I mentioned earlier this year that we were sticking with the Geog.2 books for my daughter’s Year 8 Geography. We used the student book and the question book last year and this year we have also included their answer book. So now that we have used everything for a few months I thought I would give an update on what we think.

We love the Answer Book. Yes I know that sounds strange but we really do love having the answer book. Last year we would work through the student book, she would do the corresponding question page and then bring it to me and I would check her answers (I did not have model answers but after reading the student book pages I knew what the answers should be). It worked well and I did not feel like I had to have the answer book. But this year my daughter has been doing more and more independent learning. She likes it. She likes being able to check her own answers herself. And it works. Sometimes she reads the student page, sometimes we read it together and then she does the question page herself, checks her own answers and if needs be corrects her answers. (I like her correcting her any mistakes because the act of crossing out or rubbing out her incorrect answer and then rewriting it reinforces what the correct answer is).

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So this year the addition of the answer book has been brilliant because it is allowing her to work more independently and work at her own speed.

The Student Book. The explanations are concise and clear. Which I really appreciate because Geography is not my favourite subject and it is not one that I know that much about so as the facilitator I feel like I need a good source. And this does it. We recently worked through the Weather section (we don’t tend to follow the order of the sections in the book). I have never liked watching weather reports and all the talk about high and low pressure. But the explanations in the student book were spot on and now both my kids (her younger brother listened) completely understand how air pressure affects the weather.

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Our decision not to follow the order of the sections in the student book was not intentional it just happened that certain topics came up and then we jumped to those sections.  But that is one thing that I like about the student book, you can follow their order or you can jump around.  If a page relies on information from other pages they tell you at the top. 

We like the photographs and images that they have included and my daughter finds their labelled diagrams excellent for explaining concepts. She is a visual learner so she appreciates that the pages are not solid pages of just writing.

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The Question Book. I like my daughter to do an activity after we have learnt something because it inforces what we have learnt and highlights if she did not understand.  If you really wanted you could just use the student book (they do have questions at the end each double page and a chapter question page as well) and search the internet for extra worksheets when you wanted.  But last year I found myself struggling for time, constantly searching for extra pages for both kids and honestly having a question book linked to the student book, where there is a page of question for every 2 pages that you read in the student book is just good time management for me.  I really save a lot of time by having the question book. And with my daughter’s more independent learning style it has also meant that she can go ahead and do extra pages when she wants to (sometimes she likes to do a few pages all together).

So for us the combination of geog.2 Student Book (Oxford Education), geog.2 Workbook and geog.2 Workbook Answer Book (Oxford Education) is proving to be spot on this year.

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