I’m going to be honest. Geography has not been a subject that I’ve done a good job of working into our schedule. Every year I have plans to add more geography study to our days, and every year I start off strong and then let our geography studies fizzle out. My husband is a geography fanatic. (He memorized all the nations and capitals in the world just for fun!) So if it weren’t for my geography secret weapon, he wouldn’t be too happy with our progress in geography.
My secret weapon is an educational tool called the Oregon Scientific Smart Globe. We bought it for our kids one Christmas.
I have been very pleased with the response my kids have had to this globe. They fight over it I mean they wait patiently for each other to finish with it…sometimes.
The globe comes with an electronic pen that you touch to the surface of the globe. You can set the globe to provide any of the following:
- country name
- capital
- leader
- population
- current time
- area
- highest point
- play the national anthem
- language
and more. It’s like an interactive almanac. There is also a function to compare things such as the flying time or distance between two places. There are games where the globe asks you to find specific continents, countries, or cities. It is very simple to operate.
Another nice feature is that it is updatable. The pen can be connected to a usb port on your computer and new information is downloaded to the pen. That way, constantly changing things such as world news and leaders can be kept current.
What I like most about this globe are the results. All of my children can locate all the major nations of the world. (Even my 2-1/2 year old!) They can also find many, many not so major countries. Can you find Burkina Faso on a map? Do you even know what continent it’s on? My children can and it’s all from playing with this globe.
To see and hear the globe in action, please watch this short video. It shows my 2-1/2 year old daughter finding countries on the globe.
Written by Kristen – Classical mom of four
Kristen Hamilton and her husband, Kevin, have been home-educating their five children since their eldest’s birth in 1998. Kristen is Executive Assistant Manager of The Old Schoolhouse SchoolhouseTeachers.com and loves helping homeschoolers find educational resources. An admitted curriculum junkie, Kristen blogs about her homeschool experiences at Sunrise to Sunset (sunrisetosunsethomeschool.com). She also enjoys reading, crochet, and hiking with her family in her limited free time.
This was on my homeschool wishlist for this year. Thanks for the great review!
How long have you had yours? We’ve worn out two GeoSafari globes in a year and they’re expensive. My kids totally love them, but I can’t afford them at this rate. Maybe this one is better quality??
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We got our globe either for Christmas 2007 or 2006. It has gotten a lot of use and still works fine. It will occasionally give a strange response, like tell the population of Argentina when you asked the capital of France. It has had a few of those quirks from the beginning though, and it hasn’t been a problem because it tells you what it’s doing. You can’t accidentally think the capital of France is Washington D.C. for example because it always starts with “The capital of whatever is…..”
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We found this globe at Costco for ~$80, I think its a deal and seeingf this review and others ashures me of that. I did want to let others know that Oregon Scientific sells extra pens for use with the globe for $50 (I know not cheep) but you can use multple at once and they can be programed to diffent age levels to my understanding. I will know more this Christmas when the kids get it.
I’m so glad you wrote about this. It will be a great Christmas gift for my kids. I enjoyed your video too!
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Thanks. It has been the best whole family gift we’ve ever bought.
J’ai acheté le SmartGlobe il y a deux ans. Mais je n’ai pas eu la chance
de le mettre à jours depuis que je l’ai acheter, car je n’avais pas d’ordinateur.
J’ai acheté le SmartGlobe il y a deux ans. Mais je n’ai pas eu la chance de le mettre à jour depuis que je l’ai acheté, car je n’avais pas d’ordinateur.