Introduction

Introduction


Children are playing in the sand. They make roads for
cars. One builds a castle where a doll can live. Another scoops
out a hole, uses the dirt to make a hill, and pours some water
in the hole to make a lake. Sticks become bridges and trees.
The children name the streets, and may even use a watering can
to make rain.

Although they don't know it, these children are learning
the principles of geography. They are locating things, seeing
how people interact with he Earth, manipulating the
environment, learning how weather changes the character of a
place, and looking at how places relate to each other through
the movement of things from one place to another.

With this book, we hope you, as parents, will get ideas
for activities that will use your children's play to informally
help them learn more geography--the study of the Earth.

Most of the suggestions in this book are geared to
children under 10 years of age. The activities and games are
organized around five specific themes that help focus our
thinking. These themes were developed by the Joint Committee on
Geographic Education of the National Council for Geographic
Education and the American Association of Geographers and are
now being used in many schools. They are:

1. Where are things located?

2. What makes a place special?

3. What are the relationships among people and places?

4. What are the patterns of movement of people, products, and
information?

5. How can the Earth be divided into regions for study?

These themes have been adopted by many schools in the last
few years and may be new to many parents. To help focus your
awareness of the issues, we will begin each chapter with a
brief description of the theme. This description includes
examples of questions geographers use as they strive to
understand and define the Earth, for geography provides us with
a system for asking questions about the Earth.



Location:
Position on the Earth's Surface


Look at a map. Where are places located? To determine
location, geographers use a set of imaginary lines that
crisscross the surface of the globe. Lines designating
"latitude" tell us how far north or south of the equator a
place is. Lines designating "longitude" measure distance east
and west of the prime meridian--an imaginary line running
between the North Pole and the South Pole through Greenwich,
England. You can use latitude and longitude as you would a
simple grid system on a state highway map. The point where the
lines intersect is the "location"--or global address. For
example, St. Louis, Missouri, is roughly at 39° (degrees) north
latitude and 90° west longitude.

Why are things located in particular places and how do
those places influence our lives? Location further describes
how one place relates to another. St. Louis is where the
Mississippi and the Missouri rivers meet about midway between
Minneapolis-St. Paul and New Orleans. It developed as a trading
center between east and west, north and south.