I’m going to be honest. Geography has not been a subject that I’ve done a good job of working into our schedule. Every year I have plans to add more geography study to our days, and every year I start off strong and then let our geography studies fizzle out. My husband is a geography fanatic. (He memorized all the nations and capitals in the world just for fun!) So if it weren’t for my geography secret weapon, he wouldn’t be too happy with our progress in geography.
My secret weapon is an educational tool called the Oregon Scientific Smart Globe. We bought it for our kids one Christmas.
I have been very pleased with the response my kids have had to this globe. They fight over it I mean they wait patiently for each other to finish with it…sometimes.
The globe comes with an electronic pen that you touch to the surface of the globe. You can set the globe to provide any of the following:
- country name
- capital
- leader
- population
- current time
- area
- highest point
- play the national anthem
- language
and more. It’s like an interactive almanac. There is also a function to compare things such as the flying time or distance between two places. There are games where the globe asks you to find specific continents, countries, or cities. It is very simple to operate.
Another nice feature is that it is updatable. The pen can be connected to a usb port on your computer and new information is downloaded to the pen. That way, constantly changing things such as world news and leaders can be kept current.
What I like most about this globe are the results. All of my children can locate all the major nations of the world. (Even my 2-1/2 year old!) They can also find many, many not so major countries. Can you find Burkina Faso on a map? Do you even know what continent it’s on? My children can and it’s all from playing with this globe.
To see and hear the globe in action, please watch this short video. (Another benefit is you get to see how cute my daughter is and you can laugh at my accent.)
By Kristen H.