Credits Earned in This Guide

Each guide in the “Hearts for Him Through High School” series includes everything you need to earn all required credits for a full year of high school study. The World Geography guide includes the following 6 ½ high school credits:

• World Geography (1 full-year credit)
• World Religion & Cultures (½ credit)
• Bible: Scripture-Based Spiritual Growth (1 full-year credit)
• Foreign Language: Spanish I (½ credit)
• Logic (½ credit)
• English I (composed of ½ credit of Literature and ½ credit of Composition/Grammar = 1 full-year credit)
• Science: Integrated Physics and Chemistry with Lab (1 full-year credit)
• Suggested Math: Algebra I (1 full-year credit)

Total Credits Earned: 6 ½ Credits

Note: It is important to consult your state laws for specific requirements for credit and to be aware of the entrance requirements for any college or university your student plans to attend.

A Trek Through Geography

Discover the history of exploration and mapmaking as World Geography offers you a passport to far-off places, from ancient Mesopotamia to uncharted Antarctica. As students travel the world, they will examine maps of places from the past, visit archaeological digs, accompany famous explorers, study new countries and cultures, and discover the wonders of the world.

• Journey to the ends of the earth with A Book of Discovery. Hear the stories of devoted sailors, settlers, and explorers who discovered the world!
• Join archaeologists through the pages of The Archaeology Book as they unearth lost cities, search for answers about the past, uncover the meaning of artifacts, and delve into the historicity of the Bible.
• Visit the most awe-inspiring places of the earth with The Seven Wonders of the World. In this unforgettable book, students will experience the 7 Ancient Wonders, 7 Technological Wonders, 7 Archaeological Wonders, 7 Architectural Wonders, and 7 Natural Wonders of the world!
• Enjoy a visual feast of people and places from all over the globe in Must See Places of the World. This Reader’s Digest video series will give students a vivid look at important geographical destinations and help them picture life in places that would otherwise be inaccessible.
• Teach retelling skills with the following types of Charlotte Mason-style oral narrations: key word, summary, detailed, topic, and typed narrations.  Key words and topics from the reading –  such as names, places, and events – are provided for students to include within their key word and topic narrations.
• Complete a beautiful Expedition Journal filled with maps, bulleted notes, research, outlines, sketches, primary source documents, written narrations, Socratic discussion questions and more – a keepsake to treasure for years to come!
• Assemble a one-of-kind Book of Centuries filled with a colorful portrait gallery and lined timeline entries. As students continue through their high school years, they will gradually add to this book until it provides an unbroken trail from the dawn of Creation to the modern era!
• Create a map of the world from scratch – one area at a time – with Ellen McHenry’s Mapping the World With Art. As students follow step-by-step lessons on map-drawing, they will learn the history of cartography and complete geography-themed projects – like creating a Babylonian clay map, building a navigational quadrant, and playing board games based on real places and events.

A Collection of Living Books

Add a compelling new layer to your geography study with our Living Library! These 17 diverse books and audios were selected for their narrative quality and global connections to the World Geography plans. As students delve into these memorable books, they will experience stirring historical fiction, thought-provoking biographies, inspiring nonfiction, and classic literature.

• Experience the plagues with the Egyptians, flee across Rome to see the Emperor, furtively translate the Bible in Tibet, find yourself on a slave ship to Africa, race to measure longitude with John Harrison, travel the Silk Road with the Showalters, and minister to fisherman on the deadly North Sea with Wilfred Grenfell – all just a sampling of what awaits you in our exciting Living Library!
• Build retelling skills through Charlotte Mason-style oral narrations.  As students sift and sort information, they will make connections with the text and draw their own conclusions.
• Practice higher-level evaluation skills by learning how to write one-sentence summaries! As students read, they will learn to write concise, meaningful summaries of the text as they share the chapter’s setting, character, action, conflict, and goals.

