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SeaStar
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Being severely direction-impaired myself, I am wondering how I am going to teach the basic concepts of north, south, east, west to my dc. I can go out in the back yard and point out east (sunrise) and west (sunset), but beyond that, I'm stumped.
If anyone can recommend some good living books on the subject or a unit study, that would be so helpful. Thanks.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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JodieLyn
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I don't know of anything extra.. but I vividly remember my teacher in 3rd grade taking us outside.. and having us stand so that our right hand was toward the east and left hand was toward the west which made North in front of us and South behind us. Anytime I'm confused I actually picture the school and everything that we did that at and I can get myself squared away. But what I like about this is if you can remember any one of the places to start.. you can get the rest right.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
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All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Angi
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For me, I know the sun rises in the east, sets in the west - so I know that I can face one of those ways, and use the
Never
Eat
Soggy
Wheaties
mneumonic. I actually have to do the whole mneumonic and look in each direction for it to help me.
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SeaStar
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JodieLyn wrote:
| I don't know of anything extra.. but I vividly remember my teacher in 3rd grade taking us outside.. and having us stand so that our right hand was toward the east and left hand was toward the west which made North in front of us and South behind us. Anytime I'm confused I actually picture the school and everything that we did that at and I can get myself squared away. But what I like about this is if you can remember any one of the places to start.. you can get the rest right. |
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That is very useful... I always flounder with the N and S part.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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SeaStar
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Angi wrote:
For me, I know the sun rises in the east, sets in the west - so I know that I can face one of those ways, and use the
Never
Eat
Soggy
Wheaties
mneumonic. I actually have to do the whole mneumonic and look in each direction for it to help me. |
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That is also very clever- thanks!
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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Paula in MN
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I used the Sign of the Cross.
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 Paula
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PDyer
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I remember playing with a compass as a child.
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Patty
Mom of ds (7/96) and dd (9/01) and two angels (8/95 and 6/08)
Life at Home
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MaryM
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I am SO thankful for majestic Rocky Mountains here. They are to the west of us here and run the whole length of the state so I can always look for the mountains - know they are west and orient myself from there. 
For those with no massive directional ordinal in your vicinity it's more of a challenge  . But seriously there are tons of fun things to do with mapping and geography that teach and help you become familiar with direction. I recommend delving into all things map and geography - there are science experiments, history lesson on navigation, orienteering, etc. I could go into some great books and resources for older kids as well, but in general to focus more on the littles here, I'll refrain.
This is a great beginner book for maps, compass, direction info for young ones - There is a Map in My Lap
In addition to the setting and rising of the sun, take a look at the night time sky. The North Star has long been the primary means for orienting (assuming you are in the Northern Hemisphere ). I'll post some book recommendations for this later.
Get a small clip on compass to clip to your jacket or purse and experiment with those as you are out and about this fall. They are fun for the kids to have as well, but yours are pretty young still. I will have to say that younger children do struggle with the compass a bit because it is the needle that points north and depending on how it is turned it may look like it is reading south because that is the initial on the compass - you have to remember to turn so that the N is where the compass is pointing - that was always a bit tricky for mine to understand until they were a bit older.
Do you have an electronic directional display in your car? All our last vans have had one. It's fun to watch as you are driving around. Even without one use the little clip on compasses I just suggested. Figure out which streets in your neighborhood run east-west or north-south. What happens when you are driving north and turn left at a corner - which direction now?
A book that we have that has lots of compass and orienting activities is Geography Wizardry for Kids. A couple suggestions that I think would be good for younger kids are making a stepping stone compass (using aluminum pie tin and plaster of paris - make a compass rose on it) then place that in your garden or yard correctly oriented. Then when you are out you can always determine where the directions in relation to you. Another one is to grow some different plants and see which direction they prefer. Even if you don't grow anything, see if you can find some plants/flowers around you that have directional preferences (like sunflowers). Along those same lines look for moss and growth on trees. In general it grows much thicker on the north side.
I'll post more later if anyone is interested - particularly living books and ideas that might be of interest for a unit for older kids.
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Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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Rachel May
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MaryM wrote:
| I am SO thankful for majestic Rocky Mountains here. They are to the west of us here and run the whole length of the state so I can always look for the mountains - know they are west and orient myself from there. |
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Mary Chris and I both have said how we know west because growing up the ocean was west. It has made things confusing for us being East Coasters now.
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Rachel
Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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lapazfarm
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Just as an aside, ds has long been used to using the sun as a guide for both compass (rises in the east, sets in the west) and timepiece (overhead at noon).
But moving here has him thrown for a loop. In the summer the sun rises in the NNE and sets in the NNW, 22 hours later. And it doesn't pass directly overhead, but sort of follows a path all the way around the horizon, perhaps halfway up? In the winter, it will rise and set in the south, just barely peeking over the horizon and creeping along down low for just a few hours.
Here is a link that explains the sunpath here in Fairbanks:
Fairbanks sun charts
scroll down to the circular sunpath chart to see what I mean.The green circle is summer solstice and the blue is winter. The orange shows the sunpath today.
Oh, and the north star is almost directly overhead.
I love living in such a fascinating place!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
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Mackfam
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We do small treasure hunt type compass courses in the back with the kids. They each get a compass, my dh lays out a course for them to follow, and at the end there is a little treasure.
I always orient to the sun, and I've noticed the children do too without any prompting after working with the compass. We can be driving somewhere in town, and they know where the house is in relation to where we are because of the position of the sun. Night's a different story...we haven't spent any time really learning the night sky yet, which is really a shame since that is my background. 
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Jen Mackintosh
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MaryM
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Suzanne is keeping me honest and asked if I would post the living book (picture book) ideas I mentioned.
Longitude plays a big part in how we can determine direction. The story of the Longitude Prize is a fascinating piece of history. There are a couple of very good picture books that cover that topic - The Man Who Made Time Travel and Sea Clocks: The Story of Longitude.
A very interesting picture book on the history of maps and cartography is The Coast Mappers. Particularly interesting for you west coast folks as you mey recognize coastal locations.
As I mentioned earlier studying the night sky and the north star are a good way to learn about direction and orienting. Just read this book last week - The Big Dipper and You - about he big dipper and its relation to the north star for finding direction. Lots of folk lore and beliefs from around the world related to this constellation. It was fascinating - I can't believe how much I learned from the presentation of this book (and I've studied astronomy before  ).
The Big Dipper from the Let's Read and Find out About Science series is a very simple look at the Big Dipper.
So if you are studying the Big Dipper and North Star as part of a direction unit you have to include the underground railroad and how the runaway slaves used the night sky to guide them.
North Star to Freedom
Follow the Drinking Gourd
Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt
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Mary M. in Denver
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mom2mpr
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If you can get a hold of the Shiller Math CD for kit 1 there is a fun song to help.
Anne
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4Real Forums : Across Time and Place
Topic: teaching direction: N,S,E,W
