Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It's a good starting place!, October 7, 2007
My son and I used this book for History/Geography last year, for 2nd grade. It was a good starting place but I didn't use the book religiously, because it was a lot of the same thing (talk about the country, do a craft, do a maze, connect the dots, etc etc). This book did help to get me "thinking geographically" and I'm grateful for that. Other than that, what we used was a membership to enchantedlearning.com, a globe and wall-map, and our library cards. I didn't pick this book up much after the first month or so of school.
One thing I really didn't like is that the author moderates the Galloping the Globe Yahoo Group, and she will nix any emails you send to try to resale your book to anyone who might be looking for one, or any other books that would go well with the study. I found that strange and a little too greedy for my taste! Also, if someone comes along and sends an email wanting an honest opinion of the Galloping the Globe book before they buy it, and someone posts a review that might lean a little towards the negative, she will nix that, too.
Here is the way we studied the world:
1) The Continents and Oceans (which we reviewed every week thereafter)
2) Asia (my son is a China-freak, he loves it)
3) The Middle East
4) Africa
5) Europe
6) Australia
7) Antarctica
8) South America
9) North America (that way, we ended up "at home," sorta)
Some things we spent 4-8 weeks on, some things only 1-2 weeks, depending how high the interest level was. Generally what we did was locate the continent on the map, then dissect it and study a few of its countries. We would go to the library and get 4-6 books on the continent itself then whatever countries from that continent we wanted to study. We'd do some map work from enchantedlearning.com. Then we would make some sort of art project specific to the area. Hands on Crafts for Kids Around the World is a great book to use for ideas. We made some really great projects from this book (even though I had to tweak some to make them less complicated or expensive). dltk-kids.com also has some good craft ideas for different countries. I would get DVDs from Netflix appropriate to the country. These generally did a better job explaining the political/social/economic culture of the country than I could have! Sometimes, I would help my son write a couple of paragraphs about famous people from that country. It was a lot of fun! Enchantedlearning.com also has a one-page "Country Report" sheet, but we didn't use it because my son does not like to do the same thing over and over.
Happy learning!
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26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Amusing activities, some inaccuracies, March 10, 2007
This book was a big disappointment. While the activities are somewhat amusing, none of them require the purchase of the textbook as coloring-pages, black-line maps, and worksheets can be found online rather easily.
More troubling were the cultural tidbits included in the text. Some are inaccurate, others just odd (why include an obscure tradition that is not widely known or celebrated by the majority of the country's inhabitants when there are far more widespread and important events that could be included?)
I am editing this to provide some examples since some have not found this review to be helpful:
The section on Italy p. 72
1) regarding dining: salad is not served alongside meat. Italians do not eat salad on the same plate as meat, nor is it the same course
2) "scoppio del carro" is translated "explosion of the car" Carro does not mean car and it has never meant car. A "carro" is a cart or wagon. This inaccuracy is more troubling than the sequence of courses in a typical Italian meal.
3) "Gelato is sold on city streets in specially made motorcycle carts". No. Most Gelato is sold in Gelaterie (singular gelateria), which are ice-cream parlors. Some bars (coffee bars) sell ice cream as well. While there are some motorcycle carts, there are far more traditional-style ice-cream trucks like we have here in the states.
These are examples of inaccuracies in one one-page section.
SPecific examples of activities:
1) in the section on Italy, there are star-shaped mazes (since Galileo was an important figure in the study of astronomy).
2) Flag to color
3) "find the twins". Students are supposed to select the identical moons from a group of 6.
I would definitely not recommend this book unless you have personal knowledge of the regions or care to perform extensive quality-control before presenting the information. It is less time consuming to buy a better book to begin with.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
At first glance there doesn't appear to be much to this book but I found it helpful, June 19, 2008
I've been putting together a geography related curriculum of sorts for my 2 children and I to follow next year. I wanted to use a literature approach and read about the countries of the world but have had a hard time finding books suitable for young children. I wish I had bought this book first.
This book contains lists of recommended literature for many of the countries of the world along with recommended scripture reading to go along with literature readings, suggested science topics (usually something about the geography, nature or animals that is unique to that region such as volcanoes in Mexico or Kangaroos in Australia), and lists of notable and historical figures from the area which is helpful in particular in planning artist and composer studies. A few of the countries also have a recipe or two from the region.
I think this book was very reasonably priced for what it offers. Those who are expecting more should buy an expensive packaged curriculum. I personally wanted to pick and choose what my children and I would enjoy reading and get the most out of and think this book could have saved me a lot of research time from the beginning.
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by Barnabas Kindersley
by David Shibley
by Rand McNally