An Overview of World Religions

Embark on a journey of faith as World Geography guides you through the multi-faith maze with the illuminating truth of God’s Word. As students learn about the beliefs, practices, and customs surrounding 8 of the world’s major religions, they will be equipped to engage with people of other faiths while better understanding the Christian faith.

• Compare 8 major religions with World Religions: An Indispensable Introduction and learn what makes Christianity unique in But Don’t all Religions Lead to God? These essential books help students become acquainted with the basic answers each religion gives to life’s fundamental questions.
• Read stories of people from different religious backgrounds who converted to Christianity at great personal cost. As students read these fascinating tales, they will get a taste of life in different countries and glimpse the resolve and faith of those who followed Christ through it all.
• Hear the true story of Mimosa, a Hindu child in India who heard God’s voice.  Read the inspiring story of the girl who was embraced by the love of God and trusted Him to overcome every kind of opposition and adversity.
• Gain a deeper understanding of Jesus by seeing His world through the eyes of first century Jews as you read Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus. Journey back to ancient Palestine and explore the culture, customs, feasts, and prayers that shaped Christ and His disciples. 
• Join Sundar Singh, the former Sikh who became a Christian Sadhu, as he crosses the Himalayas to share the gospel with Hindus, Buddhists, and Sikhs from India to Tibet.
• Learn how Christ’s light can pierce through any darkness in Queen of the Dark Chamber. Hear the dramatic story of Christiana Tsai, a Buddhist from China who found hope in the Gospel and lived it out amidst many trials.
• Witness the spread of the Gospel and learn about Japanese culture in Jesus Did Many Other Things as Well, an account from a missionary who lived in Japan for 33 years.
• Marvel as you read I Dared to Call Him Father, a book that has become a classic in Muslim evangelism. This book documents the amazing true story of Bilquis Sheikh, a prominent Muslim woman in South Asia whose journey to a personal relationship with God turned her world upside down, and even put her life in danger!
• See the bigger picture with God’s Global Mosaic, a collection of inspirational stories from believers all around the world! Drawing from scriptural illustrations, Paul-Gordon Chandler gives us the chance to see God through the eyes of Christians from different continents.
• Discover the difference between “hot climate” and “cold climate” cultures in Foreign to Familiar. Sarah Lanier – the daughter of missionaries and a world traveler – writes on a host of cultural topics including task orientation vs. relationship; direct vs. indirect communication; group identity vs. individualism; and concepts of hospitality. This book is guaranteed to be an eye-opener!
• Use the beautiful, full-color pages in the World Religion and Culture’s Notebook to complete graphic organizers about each major world religion and record personal reflections from each book in the study.

A Foundation of Scripture

World Geography strives to help students become more rooted and grounded in their faith as it stirs their hearts to share the Gospel with others. By encouraging thoughtful Bible study, Scripture memorization, consistent prayer, and compassion for the unreached peoples of the world, the Bible portion of World Geography topically covers theology, Godly relationships, and Christian living. As students study God’s Word, they will be challenged to apply Biblical principles, reflect a Christlike attitude, and nurture a steadfast faith.

Scripture-Based Spiritual Growth

• Enjoy independent Bible lessons from Rooted and Grounded: A Guide for Spiritual Growth. This in-depth study focuses primarily on reading and reflecting upon Scripture, while providing students with geographical, cultural, and prayer information about unreached people groups. In this study, students will read from God’s Word, write answers to inductive questions, complete thought-provoking writing assignments, dig deeper through discussion topics, and record what God is revealing to them.
• Keep a daily prayer journal using “Preparing Your Heart for Prayer” questions and pray through the four parts of prayer:  adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication.
• Make Scripture memorization a joyful experience by using ten different memorization techniques to commit a host of meaningful passages from both the Old and New Testaments to memory.

