Guest Hollow’s High School Geography & Cultures Curriculum

Guest Hollow’s Geography and Cultures Curriculum is PACKED full of great books, videos, art projects, music, recipes, and more to make the world come alive for students! This is NOT the typical boring high school geography curriculum. Guest Hollow’s Geography & Cultures Curriculum is designed to engage and inform in a way to help students retain and enjoy what they are learning.

Homeschool Award

Guest Hollow’s Geography Curriculum won FIRST PLACE in the Practical Homeschooling Reader Awards. Thousands of homeschoolers ranked the curriculum they have used, and the products with the highest satisfaction ratings won. Our High School Geography and Cultures Curriculum and Jr. Geography garnered the highest satisfaction rating out of all the geography program nominees. Click for more details.

Prerequisites: None
Approximate Daily Time Commitment:
1-2 hours depending on activities that are chosen
$41.00

Guest Hollow materials are downloadable/online. There are no physical copies.


Already a customer? Go to “My Account” to log in and access your downloads and your online schedule membership. Need help logging in? Check out our help page!

*Access to the online version of Guest Hollow’s High School Geography & Cultures Curriculum schedule is provided as a courtesy and is not guaranteed due to various potential circumstances.

I’d like to see the book & resource list!

Click here to see the required books and resources for Guest Hollow’s High School Geography & Cultures Curriculum.

Why choose Guest Hollow’s High School Geography & Cultures Curriculum?

Homeschooling with Guest Hollow’s High School Geography & Cultures is rich, fun and flexible!

If you’ve been planning on having your high schooler (or middle schooler) study geography, you DON’T want to miss out on Guest Hollow’s Geography and Cultures Curriculum!

In this curriculum, students will learn about:

  • Geography concepts
  • Geopolitics
  • People and animals around the world
  • Countries
  • Culture
  • A bit of world history (in order to understand current events)
  • Ethnic foods
  • So much more!




We believe geography is an often over-looked subject that sometimes gets short shrift in our homeschools. When it’s covered at all, geography is usually squashed into history studies or quickly glossed over with a workbook or song. Students often spend time learning about the cultures of ancient civilizations, but they don’t usually spend as much time learning about the current cultures, people and places that exist all over the world. That leaves them woefully unprepared to understand our world’s politics, world-wide needs or even that there are people who live very different lives from themselves.

Learning about the world can open their eyes, mind, and heart concerning others and excite their imaginations with animals, cuisine, landscapes, culture, and stories from different regions around the world.

Learn about the world!

Geography & cultures should be something we as homeschoolers don’t neglect. In this ever-expanding global community, our kids NEED to know this material to understand so many of the things going on in our world that directly affect us as global citizens.

Guest Hollow’s High School Geography & Cultures Curriculum brings geography to life. Join us for a
journey around the world!

Engaging Books & Materials

We’ve hand-picked books your students will love.

Our geography curriculum schedules in fiction and non-fiction books that will ignite your student’s love for geography and cultures.

Free Geography Videos

Videos add a visual and sometimes musical component.

We scour YouTube to find the best educational videos and cultural music to make geography something to actually see & hear and not just read about.

Fun Geography & Cultures Projects

We work hard to engage ALL types of learners.

You’ll find a buffet of projects and hands-on activities you can pick-and-choose from to help your students retain what they are learning like recipes, projects, art, games, and more!

Love Learning

Students and parents love Guest Hollow!

Our customers have shared over and over how Guest Hollow curricula has changed their homeschool and sparked a love for learning!

Guest Hollow's free online geography and cultures textbook
Families have shared that their students LOVE the online book.

You get a free textbook!

We offer a FREE online textbook for our high school geography curriculum. You can access it here. The online textbook is used as a *spine book for the curriculum. *A spine book is used as a launching point (or backbone) for your studies.

We’ve worked hard to present information about geography concepts, places, people, culture, regional animals and more along with hand-picked videos, maps, illustrations, and photos in our online book to make geography and cultures understandable and interesting, even for reluctant learners.

Squirrel asking a question

Does this curriculum come with ____________?

✘ books?
No, you need to purchase the other scheduled geography books separately. Learn more.
However, you do get access to a FREE online textbook with embedded videos!


☑ a printable book list?
Yes. We provide a book list with a handy checklist to help you plan what you want to buy or borrow and in what format. We also let you know when each book is scheduled in, so you can arrange to check out books from the library before you need them!


☑ a schedule?
Yes. You get the same weekly schedule in 3 different formats: PDF, Microsoft Word, and online*. Just open it up and you are ready to learn!
*Access to the online version of the curriculum schedule is provided as a courtesy and is not guaranteed due to various potential circumstances on our end and yours including but not limited to various computer, device, and internet configurations.


