Over the past four years of homeschooling high school, we have tried two different geography courses. Neither was particularly enjoyable, and I definitely wasn’t interested in repeating either of them with another student.
As Kaylee approached tenth grade, I began to look for a more suitable geography course. When Bright Ideas Press announced their new high school geography curriculum, I immediately knew we wanted to try it.
I have chosen to partner with Bright Ideas Press this year because we love their products. As a partner, I have been compensated for my time spent writing this review.
Now that we have been using North Star Geography for six weeks or so, I can say that we are hooked! This curriculum is a great fit for our family’s learning style, and I plan to re-use it with each of the younger children when they reach high school.
Overview of North Star Geography
North Star Geography is a comprehensive world geography course for junior high and high school students. It includes 16 lessons and is worth a full high school credit.
The course is divided into three units:
1. Geography skills – Lessons 1-3 cover basic geography skills with information about maps, navigation, compasses, and atlases.
2. Physical geography – Lessons 4-9 discuss the structure and topography of the earth, as well as the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere.
3. Human geography – Lessons 10-16 cover social aspects of geography, such as culture, heritage, government, and agriculture.
North Star Geography Materials
North Star Geography has two components:
1. Student Reader
The Student Reader contains the complete text for the course. The book is beautifully laid out with both full-color and black-and-white photos and illustrations.
Each of the sixteen lessons is approximately 10-15 pages long. Special green sidebars highlight important or interesting places around the world.
2. Companion Guide
The Companion Guide includes a wealth of resources:
- Suggested schedules – options for 1 semester, 1 year, or 2 years
- Hands-on activities – several options for each lesson
- Atlas building instructions – tips for students to create their own personalized atlas throughout the year
- Note-taking pages – a simple note-taking page with 10 questions from the lesson
- Memorization lists – lists of countries, regions, and physical features to be memorized each lesson
- Research questions – set of questions to research for each continent
- Quizzes and test – a quiz for each lesson, plus a final exam covering all sixteen lessons (includes answer keys)
- Vocabulary terms – 450+ geography terms
- Reproducible outline maps – includes answer keys
- Graphic organizers – printables to use with various assignments
North Star Geography is available in 3 different formats:
- North Star Geography hardcover book with Companion Guide CD (includes free digital download of eBook and Companion Guide)
- North Star Geography eBook and Companion Guide (all on CD)
- North Star Geography eBook and Companion Guide (via digital download) **BEST VALUE!**
FREE Sample Lesson
Get a closer look at North Star Geography with this FREE sample lesson!
Jennifer says
Are there lesson plans with this curriculum? I see that there is a schedule but do lesson plans need to be created in order to use it? Thanks in advance!
Judy Hoch says
Jennifer, I don’t have the curriculum handy right now, but I know for sure that I did NOT create lessons plans when we were using this. My son read from the textbook each day and did the accompanying mapwork/worksheets. I hope that helps!