Devotional Bible Study

• Find guidance on growing into a Godly young man or woman while reading, studying, and annotating either Practical Happiness or Stepping Heavenward. As students read, they will connect with the text by underlining things to remember, circling key words, starring important passages, and writing brief questions, comments, or notes in the margins.
• Discover the contentment that can only be found by seeking the heart of God with Practical Happiness, our devotional choice for boys. Through short and captivating stories, Bob Schultz endeavors to light a fire in the hearts of young men and encourages them to find a life of personal fulfillment as they draw closer to God.
• Learn how to pursue God’s truth and grow in faith with Stepping Heavenward, our devotional choice for girls. In this intimate journal, Elizabeth Prentiss documents a young woman’s struggles with ordinary daily life and her persistent endeavors to “step heavenward” as she deals with disappointment, heartache, and tragedy. This treasure of womanly wisdom is a classic, and crucial for any woman with a heart’s desire to know God.

A Study of Spanish

World Geography introduces students to the Spanish language by using Getting Started With Spanish by William E. Linney with audio pronunciations by Antonio L. Orta. With this program, students will begin learning Spanish gradually yet systematically through a unique method that was designed to help students effectively study Spanish at home. Students who desire to study a different foreign language may substitute a different language course in place of this option to fulfill the foreign language requirement. 

• Learn simple vocabulary, basic grammar and syntax, and spoken accent of Spanish. As students develop a feel for the mechanics of Spanish, they will learn to read, write, speak, translate, and understand the language at a basic level.
• Practice pronunciation skills and learn to understand verbal Spanish by utilizing online recordings featuring native speaker Antonio L. Orta. By learning how to correctly speak and comprehend Spanish, students will find it easier to grasp the basics of Spanish as a second language.

A Lesson in Logic

This fascinating logic course teaches students to recognize occurrences of faulty reasoning and detect flawed arguments frequently found in editorials, commercials, speeches, advertisements, comics, newspapers, journals, and other media. By learning to spot errors in logic, students will learn to craft accurate statements, avoid fallacies in their own reasoning, and present their views carefully through the use of logical arguments.

• Become a sleuth with The Fallacy Detective, a satisfying book designed to help students recognize fallacies, think clearly, and become more aware of the logic already written in their minds by God! Students will become familiar with fallacy types like Ad Hominem, Red Herring, Tu Quoque, Straw Man, loaded question, equivocation, circular reasoning, and more!
• Learn how to reason with clarity, relevance, and purpose in The Art of Argument, a book packed with clear explanations, entertaining illustrations, and intriguing examples. This unforgettable study will train students to identify and counter 28 unique logical fallacies, and is sure to keep students thinking long after the last page is turned!

A Journey Through Literature

The World Geography guide provides a solid introduction to literature by combining the Fundamentals of Literature text with a set of full-length novels and plays. This unique combination enables students to develop critical standards for evaluating short stories, excerpts, essays, novels, prose, poetry, and plays.

In Fundamentals of Literature, students will become familiar with the foundational literary elements of conflict, character, theme, point of view, structure, and tone – as well as pondering eye-opening questions on Biblical analysis. The literature portion of World Geography also adds a Charlotte Mason flavor as it offers a choice of either a “boy interest” or “girl interest” book set, each packed with a wide scale of engaging literature to read, narrate, and discuss!

Boy Interest Literature Set

• Saddle up for a classic Western that has stood the test of time with Shane, the story of a stoic man from the West who forever changed the lives of the Starrett family when he visited their farm in Wyoming.
• Experience one of the best-loved adventure stories ever written with Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treas­ure Island, a timeless tale of pirates, lost treasure maps, mutiny and adventure.
• Meet Ragged Dick, the fast-talking boy hero of Horatio Alger’s classic rags-to-riches tale, as he works his way up from the crowded streets of Manhattan to prove himself and eventually become a handsome, self-respecting gentleman.
• Strap on your armor and prepare for battle as Howard Pyle’s enduring classic Men of Iron recounts the story of Myles Falworth as he seeks to defend his family’s reputation and fortunes by challenging the King’s champion in combat.
• Read the most engaging account of temptation – and triumph over it – ever written in The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. Written as a series of letters from the perspective of Screwtape, a senior demon, this classic book is at once wildly comic, deadly serious, and strikingly original.
• Travel to the time of the English Civil War and the Commonwealth as you read The Children of the New Forest by Frederick Marryat. Follow four children from high estate as they escape the burning of their ancestral home and take up residence with an aged forester in the New Forest.
• Hear the story of Harvey Cheyne Jr., the spoiled son of a railroad tycoon in Rudyard Kipling’s famous novel Captains Courageous. After being washed overboard from a steamship and saved from drowning by a Portuguese fisherman, Harvey must learn to start over…a task that is much harder than expected.

