Home School Geography Curriculum

When looking for a Geography curriculum for your children's home school program, one of the first places to look is to get the content requirements from the state's education site. This is very important to ensure your home schooling program is covering the topics and knowledge requirements that lead to completion of a K-12 program and credentialing of the home school program. Nevertheless, parents should check the home schooling standards for their state before selecting a Geography curriculum and checking it every year for the upcoming year and at least the following two years. Through time, States modify their basic skills requirements in every subject to coincide with new teaching curriculum developed by the federal or state departments for education.

Subjects that should be included in the Geography curriculum are the Geography of the United States and of the world, depending on the grade level. There are many sub areas of Geography that can be included into your home school program that may be of particular interest to your child. An example might be studying the mountain ranges of the world, because your child is interested in how they evolved, which may lead to a career in earth sciences or geology.

Since Geography and earth sciences are among those career fields that have a shortage of scientists and experts in these areas it is important to expose school children to some of these areas to pique their interest in the shortage areas. They may show interest in those special people who study the earth; who document and project changes in the earth and its climate; who may track earthquakes and fault lines to help develop early warning systems; or, who explore for new energy sources beneath the earth's crust. All of these are extremely important areas within Geography that many parents and others forget about unless you are building a strong Home school Geography curriculum for your child's home school program.

Parents need to know the state standards, but can easily modify those standards or supplement the Geography curriculum with additional subjects. Nevertheless, parents are encouraged to ensure the goals and standards of the instruction are well identified, that there is a common vision in the Home school Geography curriculum and that there is a challenging, but not overwhelming level of information discussed for the grade level. This type of Geography curriculum in your home schooling program may be what triggers something within your child to pursue a career in one of the many areas of Geography. A good Geography curriculum will transcend disciplinary boundaries depending on the child's grade level and their knowledge level - basically, each minor subject area will support and help better understand the next.

Testing your child should also be done using the state-approved aptitude and knowledge tests that are set up to be taken at specified periods of their education. Testing requirements should be available from state board of education offices as well as testing schedules. Should you notice that your child is "breezing through" the courses, you may want to have them tested for inclusion in a Gifted and Talented program, but you can also speed up the process of moving to the next higher level if they understand and retain the knowledge already presented to them. Again, contact with the state education board is recommended in these cases

NOTE: Geography as a major subject is being incorporated by many states into subjects being labeled as History - Social Sciences or Earth Sciences. In some states, they may have Geography, History, other geographical information systems and social sciences combined into a single category. Most states are doing this to more accurately define the subjects.)