Heights and Depths of Geography

What is geography? What do you think of when you hear the word geography?

Memorizing the names of countries and capitals? Labeling maps?

Perhaps you go a bit further and consider the trade that occurs within countries and between countries?

Or perhaps you are familiar with the 5 themes of geography or the 18 standards that replaced the 5 themes found at the National Council for Geographic Education.

Geography is even more!

Geography is the study of the earth and its living creature; the earth's place within the universe, the depths of the earth, the heights of the atmosphere and those things joined to the earth naturally or through man-made means.

Geography studies the layers of the earth, the life that lives in every area, the moon that orbits the earth, the cultures of people who live in each region, and still more.

To receive a full scope of all that geography entails, let us look to how the Montessori method presents geography, within a context of cosmic education:the idea that all subjects are inter-related so no subject is truly taught in isolation:

The youngest children (the infants and toddlers) are first given their own culture: mother and father's loving arms, the stories they tell, their ways of speaking and interacting.

[caption id="attachment_490" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Sample of a primary Montessori puzzle map"][/caption]

Primary children (ages 3-6) are participating more and more in that culture, really honing in on the exercises of practical life (designed to suit their particular culture, and as they reach ages 5 and 6, exposure to the practical life of other cultures). They are given globes to show land and water, then the continents, then the oceans, then the climactic zones. Puzzle maps of the world and of the continents are designed to not only show general placement, but to show the location of the capitals (each continent map has its knob approximately at the capital of that country). Flags for each country, cultural folders (or drawers), exposure to other languages, stories and books about children from around the world, lead the children on an exploration of the keys of the world - their world, where differences and similarities are equally celebrated.

[caption id="attachment_491" align="alignright" width="225" caption="Perpendicular and Oblique Rays of the Sun"][/caption]

Elementary children (ages 6-12) are now ready to take on the universe. We begin geography and history with the First Great Lesson: the Story of God with No Hands (or the Creation of the Universe Story). This story introduces the layers of the earth, states of matter, the beginning of time, universal laws and the obedience of all created things to that law. Subsequent lessons within geography present laws of gravity, physics, astronomy, geology, culture, economics, and more.

The table of contents for the elementary Montessori geography album includes the following (note that this list does not include each of the sections within each presentations, which can span anywhere from 2 to 10 sessions, within any given week or over the course of 1-6 years; also astronomy has been separated into a separate album according to Keys of the Universe Elementary Montessori albums):

Elementary Montessori Geography

Introduction to Geography
-Practical Considerations for the Experiments
-Notes on the Experiments
-Command Cards
-Geography Nomenclature
Chapter I: Creation of the Earth/Idea of the Universe
-God with No Hands
-Experiments with God with No Hands
-Notes on the Story
-Follow-Ups to the Story
-Composition of the Earth
-Further Details of the Composition of the Earth
-Formation of the Mountains
Chapter II: Nature of the Elements
-Three States of Matter
-Further States of Matter
-Different Ways of Combining
-Separation, Saturation, Super-saturation
-Attraction and Gravity
Chapter III: The Sun and the Earth
-Rotation of the Earth and Its Consequences
-Time Zone Chart
-Earth as a Sphere and Its Result
-Tilt of the Axis
-Seasons and the Two Tropics
-The Zones
-Zones’ Work Chart
-Protractor Chart
-Seasons Work Chart
-Protection of the Atmosphere and the Rains
Chapter IV: The Work of Air
-Experiments Prelude to the Winds
-The Winds
-Land and Sea Breezes
-Changes in the Winds Caused by the Seasons
-Rains
-Work Chart of the Winds
-Ocean Currents Caused by Winds
-Wind as a Sculptor
Chapter V: The Work of Water
-The River
-The Rains
-Ocean Waves
-Ice
-Water Cycle
-Spread of Vegetation
-People in Different Zones
Chapter VI: Human Geography
-Interdependence of Human Beings in Society
-Economic Geography
Chapter VII: Functional Geography
-Map work

Montessori Albums - Primary, Elementary, Infancy

Montessori albums - album pages - album write-ups - huh? What ARE all of these people talking about? Are they doing some sort of scrapbooking in Montessori training?

And where do we get the lesson plans for doing the Montessori activities? The Montessori curriculum?

Aha! It's all the same!

When a person goes to a fully certified Montessori training course, they receive each presentation as an actual presentation - the instructor generally uses a trainee from the course group and shows the student the work at hand as if the trainee were a child in that age range. Everyone else observes.

The student then goes back to their seat and the instructor goes through the presentation step-by-step, discussing points when needed, while the trainees (furiously) write or type out as much as they possibly can.

When they go home that evening, they type it all up, or re-format it so it's pretty; add illustrations - either photographs or drawings or artwork or a combination; along with the 20 or so other presentations received that day.

These are each called an "album page."

As album pages are compiled into their respective albums, there becomes an album for each subject area:

• Primary - Exercises of Practical Life, Sensorial, Language, Mathematics (and Theory)
• (some trainings will break out art, geography, and some sciences; most AMI trainings keep these areas interspersed among the four *key* albums)
• Elementary - Mathematics, Language, Geography, Biology, Music, Geometry, History
• (yes geometry is separated from the mathematics; geography includes astronomy and geology; biology includes zoology and botany; and yes some trainings split things out and some combine things back together - ie art in this case)

The album pages are reviewed by "readers" and corrections are made. The final corrections are assembled into the albums, which are decorated as the trainee sees fit. They then go for a final reading before the trainee studies for their final exams.

See now why so many Montessori-trained people like to stick to their albums so much? They are full works of art, blood may have gone into creating them! and certainly a lot of time, energy, sweat, and tears went into their creation.

And they still end up with typos! Sigh ;)

Now - are you looking for something to download online? There are many options available (one post couldn't hold the entire list of options!) - both paid and free; purchase hard-copy or download a file of them.

Looking to do complete or almost all Montessori? What you *really* want is to get all the albums from the same place, so that they are cohesive.

If you're just looking to supplement a particular topic within a subject, individual album pages are perfect for you. If you're looking to do most or all of an entire subject, you'll want to get the entire album from one place. There are enough differences that the discrepancies become HUGE when you are pulling information from so many different sources.

Yes, the Montessori philosophy is the same, but you want a cohesiveness to the materials and the presentations, and since there *is* some wiggle room, downloading an entire subject (let's say Math) from 5 different sources is going to prove more frustrating and time-consuming that it needs to be.

So pick one or two, and stick with it. You'll be happy you did! The process of material gathering will be simplified, where to put each presentation, what materials can overlap, and which you need to duplicate.

Keys of the Universe has complete elementary Montessori albums, online support, a choice of "course lengths", is affordable ($20/month or $40/month), and is flexible if you need to take time off, or just want to hold off on the next sets, or need to do so for budget reasons.  Plus you get the permanent discussion community so that if you have any questions or concerns, you have access at any time. Come visit!