Girl Interest Literature Set

• Read the heartfelt story of Abbie and Will Deal – pioneers who left everything behind for a new life on America’s frontier. Be inspired by their struggle against unexpected perils, of their love and laughter, of the land they helped conquer, and the family they raised to pursue ambitions that were once Abbie’s own – in A Lantern in Her Hand.
• Hear the moving story of Anne Elliot as told in Jane Austin’s last completed novel, Persuasion. When the man whose proposal she rejected returns from his long military tour at sea, Anne Elliot is forced to face the decision she made eight years ago-along with the man she’s never stopped loving.
• Return to the story of Anne Shirley in Anne of Avonlea, L.M. Montgomery’s spirited sequel to Anne of Green Gables. This book follows Anne’s endeavors from ages 16-18 as she strives to become a successful teacher, help raise a pair of rambunctious twins, and improve her beloved hometown-with the help of her former enemy, Gilbert Blythe, who’s giving her an awful lot of attention.
• Enjoy The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde’s dazzling play dealing with society in late Victorian England. This inspired comedy of manners tells the tale of John Worthing, a man who escapes his dull country life by visiting the city as his fictitious brother Ernest. But pandemonium ensues when his best friend Algernon visits the countryside while also impersonating Ernest!
• Experience Louisa May Alcott’s enduring masterpiece Little Women. Hear the story of four sisters in mid-19th century America as they encounter the absence of their father, the sickness of a beloved sister, and relationships with men, both romantic and platonic, in their lives.

A Look at Composition and Grammar

Heart of Dakota teaches higher-level language arts skills through a unique combination of Charlotte Mason-style dictation exercises, a solid grammar and writing text, and a variety of composition approaches.  You can use your own resources for grammar, or use the time-tested grammar and writing selections we’ve scheduled in the World Geography guide.

• Hone spelling, writing, and proofreading skills by using the Charlotte Mason method of studied dictation.  Using passages provided in the World Geography guide, students will study a passage and then reproduce it as you dictate the passage aloud. Afterward, they will proofread their work against the correctly written model and correct any errors.
• Enjoy thorough grammar and writing lessons with Building Securely. This comprehensive, God-honoring text is easy-to-use and teaches key concepts of grammar, mechanics, and writing. Plans include lessons on upper-level grammar constructs, outlines, paragraph structure, creative writing, character sketches, resource use, note-taking, proofreading, and more!
• Learn to successfully write personal, persuasive, expository, and compare and contrast essays, as well as a research paper with Essentials in Writing. Easy-to-follow video lessons presented by Matthew Stephens teach the writing process and emphasize key topics like using solid sentence structure, writing developed paragraphs, and integrating quality resources.  A well-laid out Student Text includes a summary of lesson notes, samples of effective/ineffective writing, and clear rubrics to aid in grading.

A Structure for Mathematics

Students entering World Geography should ideally be studying Algebra 1, however students at a differing math level may still utilize this guide. Our recommendations for Algebra 1 include No-Nonsense Algebra, Christian Light Algebra 1, Understanding Algebra I, or MathHelp Algebra 1. These options offer four different paths to Algebra 1 coverage. Or, if you would prefer, you can use your own math program!

