of biology, chemistry, and the cosmos.

This is a terrific resource. I recommend you bookmark it to return often.

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DID YOU MISPLACE A ClickSchooling Review? Do you need to find an educational website – fast! Visit the ClickSchooling archives.

Recommended Website:
Google’s My Maps

Age Range: 5+ with supervision

New ClickSchool Reviewer, Michael Hardt wrote today’s ClickSchooling Review. (Read Michael’s bio below.)

If you’ve ever visited MapQuest (or Google Maps or Yahoo Maps), you know that you can pan and zoom a world map from your computer. But did you know you can customize that map for your homeschooling?

Google calls it “My Maps.” The beauty of My Maps is:

1. It’s free (except for some text ads).
2. It’s easy.
3. Google stores it for you and provides a web address (a URL) that you can email to friends or family to share your map.

My Maps requires a free Google account.

Here’s how it works:

1. Go to Google Maps
2. Click the My Maps tab toward the top left
3. Click the “Create New Map” button. (If you don’t have a Google account,
   it will prompt you to sign up.)

Once the map comes up, use the features on the map’s menu to customize it by adding colored pins and labels to it, draw lines on it, or even insert pictures.

You can also use the “Featured Content” menu on the left side of the screen for ideas and examples of various interactive maps you can make with this tool including maps with videos, maps that measure distances from one point to another, maps depicting places of interest, maps that provide instantaneous weather information and much, much more!

My Maps made the news last October during the San Diego fires. A public radio station set up a map to track the fires, evacuated areas, and public shelters. They broadcast the website address and soon thousands of area residents were visiting their map to learn about the fires.

Once I started thinking about My Maps for homeschooling, the possibilities seemed endless.

• Label a map with events from your history studies.
• Use the map as a quiz by putting questions onto it.
• Share the map with other families in a reading group. When a child completes a book, let her add a pin to the map indicating where the author was from or where the story took place.
• Help young children trace routes to the grocery store or to Grandma’s house.
• Use it as a diary for a family vacation.

One caveat: by default, the map is “Public,” which means that any text in the labels might cause your map to show up in other people’s Google searches. You can click a button that makes it “Unlisted,” so that only someone who keys in the exact map address can find it.

Michael Hardt and
Diane Flynn Keith
for ClickSchooling
Copyright 2008, All Rights Reserved
www.Homefires.com
www.Carschooling.com
www.UniversalPreschool.com

**** ABOUT MICHAEL HARDT *****

Michael Hardt is a homeschool dad to two children ages 8 and 9. He and his wife, Camille, homeschool their children in rural New Hampshire so Internet resources mean a lot to them. Michael used to teach college literature. Now, he manages an engineering team for a software company that makes digital maps. He has also worked as a software engineer on video game graphics at Sony and Electronic Arts. Michael wrote, “I play piano badly, and I still spend too much time browsing the Internet.” That’s good news for ClickSchoolers! You can read Michael’s blog “Family School” (with the subtitle, “Teaching strategies and family humor from inexperienced-but-trying, homeschooling parents” at http://familyschool.blogspot.com/.

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DID YOU MISPLACE A ClickSchooling Review? Do you need to find an educational website – fast! Visit the ClickSchooling archives at: http://www.homefires.com/clickschool/archive.asp.