Introduction Introduction Children are playing in the sand. They are making roads for cars. One builds a castle where a doll can live. Another scoops out a hole, uses the dirt to make a hill, and pours some water in the hole to make a lake.
Sticks become bridges and trees.
The children name the streets, and may even use a watering can to make rain. Although they don't know it, these children are learning the principles of geography. They are locating things, seeing how people interact with the Earth, manipulating the environment, learning how weather changes the character of a place, and looking at how places relate to each otherhrough the movements of things from one place to another. With this book, we hope you, as parents, will get ideas for activities that will use your children's play to informally help them learn more geography-the study of the Earth. Most of the suggestions in the book are geared to children under 10 years of age.