Customer Reviews

The Complete Book of Maps & Geography

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I teach geography to homeschool groups and I have found this to be an excellent beginning level book. It establishes a foundation for understanding the basics of the 5 Themes of Geography: "location, place, people & environment, movement, and regions". Any student (and parent!) who truly completes this workbook will have a solid grasp of the essentials of geography.

I am using this book, along with an inexpensive world atlas, as a Geography course for homsechooling my 1rst grader. My only warning would be that the exercises would be too easy, and thus boring, for any child beyond third grade. I certainly recommend the book for homeschoolers in 1rst-3rd grades.

My 7-year old son really enjoyed learning about the states and other geographical area. It is a good book for starters as it lets the children write as they learn.

When they say complete-they mean COMPLETE! It is wonderful. The book is recommended for 3rd-6th grade, but my 6yr old is using it. I homeschool and my children love to work on this book (even for fun). It thoroughly covers maps, U.S. Geography, the U.S. Regions, North & South America, Grid maps, Global Geography, compasses, latitude & longitude, time zones-like I said everything. For the most part it is self teaching, the kids only come to me if they have a question. It's well worth the money!

I bought a number of workbooks from several series for my children to work with over the summer. DK workbooks (which were inferior in every way and I returned all 4), the Complete Book series, the Scholastic Success series (which are really intended for in-school supplementation but were okay for use over the summer), and the Spectrum series. The Spectrum and Complete Book Of series were superior in every way to the other workbooks and I will order from them again next summer.

I was surprised at just how many pages there are in this geography book. The activities at the beginning of the book were challenging for my soon-to-be 2nd grader, and the activities at the end of the book kept my soon-to-be 5th grader occupied, and so both children were able to share this workbook. They both enjoyed the full color activities and never complain about doing geography.

Some have criticized how "easy" this book is. Sure, geography is easy. Look at a picture, use the clues to interpret it, write the answer. What you're doing with a book like this is opening a child's horizons. They are learning what crops are grown in other areas, how the world looks from space, that political maps and goegraphical maps don't align, how the states fit together, how to read a map -- all necessary skills for functioning in the world.

This book would be great for homeschoolers, imo.

This is a pretty good step-by-step tutorial on maps, able to be used over several years. Starts out with fairly general concepts, defining them and moving on to developing good map skills.

I have several of AEP's books. I use most of them and travel and car fodder and something to distract the toddlers with. The exceptions however are _Maps & Geography_ and the _Time & Money_ books. Those two publications are very well written, complete and fun for the children to use while they are learning. My son, age 11, enjoys the Maps & Geography to begin his homeschool day. Because he is older, M&G is a type of fun-learning 'warm up' before he moves on to his tougher subjects. Happily, he is soaking up a great education in maps and geography without tons of oversight on my part.

I have purchased other books covering the topics of maps and geography recommended by various homeschool curriculum companies. Currently those recommended materials are gathering dust on our shelves. None of them have been as complete or well written as AEP's version.

we have started this book, but what we have seen so far is very informitive and interesting. which makes learning a big plus!

I was looking for a good geography book for my two children now ages 8 and 12. They have completed several comprehensive workbooks also by American Education Publishing. For variety as well as the need for more thorough map/geography work, I chose to try this particular subject within the "the complete book" series.

I love the creative and interesting ways that map skills are applied in section one. This is NOT a boring book! My younger child is able to create floor plans, lead an ice cream truck on its route through town, draw maps for hiking, solve a mini mystery as well as use map skills to complete a secret mission. Clearly, section one is geared towards the grades 3 & 4 crowd. The rest of the book is more conventional than the first part. That is good since a child must learn what "grown-up" maps look like.

However, the writers got a little carried away with creating "Hamberg Haven County" on page 80. In order to prevent confusion, we skipped that page. Although I value the savings of the combined levels, I do wish section one was longer, and that a similar level of creativity was applied to the following sections. I loved helping the 8 year-old....Not the case with the 12 year-old. Older kids would have also appreciated spy missions and a mystery or two using geography.

I am happy with my purchase. It compiles a wide range of map/geography activities necessary for a successful educational foundation. It is very convenient and a good value for the money when homeschooling multiple children. My 8 year-old and I are only able to finish the first 99 pages before I can re-introduce it to her at a later date. Until that time, I can use the rest of the book with my older child.

Geography teachers will love this book. The activities cover a variety of age levels and geography comprehension levels. I use this book often as a remediation/supplemental resource. Pages copy well and instructions are well written.