11 Best Geography Living Books for Your CM Homeschool
The great thing about teaching geography the Charlotte Mason way is that we get to experience the different places through the excellently-written living books. It’s almost as if we are actually there! That makes for memorable learning, and one that our kids can engage with, versus all the memorization of countries and capitals and all the other words that may not mean anything to them, like they didn’t mean anything to us!
In this post, we hope to compile some of our favorite geography living books so you can choose the ones you want to use and schedule them accordingly!
11 Best Geography Living Books for Charlotte Mason Homeschools
Here are some of our favorite resources for teaching geography:
1. Elementary Geography by Charlotte Mason
Elementary Geography is a complete geography book, written by Miss Mason herself, is great for students in Form 1. It’s already divided into lessons, so all you have to do is pick it up on the assigned day and read through the given lesson. Easy peasy!
2. Home Geography for Primary Grades by C.C. Long
Long’s Home Geography for Primary Grades is another mainstay for geography in the elementary years. My son loved the variety of topics, especially when the book talked about mountains and waterfalls and all those stuff—right at the time when we were camping and hiking a lot!
3. Book of Marvels: the Orient by Richard Halliburton
Richard Halliburton’s Book of Marvels: The Orient is a great introduction and immersion in the wonders of the ancient world, told in story form as a travelogue by the author himself. The conversational style makes it a very engaging book, perhaps for students in Form 2 or Form 3.
4. Book of Marvels: the Occident by Richard Halliburton
Halliburton’s Book of Marvels: the Occident covers the wonders of the world in the West, as you travel through San Francisco, the Panama Canal, and many more. We love how Richard Halliburton lays out his travels and takes us right along with him!
5. Marco Polo: His Travels and Adventures by George Makepeace Towle
We read Marco Polo: His Travels and Adventures by George Makepeace Towle together when my sons were around 10 years old, and we loved learning all about Marco Polo’s travels from Venice all the way to Cathay (China). One caveat though is that the book is a bit old so many of the names of the places mentioned are the old names, but nothing that a quick Google search can’t fix!
6. Magellan by George Makepeace Towle
Magellan, or the First Journey Around the World gives us a glimpse of the days when exploration was key. Take this exciting journey with Ferdinand Magellan as he travels all the way around the world to the Philippines. Great for understanding sea voyage.
7. Around the World in a Hundred Years by Jean Fritz
Around the World in a Hundred Years is a great introduction to the years of exploration and the different countries around the world, through a 100-year time frame.
8. A Child’s Geography: Explore His Earth by Ann Voskamp
In A Child’s Geography: Explore His Earth, you’ll learn the basics of geography, such as how the atmosphere works, and how to read maps. The great thing about this book is that it already includes narration prompts and notebooking suggestions, so it’s truly open-and-go!
9. A Child’s Geography: Explore the Holy Land by Ann Voskamp
In Book 2 of this series, A Child’s Geography: Explore the Holy Land, jump right into the life of the different peoples in the Holy Land: Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, complete with recipes that let you actually taste what they eat in all these different places!
10. A Child’s Geography of the World by V.M. Hillyer
This 1929 classic, A Child’s Geography of the World by V.M. Hillyer, is considered the mainstay in geography for children. This 2021 edition contains lots of lovely maps and drawings—and after all, aren’t these part of what make learning geography and mapwork so much more fun?
11. The Brendan Voyage by Tim Severin
We read The Brendan Voyage from the recommendations on AmblesideOnline, and I must say, it inspired my oldest to tinker with boat-making as well! This is an excellently-written book that takes you right into the story of how Tim Severin planned to take the same patchwork leather boat on St. Brendan’s voyage across the Atlantic!
Learning Geography the CM Way
Living books are just the first part of learning geography the Charlotte Mason way. You will also use things like mapwork. Check out this post to know more about teaching geography in the CM method.
