Geography questions in Student pages

[AmyA]

I have used Tapestry for some time now. This is our 2nd time doing year 1 but I have recently decided to dive more into the geography. we have done maps in the past but its pretty much just been labeling places. I really love the section in the student activity pages and all the questions but I'm at a loss as to how to find the answers. I did not see any of the answers in the teacher's notes. . we are on week 18. Just wondering if I'm missing the answers or if I need to come up with them on my own.


thanks!

[Marcia]

Hi Amy,

Thanks for your question! Actually, this is a great example of the "smoothing" that we are currently doing with Year 1, which was our first Redesigned year-plan. As we worked through the Redesigned 4-year cycle, we realized that we sometimes ask questions that seem obvious to us (immersed in the material) but not so obvious to the busy moms we're trying to serve.

You seem to have edited your post, but did you not mention originally about something like "where are the tall trees of Lebanon mentioned in the Bible accounts of the building of the Temple (or preparations therefore, in David's time)? How do I find that answer?" Well, they were, of course, in Lebanon. So, we want to point out where Lebanon is on the map, and help (especially younger) students make that story in the Bible more real; more concrete. HERE it is on a map!

Another example that I can think of is that we ask sometimes questions like this: "How would the geography of this land (like, for instance, Egypt) have affected the way that the people built their houses?" (Or "buried their dead"... or "built their temples"?) The answer is that if you live in a hot, desert climate, you'll build houses with open courtyards out of adobe bricks, not New England saltboxes heated by wood with small windows!

God created the world with a myriad of "sets" and then His play unfolds on those sets. What's fun to realize is that the "sets" also determine/effect the flow of history. This is what is behind MANY of our open-ended, unanswered questions, like these...
*Why did it take centuries for America to be discovered by Europeans? There was a big, scary ocean in the way!
*Why did China develop as a closed culture? Formidable geographic boundaries hemmed the people in.
*Why was Israel so tempted to go after other gods? Well, for one thing, they were located right on the major trading route of their day: the path that traversed the Fertile Crescent. UNlike the Chinese, they had frequent contact with people who worshiped all manner of other gods!

Etc.!

In this upcoming revision of Year 1, we're hoping to make points like this clear in the Teacher's Notes, as we did more and more as we progressed in writing Years 2-4. For now, just please know that the simplest answer to Geography questions like this is probably the right one. The intent behind them is simple. It's our Father's world. We want to use the Geography assignments to make yet another connection for students between the stories of history and the world that we now live in.

HTH!

[AmyA]

Thanks for taking time to help me out!

[Marcia]

You are most welcome!