Geography Mini Office

I love mini offices. In classrooms, teachers have bulletin boards covered with helpful references and information. I like to use mini offices in a similar way. When my children are working on a subject like geography, they can go to our school closet and get our world geography mini office and find many helpful references. These mini offices are used to help with learning and recalling information. They can also be a helpful resource when exploring different topics. My children like them because it is a creative way to help them help themselves and it gives them a way of creating a little bit of private space while working at the table or desk. 

 I made some mini offices several years ago but as I have become more experienced with homeschooling and my kids have grown older, I felt the need to revise them. Not to mention, we moved from one state to another so our geography mini office really needed an update. I will try to keep up with links on where I got my printables. I found the idea for this mini office here. I found my maps by using Google and I searched our state website and used Google for the "Things of Idaho" cards and maps of Idaho. I am not really happy with the quality of the folders used in this mini office. I bought generic file folders at Walmart and didn't realize that they were going to be quite thin. You will see, in the pictures, that they look a little bumpy and wavy because of the glue that holds them together. I would suggest making sure that the file folders you purchase are a good weight like Mead file folders or Staples brand. I used clear contact paper to laminate the mini office but then used my laminating machine to laminate the cards and maps that are in the pockets. I like the items that are going to be handled by little ones to be a little more durable. You can get pretty creative with these mini offices. I pretty much stayed with the format in the video. I liked what she did so I didn't really change anything. 

This is the cover of the World Geography mini office. 

This is the inside unfolding from left to right. 

Each of the large maps is also a pocket. We will be using the pockets to store anything interesting we have learned about the countries on each continent. We will also be making up a list of countries and their capitals to be stored in that pocket. 

This is now folding it up on the other side. 

These are the maps that I put in the Idaho map pocket. 

These cards go in the "Things of Idaho" pocket. 

These are the flags that go in the flag pocket. 

This is what it looks like when it is all set up for an office. It can be used on either side. One side is North America, the United States and the state of Idaho. The other side is the rest of the world. 

Happy homeschooling. :)