14 May 2010, 11:14 pm
If you have read Jim Rogers‘ published books (esp. Investment Biker: Around the World with Jim Rogers), you would realized that among other knowledge that he advocates that one should master, geography is a key one. In fact, he practically traveled around the world twice (once on a bike and second time on a car). He honed his expertise in commodity investment using his strong foundation knowledge on geography, history and economics. The more I learn about him, the more I am convinced that my kids should master these subjects when they grow up in this world. Do I believe that they will become rich because of acquiring these knowledge? No, I don’t think so, as it takes more than these basic knowledge but these are the essential foundations.
As the boys grow up, I hope to cultivate a sense of exploratory adventure in them and they will travel around the world to see ‘life’ with their own eyes, absorb the different cultures. Whether they applied it in the same way as Jim, it doesn’t matter as I am sure the experience will make them richer and help whatever they do. This is how important I feel about geography, history and economics.
| List Price: |
$16.00 USD |
| New From: |
$4.00 In Stock |
| Used from: |
$0.97 In Stock |
Release date April 8, 2003.
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4 May 2010, 10:04 pm
I did a goggle search on how to memorize countries and found that ehow.com provides a list of comprehensive steps to achieving it.
In summary,
1) Break down the world by continents and work on one continent at a time.
2) Write the country names down (I skipped this step as my kids are too young, will introduce this later to them)
3) Use peg words
4) Make up a song or story
5) Color maps
6) Go online for visual aids (free map puzzles)
I customized the above approach for my kids (4yrs old and 2.5yrs old) as the focus was not on how to spell the countries. So I ordered GeoPuzzles (a set of 5 continents) and Geography Songs (See link below). I play the music CD as background music initially while they were working on the puzzles. The tunes are so catchy that soon, my 4yr old son is singing the lyrics of the song and both of them ask for the music whenever they are in the car. The GeoPuzzles helped the boys to recognize the shape and location of the countries (the bright colors helped a lot). The songs help reinforced the names of the countries. This approach is so successful that it beats those boring flashcards hands down! The GeoPuzzles are so educational that even my husband and I are learning at the same time.
As an inspiration, watch this Youtube video when Aiden Silva, a 2yr old kid, was featured recalling all the names of countries and their capitals, that he had learned from playing with GeoPuzzles.
| New From: |
$8.99 In Stock |
Release date May 29, 2009.
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18 April 2010, 2:00 am
Mooink is very excited to announce that we have been appointed the Master Distributor for A Broader View for Asia.
A Broader View was formed in 2001, when Roger Andresen made it his mission to spread geographical awareness and knowledge across the globe. What emerged was a variety of award winning educational geography products. The initial product lines included The Global Puzzle™, which is a 600-piece puzzle of the world that is unique because it actually has pieces shaped like countries, states and provinces. You can’t complete it without figuring our where every country is located. No other puzzle comes with such a superb geography lesson! The Global Puzzle™ is a winner of Instructor’s Top Educational Resource Award.
Features:
- Recommended Age: 8+
- 600 pieces
- 36 x 24 inches when assembled
- Made from recycled material
- The Global Puzzle fully comply with ASTM Safety Standards
- Pieces are shaped like the countries
We will soon bring The Global Puzzle™ to good retail stores near you!
3 April 2010, 3:40 pm
mooink is very excited to announce that we have been appointed as GeoToys master distributor for Asia (except Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore).
I learned about GeoPuzzles from Angie’s blog (Teachingourown) so I also ordered GeoPuzzles for my children in 2009 from from Timberdoodle (the shipping cost…, ouch!). I saw the my kids (4yrs old, and 2.5yrs old) started playing with it ‘almost religiously’ each day. Initially they needed help from me, but within a few days, they began to remember the name and shapes of the countries. By then, I knew this product is a winner.
Late 2009, I was focused on designing ‘The Barn’ for my Cardboard Playscapes range and didn’t write to GeoToys. By the time, I got round to it in early 2010, I was late! Someone else had just been awarded the distributorship for three countries in Southeast Asia. It’s unfortunate that our home base was taken, but the rest of Asia is still available so I grabbed the opportunity. The target regional retailers for GeoToys align nicely with the ones that I have started conversations with for our own Playscapes range. This synergies the distribution effort and sharpens our focus on products that are eco-friendly, fun, safe and educational for children.
GeoToys was established by Bob Galinsky in 2004. He invented the GeoPuzzles, a range of jigsaw puzzles where each piece of the puzzle is shaped like the individual countries or states, so children can learn the shapes as well as the names and location. GeoPuzzles has won multiple educational toy awards, including Dr. Toy and recognized as outstanding education toys by National Association of Parenting Publications and Creative Child magazine.
GeoPuzzles are manufactured in Germany from recycled cardboard and will be available in premium Asian retailers near you.
Stay tuned for more news on this!
