North Star Geography {Review}
Posts contain affiliate links. See our full disclosure for more information.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!
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!
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!