from Modern Curriculum Press
We've been using these maps book since First Son's first year and they continue to be useful and fun for the children.
This is the seventh grade book. The exercises are more complicated than ones in previous books; the maps are smaller and more detailed. First Son didn't complain, but there were times I considered using a magnifying glass!
There are 42 lessons, so First Son did a couple of these a week. They usually took only 10-15 minutes and gave him just a little practice in reading and understanding maps but also deciphering multiple choice questions. Like the previous books in the series, these workbooks are in color, which my children appreciate.
Some of the map topics at this level include:
- general map skills (directions, scales, keys, grids, etc.)
- climate maps
- contour maps
- elevation maps
- highway maps and atlases
- political maps
- historical maps
- temperature maps
- population maps
- city maps
In addition, the book covers charts and graphs. These are less important to me than the map skills because we cover these in math as well. These topics include:
- tables
- circle graphs
- bar graphs
- line graphs
- using a map and graph together
- time lines
- diagrams
Finally, there are two lessons on editorial cartoons. Frankly, I never really understood why they put these sorts of things in the mapping workbook, but sometimes they lead to interesting discussions.
It would be nice if these sorts of exercises naturally rose up out of our other studies, but they don't always. These workbooks are an easy way to make sure the kids see these types of maps and questions and they never complain about them.
