A few years ago I bought a Smart Globe for Bonny Annie and Dirty Harry for Christmas. To be honest, they weren’t jumping out of their PJs that morning with excitement. But since then, it has been a fun (and educational!) addition to our home. We have used it. A lot.
Basically, at face value, the Smart Globe is just a globe. You don’t have to turn it on to use it.
We keep ours near our school area. This allows us to quickly reference the globe. We might be reading a story and come across the Canary Islands for instance. The kids can quickly get a visual for where they are in the world, and thus have a better understanding of our lesson that day.
The fun of the Smart Globe begins, however, when you turn it on. It comes with an attached electronic pen…
(…and yes, I know my Smart Globe needs to be dusted. Dont’ judge me.)
Your child uses the pen to point out places of interest on the globe…
…and they can also interact with this little keypad, to learn all sorts of things about a particular country or continent…
One of Dirty Harry’s favorite activities is to listen to the various national anthems. Unfortunately, China’s cracks him up for some reason. He will play it over and over laughing hysterically. I’ve had to ban him from listening to China’s national anthem. He wasn’t allowed to watch the last summer Olympics because of his weird sense of humor. Just kidding.
The Smart Globe also has a pull-out tray for US Geography. The tray also interacts with the pen.
Dirty Harry also likes the games. His favorite is a hunt-and-find timed game. The Smart Globe will name a state or country, depending on which mode you have set, and the child finds and touches it with the pen. They have a certain amount of time to find as many as they can. Here’s a little thirty second demo of that particular game…
Okay, so we need to work on Louisiana a little bit.
I bought our globe at Costco, but here is the official site: http://www.smarthome.com/19381/Smart-Globe/p.aspx
It looks like you can also find it on Amazon and other sites as well.
The Smart Globe is a good toy and would be a great addition to your home, whether you home school or not!
Since I’m pretty much geologically illiterate, I’ve looked at them. Everyone in this house who does not have the same issues I do, just looks at me. Oddly, of course.
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I love globes, though I no longer have one. It’s a great idea
I used to sell these at the store where I worked (but with the Canadian pull out instead of American), what a great product.
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I love globes, if I had a good spot for one I’d get one for myself. What a great gift idea… Thanks.
That does look like a great globe. WE just have the standard old fashioned non-talking one. Maybe it is time for an upgrade.
blessings,
Dawn