☑ a supply list?
Yes. Recipe ingredients, art supplies, and more are listed at the beginning of your schedule week-by-week.


✘ a teacher’s manual?
No. The geography schedule is all you need!


✘ tests?
No. There are no tests with this curriculum.


☑ a workbook?
Yes. You get a fantastic 295 page full-color workbook with the purchase of this curriculum (160 student pages and an answer key at the back). The workbook includes study questions for some of the schedule books, maps, lots of illustrations and photos, and even some comics!

Click here for a sample of the workbook pages:

Download

Photos from real families using Guest Hollow’s Geography:

Freshly baked Irish blah
Geography
Garden beets picked for borscht
Polish rooster wycinanki (paper cutting)
GEOPuzzle
Homemade gluten free bread for Smørre­brød
Homemade poutine for week 5 (Canada)
Geography & Cultures
Guest Hollow homeschool curriculum sample

Click or tap to see a sample!

Take a look at a sample week from the online version of the schedule here. 

Take a look at a sample of the printable schedule here:

Download

Take a look at a sample of the workbook here:

Download

Want to know how to use the Guest Hollow PDF Schedule or the editable Microsoft version of our schedule? Go here! (This page gives lots of insight as to how our schedules work!)

Have a question about printing your Guest Hollow schedule and materials? We cover that, too!

F.A.Q. for our High School Geography Curriculum

This curriculum can be used for grades 9 through 12, although it’s adaptable for middle schoolers. The beginning of the printable schedule contains a section with tips on how to use the schedule with a middle schooler including alternate book suggestions. Some video selections and/or assignments may not be appropriate for younger students. Use at your discretion. Middle school students will likely need more parental involvement.

We strongly suggest that you view every item linked or used in this curriculum to make sure it meets with your approval.

While this schedule doesn’t track with the Jr. Geography Curriculum yet, you can easily rearrange most of the topics to match (more-or-less). We plan on matching up the schedules at a later date.

You can keep your files forever, if you save your initial download!

Once you’ve downloaded the schedule to your computer or device, you are licensed to use the downloaded copy forever. Make sure you download, save, and back up your items immediately after your purchase! You can click directly on the links in the schedule from a computer or other device and can use your materials with younger students years later.

2 Years to Access Additional Downloads & the Online Schedule*

Additional downloads (after your initial purchase) and access to the online version of the schedule are provided as a courtesy and are not guaranteed due to various potential technical and business (and life!) circumstances. It is our intention to continue to provide access for a period of 2 years from the date of purchase. After the 2-year period, you will have the opportunity to repurchase your access at a substantial discount.

Please note, if you have problems, we have a liberal policy of providing extra, free access for unusual circumstances (at our discretion). Just contact us: guesthollow@memorableplaces.com.

*Access to the online version of the curriculum schedules and additional downloads is provided as a courtesy and is not guaranteed due to potential various circumstances on our end and yours including but not limited to various computer, device, and internet configurations.

Yes, on a case-by-case basis depending on the amount of paperwork they require and the bureaucracy that needs to be navigated. 😉

No, you may NOT resell, share, or distribute any of Guest Hollow’s digital products (or printed out copies of our digital products) which includes but is not limited to schedules, workbooks, printables, and other materials.

Our materials are licensed for a single family’s use only. You may print out as many copies as you reasonably need for siblings or others living in your home.

Please contact us if you wish to use our materials in a co-op or school: guesthollow@memorableplaces.com.

Yes. Every family in a co-op needs to purchase a copy of our materials (one item per family). We offer a co-op discount. Contact us for information about the discount.

Schools need to contact us for school pricing and payment options.

Contact us at: guesthollow@memorableplaces.com.

No. We only offer a digital version at this time. You can print out your materials at home or have them printed via a printing service.

You’ll have to check with your local educational authorities or in some other way determine if Guest Hollow meets requirements since states and colleges have different expectations.

When we were teaching our kids, we usually had what we thought of as a “core” curriculum (science, geography, or history). Because these programs were so literature-rich, we didn’t do a separate literature course. This enhanced our children’s retention and enjoyment of the material they were learning, since their reading assignments complimented their studies. Of course our kids also did plenty of reading in their free time as well!

Guest Hollow’s Geography and Cultures Curriculum covers a lot of different types of information. We think the BEST curriculums are those that are multidisciplinary. We believe subjects don’t exist in a vacuum, so we like to tie different subjects together, when possible, to expand students’ understanding of specific topics or things they encounter in various scheduled books and/or videos. We’ve color-coded some of the activities or books in the printable schedule to help those of you who are trying to assign additional credits such as art, English/language arts/literature, home economics, and history.

