GeoPhile—The Geography Journal

Submitted by Tony Silva on Thu, 10/21/2010 - 1:05pm

I first encountered the "GeoPhile" concept through a prayer book published by Operation World that provided detailed information about countries all over the world. I haven't seen the book around our house in years, but it made a lasting impact. Unlike most geography books, it didn't just list facts about each country's main industry, language and the like. Instead, each country's listing also covered the major religions in the region, the culture of the nation's people, and prayer needs of missionaries who serve there.

You can create a geography book of your own. You can focus on prayer needs and missionary opportunities like the book I described above, or you can uncover other interesting facts and keep them in your GeoPhile scrapbook. Be creative and have fun with this project. You will want to include elements of art, current events, and geography skills. Got an idea? Send it to submit@familymentors.com. Be sure to give your submission a title and include the topic name "geophile:" in the subject line. For example, "geophile: Were to find scrapbooking materials for free". Remember to leave out the quote marks. Using this keyword in the subject line will route your post to the correct topic and get it published more quickly.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

  • Decide what topics you want to cover -- make them appropriate to the child you're teaching

  • Include an outline map and/or political map of each area -- smaller children will love to color these

  • Include clippings of news articles from each area when they occur -- you can compare current events with history

  • Try to collect a post card, stamp, or currency from each area

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