Project: Start again!

There's been much excitement about a new project here recently. 

I had gotten the sweet T to pull out a laminated world map that had slipped behind one of the bookcases & decided to colour-copy it with our printer/scanner & use it as the basis for map work. 

Here's photos of the boys patiently waiting to collect the copies as they came out of the printer!

I cut and glued until I had all of the map cut into separate continents (& that's a lot of cutting!), then made coloured cardboard versions (matching the colours defined by the Montessori Method) and then I got excited & used these shapes to trace sandpaper continents (as we don't have a sandpaper globe I thought that this might be a great alternative) and then I was even more inspired & I started cutting out wool felt continents in the Montessori continent colours too. Phew! 

I was excited that all of this work would relate back to the original map (they all fit perfectly size-wise when laid over the map) & that I had covered different levels of complexity - from the sandpaper (which I planned to start with, presented on a blue cloth) and then the felt continents would replace the sandpaper on the blue cloth & then the cardboard versions would introduce the actual world map (these were contacted - my cheapy version of laminating - so they could be blu-taked to the map on the wall). 

Annnnnyway, when my Ma came to visit on the weekend I started showing her what I'd done & mentioned that I was a little unsure about the proportions on this map as it had been bothering me but I hadn't actually gone & looked at the globe (read: big mistake) or at the longitude/latitude lines on the map.

Well, she took one look and said "No!" She made me gather the globe & it was instantly obvious how out this original map was. I kept saying "But, I've spent hours and hours on it..." but she was positive that it was unacceptable. Now, my mama is one amazing woman. She's a hippy at heart & so good-natured and such a calming presence. She's also intensely smart and open minded and eco & world conscious. She doing her PhD in World Religions and Ecology at the moment. And she was totally right. This map is just crazy! The latitude lines are spaced completely irregularly & as she put it, just plain racist. Ooooookay. Africa is much smaller than North America & Europe is much bigger that it should be etc. etc. etc. 

So, it's all got to go. I'll have to source a new map & start again. While it *is* frustrating it's also an important lesson & I think the necessity of presenting my children with the real information far outweighs that frustration.

If only I had the Montessori maps and globes I wouldn't have got myself into this mess in the first place. Ahhhh, Sigh ;) Maybe I should have just stuck with this download from Jo at A bit of this and a bit of that which I already had.

What flops have you created?