See the printable schedule in your purchase for potential additional credit ideas.

Don’t forget to research your local requirements and consult the local experts in your area!

Week 1: Introduction to geography, seasons, climate, wind, tsunamis, volcanoes, the ocean, continents

Week 2: Ethnicity, languages, religions of the world, global economics

Week 3: Antarctica, agriculture, population, biomes, regions

Week 4: Antarctica (continued), maps, latitude and longitude, compasses

Week 5: North America

Week 6: North America

Week 7: Middle America

Week 8: South America

Week 9: South America

Week 10: The British Isles

Week 11: Western Europe, the European Union

Week 12: Western Europe, the European Union

Week 13: Northern Europe

Week 14: Northern Europe

Week 15: Southern Europe

Week 16: Eastern Europe

Week 17: Eastern Europe

Week 18: Russia

Week 19: Russia and nearby

Week 20: The Middle East and Central Asia

Week 21: The Middle East and Central Asia

Week 22: South Asia

Week 23: South Asia

Week 24: China and nearby

Week 25: China and nearby

Week 26: East Asia’s Economic Tigers, Is Taiwan a country or part of China?

Week 27: Japan

Week 28: Japan

Week 29: Southeast Asia

Week 30: Saharan Africa

Week 31: Saharan Africa

Week 32: Sub-Saharan Africa

Week 33: Sub-Saharan Africa

Week 34: “Down Under”

Week 35: The Pacific

Week 36: Wrapping things up!

We offer a FREE online textbook for our high school geography curriculum. You can access it here. The online textbook is used as a “spine” book for the curriculum. A spine book is used as a launching point (or backbone) for your studies.

Families have shared that their students LOVE the online book.

We’ve worked very hard to present information about geography concepts, places, people, culture, regional animals and more along with hand-picked videos, maps, illustrations, and photos in our online book to make geography and cultures understandable and interesting, even for reluctant learners.

We do not offer a printable version of the book.

Please see the F.A.Q. on the High School Geography and Cultures Curriculum Books and Resources page.

We are Christians, but Guest Hollow’s Geography & Cultures Curriculum is not intended to be a “Christian resource”. However, there may be infrequent (or what we consider to be) minor references or links to resources that mention Christian ideas, values, or sectarian topics even in our secular/non-religious/neutral curriculums.

If we schedule in a Christian book, we try to give you notice of such in the books and resources page.

Christians and non-Christians should preview the scheduled books and all other resources such as videos, etc. to make sure they are compatible with your beliefs, philosophies, and values.

After purchasing a curriculum, you’ll see that the item you just bought shows that it is discounted 50% in our store. The reason you are seeing this is because we give you the opportunity to repurchase the schedule and your downloads at a substantial discount before they expire (2 years from date of purchase).

Please note: You do NOT need to repurchase your schedule in order to use the files you originally purchased and downloaded. You can use your downloaded schedule forever and can click on the links just as you can the online version of the schedule. You just won’t have access to any updates after your online access expires.

Why does access expire? Every year we go through all our curriculum schedules and update broken links and/or replace books that have gone out of print. This is a very time-intensive process that keeps our curricula up-to-date. Your repurchase helps fund this process and provides you with a schedule that has all the new additions or changes.

You need to repurchase your access BEFORE it expires in order to get the 50% discount due to the way our “membership” software works. If for some reason you miss the deadline, let us know why. We may give you a coupon code for the 50% off at our discretion.

*It is our intention to provide access for a period of 2 years, however, access to the online version of the curriculum schedules and additional downloads is provided as a courtesy and is not guaranteed due to potential various circumstances on our end and yours including but not limited to various computer, device, and internet configurations.

This question is impossible for us to answer.

We do NOT in any way make any representations that any of our material will or will not work for establishing credit, being enough to conform to any educational requirements, or pass muster with any federal, state, local, or college requirements.  

We require instructors and parents to determine for themselves, from federal, state, and local authorities – as well as from any colleges that may be considered in the future what is specifically required in their family’s / student’s circumstances in order to meet requirements for credit, graduation, admission, and all other potential requirements and needs.

The morass of individual requirements in between states, municipalities, and colleges is such a tangled mess that we simply cannot help to determine the suitability of any materials or curricula in any meaningful way.    We strongly recommend that instructors determine the requirements and then compare those requirements to what is offered in our materials to see if the materials will pass muster with whatever requirements are extant in any given situation.  We also strongly recommend that when there are potential learning disabilities or challenges of ANY kind that instructors/parents seek professional guidance and qualified assistance with selecting materials to use and in their presentation.