No-Nonsense Algebra

• Learn the basics of Algebra I in an easy-to-understand format with No-Nonsense Algebra. In this text and online video set, award-winning math teacher Richard W. Fisher uses short, concise lessons to explain each topic in Algebra I in a way that is easy to understand. Along with each lesson comes an online video component with follow-up workbook assignments.
• Benefit from multiple examples with fully explained step-by-step solutions, helpful reviews built into the lessons, and chapter tests that help students measure their progress and improve their test scores. No-Nonsense Algebra is built to work well for students who have struggled with math in the past and who are likely to find Algebra a challenge. No-Nonsense Algebra covers needed Algebra 1 concepts in a plain, no-frills fashion.

Christian Light Algebra 1

• Employ an incremental, spiral approach to math in a textbook format with Christian Light Algebra 1! Math is foundational in so many areas of study and life, and Christian Light Mathematics helps lay that solid foundation.
• Introduce a new concept each lesson in a clear, systematic way.
• Review previously learned concepts for better retention.
• Reinforce Biblical values to teach math in a Christian way.
• Enjoy the benefit of crystal-clear teaching and excellent examples in Christian Light Algebra 1. Connections to history and real-life problem-solving are included, along with a full text answer key with complete solutions.

Understanding Algebra I

• Give students the critical thinking skills necessary to successfully understand and complete Algebra I! In Critical Thinking Company’s Understanding Algebra I, award-winning author Terri Husted puts her 35 years of experience teaching math to excellent use!
• Become familiar with the most essential concepts and skills needed to fully understand algebra in a step-by-step fashion – by learning that algebra is generalized arithmetic!
• Help students see the connection between mathematics that they already know and algebra, so that learning algebra becomes easier and less abstract.
• Provide students with real strategies to succeed in solving word problems by using charts and translating strategies that guarantee success.
• Use this textbook to provide a one-year Algebra I course that prepares students for SAT algebra problems.

Math Help Algebra 1

• Enjoy clear online Algebra 1 lessons with Math Help Algebra 1.  In an easy to-use online format, award-winning teacher Michael Maggart uses short, concise lessons to explain each topic in Algebra 1 in a way that is easy to understand. 
• Work through online lessons that include video example problems, interactive practice problems with built-in explanations, a challenge problem, self-tests with immediate feedback, an automatic online gradebook, printable extra problem worksheets, and review notes of each day’s lesson.
• Benefit from a low-stress online math option! This math program works well for almost any math student – including those students who have struggled with math in the past, those who need to get through Algebra 1 in a timely fashion, or for students who will need to be very independent in math with little help from a parent.  This math program is one of Cathy Duffy’s Top 101 Picks. To view samples and purchase MathHelp Algebra 1, visit www.mathhelp.com.

An Exploration of Physics and Chemistry

In World Geography, students earn science credit using Integrated Physics and Chemistry written by John Hudson Tiner – an author with an incredible gift for writing about science in a narrative, living way. This intriguing course includes 12 chapters of physics and chemistry-related topics, serving as an excellent introduction to both disciplines in an integrated way. Readings are combined with 35 memorable experiments from the MicroPhySci Kit to give students an interesting demonstration of each scientific principle in action.

• Discover the people, concepts, and principles of chemistry and physics. Study matter, atomic structure, the Periodic Table, compounds and bonding, chemical equations, acids and bases, Newton’s Law, momentum, velocity, force and motion, mechanical energy, work energy, thermal energy, electricity, circuits, magnetism, and more!
• Complete daily assignments that include vocabulary, multiple choice, true-false, fill-in-the-blank, and short answer questions. Provided reviews and exercises are straightforward and ensure that students understand and retain what they learned in each day’s reading. 
• Perform exciting hands-on lab experiments matched to the readings with the MicroPhySci Kit. This well-organized kit includes all the needed supplies and equipment to complete 35 unique labs, and trains students to make accurate predictions, collect useful data, and use scientific problem-solving to draw conclusions.