I recently had the opportunity to use a complimentary copy of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine’s Travel the World. As you may expect from the title, this ebook is a stand alone study on geography, but it’s also the June 2010 Module to accompany the Schoolhouse Planner. (You don’t have to own the planner to use Travel the World, though.)

I’ve always loved geography, and we have lots of maps and atlases around the house so the boys have developed an enjoyment for examining them and talking about the places they find as well. Travel the World is full of colorful, clearly labeled maps that both children and adults can enjoy. The ebook starts out by explaining simply the basic features of the earth – equator, eastern and western hemispheres, seven continents, five oceans, etc.

Along with the informational pages, Travel the World contains quiz pages and fun things like a word search and a rebus puzzle. Many printable pages allow kids to color the world and each continent, label them, and even create their own “My Travel Book” as a lapbooking project.

For older students, the book contains a High School Expansion section with definitions of more technical terms and instructions for further study – including writing a magazine article and studying the “Father of Oceanography.”

The ebook also includes numerous links to free resources on the internet – games, informational sites, biographies, and even public domain books. Though it naturally focuses on geography, Travel the World pulls in a little history, science, and language arts to round out this mini unit study. I think it would make a fun and educational lesson for just about any family.

One thing that surprised me about Travel the World is that the continent “down under” is called Australia … and Australia is the only country mentioned. This is exactly the kind of misinformation I received during my years in public school, and I was surprised to see a homeschooling resource ignore the 13 other countries in that continent. The continent is more appropriately called Oceania or “Australia & Oceania.” It includes 14 countries, the majority of which are small groups of islands. The largest countries are Australia, of course, and New Zealand. Only Australia appears on the map shown in Travel the World.

Travel the World is available from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine for $7.95.