In other words, the determination on whether a student has “accomplished enough for a credit” will NEVER be ours, it must be that of the authorities that you must answer to as well as the requirements of any continuing or higher-level education and institutions / tests that you will need to accomplish – and there is no way for us to either know or determine that. We suggest that you seek the assistance of qualified individuals that can determine whether or not our materials will meet all standards you need to meet prior to using our materials.

We are happy to answer your questions!!! Just email us at: guesthollow@memorableplaces.com

You’re invited!

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Click or tap the button to join our Facebook groups! You can get additional questions answered, see pictures of students’ projects, get help and encouragement from other homeschoolers, or browse through the multitude of posts to get a feel for our products and see what real people think of Guest Hollow!

Like what you see? Join the Guest Hollow family, and add Guest Hollow’s high School Geography and Cultures Curriculum to your cart!

Reviews: See what our customers have to say!

If you’ve used Guest Hollow’s High School Geography and Cultures Curriculum, we invite you to write a review and leave your thoughts about our curriculum. Scroll down to the review box below the following customer reviews. We look forward to seeing your feedback!

17 reviews for Guest Hollow’s High School Geography & Cultures Curriculum

  1. Paulette (verified owner) –

    My 9th grade son (and I) have really enjoyed this course and learned a lot about the world we live in. My son is dyslexic and appreciated the variety of video resources to go with the excellent book choices. We used this course set up on a Trello board to let him do most of his work independently.

  2. Debra Brinkman (verified owner) –

    We decided to split Guest Hollow Geography into two half-credit courses, and it was a fantastic decision. Doing each scheduled week over two weeks gives us more time to play with food on weekends and/or watch some travel videos. The course splits almost exactly in half by continent, so the working course names are Western World Geography and Geography of Africa and Asia. We’ll see if that is what stays on the transcripts.

    The online textbook is absolutely fantastic — and available FREE — but we are really loving the schedule and it was worth every penny. We do pick and choose from the books and videos, as doing it all would make this worth a full credit each year! But this means I can adapt to focus on what my two high school students are interested in and what I think is really important.

  3. Martha Artyomenko –

    I was looking for a program that would give a well rounded Geographical study with cultures and history study for a co-op class I was teaching to a range of ages from 7th-12th grade This one hit the spot. If your child is not a reader, there is tons of videos, audio books, and interactive ways to learn and choose from. If your child is advanced, they will have enough work to keep them busy. This is not an all or nothing program, but you can easily do what you can and learn tons.

  4. Amy (verified owner) –

    We are just finishing our first year using Guest Hollow. We are almost all the way through the high school geography. It has been really good! There is to much here and so we picked and chose what works for my family (a 14, 16 and 17 year old). My kids follow the reading schedule on their own, we watch the videos together as a family and my two oldest fill out the printable workbook. The books and videos are very interesting and we all enjoy them! I think we have all learned something this year!

  5. Stephanie Gaylor (verified owner) –

    My daughter and I are beyond excited to use this curriculum. We ordered it for the 2021-22 school year, but she has already started to watch some of the videos. I love that there is such a variety of books, videos and activities.

  6. Heather –

    My son and I are really enjoying this class this year. I love how adaptable it is, and that I can tailor it to his interests because there are so many options given. We are both learning so much!

  7. Mary (verified owner) –

    My daughter enjoyed the workbook because it was well thought out, easy to do, and straight to the point so that she didn’t need to search for answers like other workbooks that she has used in the past. The variety of resources allowed her to expand on any individual country that peaked her interest. The family enjoyed the wide variety of meals that went with the countries she studied. We visited multiple ethnic grocery stores and met so many wonderful individuals in our search for ingredients. The curriculum really did open the world up to us. I’m looking forward to using this again in two years.

  8. Alta Mahan (verified owner) –

    We decided to use this for our middle school Geography, and have started in 6th grade. We did the first 12 lessons this past year, and will do the next 12 next year, and finish up with our last year of middle school. This program is very adaptable for middle school. There are some books we choose to not use, only because of maturity levels. We are using the printed student book along with the online schedule. We found this curriculum has broadened our study of geography in ways we didn’t even know about. We have enjoyed ‘really’ getting to know the places we are learning about, from a social level to and artistic/historical level. Looking forward to continuing on in a few months when we start school back up again for next year.

