This week’s topic for What to Read Wednesday is geography. I can’t think of a more fun book for this than Around the World in 80 Days! There are so many rabbit trails to follow with this book, including Victorian times, transportation, inventions, and of course, geography.
Welcome to What To Read Wednesday!
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Make Geography Fun with Phileas’ Route
- London, England
- Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea
- Bombay, India; the Red Sea; the Indian Ocean
- Calcutta, India
- Victoria, Hong Kong; South China Sea
- Yokohama, Japan; Pacific Ocean
- San Francisco, California, United States
- New York, New York
- Atlantic Ocean
The technological innovations of the 19th century had opened the possibility of rapid circumnavigation and the prospect fascinated Verne and his readership. In particular three technological breakthroughs occurred in 1869–70 that made a tourist-like around-the-world journey possible for the first time: the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad in America (1869), the linking of the Indian railways across the sub-continent (1870), and the opening of the Suez Canal (1869). It was another notable mark in the end of an age of exploration and the start of an age of fully global tourism that could be enjoyed in relative comfort and safety. It sparked the imagination that anyone could sit down, draw up a schedule, buy tickets and travel around the world, a feat previously reserved for only the most heroic and hardy of adventurers. (Wikipedia)
Transportation:
- Railway
- Steam ship
- The Transcontinental Railroad
- Wind-powered sledge
- Ferry
Click Map for Source Link
Victorian England
Queen Victoria’s reign in England lasted from 1837 to 1901. It was a long period known as the Victorian era, and left quite a mark on history around the world.
Instead of re-inventing the wheel, I’m going to share a few great unit studies from around the web:
- Proverbial Homemaker has a great one for younger kids
- Homeschooling Ideas gives a few different ideas that will appeal to many ages
- Almost Unschoolers goes even more in-depth with some great vocabulary words, foods, and date line discussion.
Since I have kids in a wide age range at my house, I like to have a couple of versions of a book available. If I’m reading aloud to the whole family, I’ll do the original unabridged version. But if I’m assigning reading, I always allow my younger students to read an abridged version, like Great Illustrated Classics. I’ve linked to both, below. And you’ll have to follow up your study with a movie night! We love the Jackie Chan version.
It’s amazing how you can learn so much from reading just one great book. Around the World in 80 Days is just such a book. Thanks for joining me for geography on What to Read Wednesday!
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Nicki Truesdell is a 2nd-generation homeschooler and mother to 5. She loves books, freedom, history and quilts, and blogs about all of these at nickitruesdell.com. She believes that homeschooling can be relaxed and that history is fun, and both can be done with minimal cost or stress, no matter your family’s circumstances. Nicki is a member of the Texas Home Educators Advisory Board and The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Review Crew. You can also find her on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
We just LOVED Around the World in 80 Days. My boys and I watched the movie once we were done with the book and we mapped the route, talking about time zones too.