Homeschool Help: Geography Night

Here find homeschool help for Geography Night, the perfect support group activity, a get-together both enjoyable and educational. This special evening does require some preparation, but the results are well-worth it.

Although we participated, we never organized Geography Nights. So to give you the "inside" homeschool help, I interviewed the Mom who headed our G.N. for five years. Her name is Gina, a dear friend and long-time homeschooler.

AM: Gina, briefly, how would you describe Geography Night?

Gina: It is a group of families giving presentations on different countries.

AM: What is its purpose?

Gina: (1.) It is a way of finding out about different countries without one child having to do all that research!

(2.) Geography Night gives kids an opportunity to be more hands on in finding out about various places.

(3.) It also provides the opportunity of giving an oral presentation, to practice publice speaking. It is not a passive thing.

AM: How soon before Geography Night did you begin preparing for it?

Gina: That's a good question. It was at least a month for the first Night and also for the subsequent ones.

AM: What were the actual steps of preparation?

Gina: To begin with:

• Getting everyone's countries and making sure there were no duplicates were the beginning steps.

  In the initial publicity announcement, I set a deadline for people to get back to me with their choice. We then sifted through the responses. If a country was already taken, we asked participants to pick another. We kept a record of countries from year to year. After the first Geography Night, youngsters had to select a county which had never been done.

• Finding the time and place, of course, are important. We usually had Geography Night on a Friday. It was earlier in the evening because food is involved.

  

  (Note from AM: G.N. may be scheduled during any month, but we found late winter/early spring works well for all. Folks are stuck inside anyway and a lively activity with lots of homeschool help brightens a rather dull period of the school year.)

• Finally, my kids made flags of each county to be represented.

AM: What sort of homeschool help did you need for the physical set-up?

Gina: For its presentation, each family is allotted half of a banquet size table. So you need to have ample space for displays. You also need room for a food table and additional tables and chairs for the meal.

AM: What about homeschool help with publicty?

Gina: I used Mom's meetings and homeschool e-mail loops. The first e-mail is sent one month before just to announce G.N. The second e-mail lists the countries chosen and other pertinent information, time, place, what to being, etc.

AM: What do participants' need to bring?

Gina: Homeschool Helps: Geography Night participating families each need to bring

• some sort of presentation. It can be a display board or electronic or whatever. I asked that information about a saint, historic hero or Catholic/Christian factor be included.

• one representative food from the country and a 2 liter bottle of pop. The dish needs to be large enough for everyone to sample. I only asked for one but most families brought two or more!

• a game and/or music from the country.

AM: What additionally did you have to bring?

Gina: We brought a CD player, all the paper goods and plastic ware, tablecloths for the serving table and ice. These were paid for through the club's treasury.

AM: What is the agenda for the evening?

Gina: Half hour before start time everyone arrives to set up their displays and the tables and chairs for the meal. This is also an opportunity for them to mill about looking at the other displays.

Next are the presentations. I usually set a five minute time limit per family. (Note from AM: This may need to be adjusted to number of participants and any time constraints.)

Then comes dinner during which we played music from the various countries.

Finally, games are played.

Usually, we had no time for games from the individual countries. Once we did play an international one. (eg. Carmen San Diego)

AM: Please give us some homeschool helps for the presentations.

Gina: Use a three-sided presentation board. Put up maps and basic information, such as size and geography, population, religion, language, type of government, etc.

Also include information about history and natural resources. If you can, also include pictures, postcards, clothing and anything used in the country, mucial instruments, for example. One presentation about Mexico was particularly memorable. The family displayed an authentic costume and sombrero.

The talks themselves varied with the families. Usually the kids each reported on the aspects that they themselves had researched. Sometimes the parents are involved. One family even gave a electronic presentation, using a computer.

AM: How did the youngsters do their research?

Gina: They used the internet. We also got information from encyclopedias and library books. I especially liked to see research from a variety of sources.

AM: Looking back, is there anything you would do differently?

Gina: Publicity. I would do more by word-of-mouth...Talk it up more to generate lots of enthusiasm.

AM:What did your family enjoy the most?

Gina: My kids enjoyed making the various countries' flags.

Many thanks to Gina for her homeschool help. I really appreciate her taking the time to share her expertise with us...and for heading up our Geography Night for five years. May your special evening, too, be interesting, informative and a true highlight of the school year!

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