  9. Corinne M (verified owner) –

    As I think many of us do, we spend a lot of time looking at curriculums that fit what we have in our heads and meets many needs, keeps our students interested and brings a wealth of knowledge. I had read about Guest Hollow in several different groups. So of course I did my own investigation because I needed something that would meet the needs of both my 6th grader and 9th grader yet push them a little to go beyond. Here we are at the end of year 1 having one week left in the course. The course was everything and more for my 2 kids (and secretly the extended family). The online textbook allowed us to look at maps, learn about cultures, gave us the start of many, many talking points. Then we were able to expand and dig deeper with other activities from art to cooking to finding a love for a culture and an appreciation for some of those things we take for granted. We cannot thank you enough for taking the time to create this beautiful curriculum. My students have finished with more than I could have dreamed. We look forward to using more from Guest Hollow!

  10. Carrie Y. (verified owner) –

    We used this curriculum for our 10th grade daughter’s Geography class. Wow, wow, wow!!!! This class is so interesting and engaging, it has come to be my daughter’s (and my) favorite class. She doesn’t even do it without me anymore, we do it together, we enjoy it so much! The selection of books and videos along with the schedule that allows you to pick and choose what interests your student makes it even more interesting because you can truly customize this class to make it work for your student. The course is also presented in a way in which your student will learn about things in so many ways (videos, books, workbooks, activities, etc…) that the information learned really does stick.

    Warning….the content is so interesting that you might not want to eliminate anything and just do it all!

    If you’re looking for an interesting Geography class, do not hesitate to purchase this class. Also, Charles and Jenn Guest are just about the kindest, most responsive people ever. If you have a question and need any type of support, they are always there for you and their wonderful facebook pages for each subject are a goldmine of helpful information as well!!

    I absolutely reccommend this Geography course. My daughter is planning on taking as many Guest Hollow courses as she can over the next 2 years and I’m even taking the Botany course myself for fun!

  11. Trisha Truman (verified owner) –

    This curriculum is absolutely our favorite part of homeschool! We always save it for last because we love ending on a fun note. My younger kids can’t help but pop into the living room for the last 45 minutes of high school. It has definitely made the world a smaller place for us, and increased our travel bucket list! Even my husband is learning about the world as the kids share at the dinner table! Highly recommend!

  12. Shelly (verified owner) –

    We loved this curriculum! The variety and content are amazing! Being able to individualize the curriculum to meet my son’s educational needs is invaluable. We have had a blast learning this year!!

  13. Alyssa (verified owner) –

    I’ve been using this curriculum with my 13 and 10 year old and we have had the best year! It is easily customizable to suit both their needs and a great mix of independent work (love the online textbook!) and reading/videos that we do together.

    I have particularly loved the multi-media approach and the breadth of material. Having so many books, websites, videos, music, activities, etc seamlessly integrated into each week’s curriculum gave me lots of options and kept my ADHD kiddo’s attention focused.

    I highly recommend this curriculum and can’t wait to use other Guest Hollow products!

  14. Andrea Mulder (verified owner) –

    This is an excellent curriculum with so much to choose from! While it can feel a little overwhelming, it is pretty easy to pare down to the bare bones and then add back in the activities and books that interests your child most. My 14 year old daughter loved this so much now she wants all her curriculum to be Guest Hollow! (And so it shall be!) I can’t wait to see what they come up with next!

  15. Torrin Stephenson (verified owner) –

    We were previously using a different World Geography course that just wasn’t working. My daughter hated doing it and she wasn’t learning anything. Luckily, someone online mentioned Guest Hollow. I came to check it out and it was like all my curriculum dreams were answered. It was everything I was looking for in a curriculum. The absolute best part is that my daughter LOVES it. She always picks it to do first. Not only does she love it, she is learning so much from it. So am I! The quality of the literature selections are top notch. Endless additional projects to do like cooking, art, or listening to music. I absolutely love how the videos are integrated in the curriculum. It saves me hours of researching appropriate vides for my daughter to watch. I am beyond pleased to have found Guest Hollow. It has been my dream curriculum. We are very much looking forward to using Whirlwind World History next year. This company is producing fantastic materials! Plus, it is so very reasonable in price. If you are on the fence, go for it. You will not regret it!

  16. Ann Su (verified owner) –

    My daughter will do her own review, but as a parent, I feel that this curriculum gave my child a good (highschool level) insight into the different cultures and geopolitcal issues of the countries. The books chosen are relevant and interesting (I read quite a few of them myself!). The online textbook was well written and not cumbersome. One of my favorites is the workbook; it is colorful and helps the child review (or research more) details. Highly recommended!

  17. Colleen –

    This is a great curriculum! The online textbook is easy to understand, and I love the workbook. I really enjoyed a lot of the books the curriculum suggested, and I had fun making many of the recipes. I appreciate how the workbook questions and some of the videos make me think about things deeper. Thanks, Guest Hollow; I had a great time exploring the different countries, people groups and their cultures! