Maggie S. Hogan is a familiar name to many of us. She is a speaker and writer, and is the co-author of The Ultimate Geography and Timeline Guide. I had a chance to peek at her latest offering from Bright Ideas Press, called Hands-On Geography: Easy and Fun Activities for Exploring God's World. She wrote this book to help us to give geography a greater place in our studies because, as she notes, our culture is geographically illiterate. She believes Christians have a special call to know about the world because we cannot be witnesses for Christ if we cannot find the locations to which Christ might call us.

She starts this volume with some ideas for preparing for The National Geography Bee, a motivational program sponsored by the National Geographic Society and open to home school teams. The rest of the book is dedicated to ideas, teaching tip, reproducibles, projects, and resources for teaching geography throughout the elementary years. She shows us the value of homemade games, homemade books, maps, and outline maps. One chapter explores the preparation of a country notebook and a passport fair around the world night, which we have done with our kids through our local support group. She touches on missionaries, genealogy, nature, language arts, and history as they relate to geography. No matter what curriculum you use, or what approach you take to teaching, this volume is a treasure trove of projects and activities to help you help your children know more about God and His world.

-- Product Review by: Christine Field, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine

And another perspective on this book:

Hands on Geography, by Maggie Hogan, is designed for geography education in the elementary grades. This is not a workbook or textbook, but rather a great teacher resource for the study of geography. There are wonderful outline maps, games, and 12 chapters covering everything from Joseph's Journey (from Genesis) to a geography bee. Some of the activities are hosting a passport fair, making a missions relief map, constructing a timeline, and making a field guide. History, Bible study, book making and group projects are also included. The map activities are really neat. This is a useful resource for studying geography.



-- Product Review by: Tina Rice, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine