How's Your Geography?

I always liked Geography in my grade school years. It was fun learning where the states fit in our country, where the European countries were situated and also those in Asia. In fifth grade, we learned all the states and their capitals and had to fill in the names on a mimeographed map the teacher passed out many a morning. By doing it over and over, we learned them well.

I don't remember learning about the countries in Africa and the Middle East. To be sure, many of the countries of my childhood days now have different names. I think maybe we all need to learn more about the Middle Eastern countries and who sits next to whom. With the political unrest and wars raging, it would be to our benefit to understand this area geographically.

This morning a friend sent me a map game to play. It's not a contest and there is no penalty for wrong answers. You drag the name of a country and place it in the correct spot on the map. A big red X pops up if you're wrong and a lovely musical bleep sounds if you're correct. I admit that I had to try many times on some of the countries. I think it's a game, or exercise, that needs to be done many times so that it the locations of the countries get embedded in your brain. Just like the USA maps of my fifth grade year.

Give it a try. And definitely try it more than once. Make it a once a day exercise until you can do it flawlessly. Double-dog dare ya!

Go to http://www.rethinkingschools.org/just_fun/games/mapgame.html and you'll see how much you do or don't know.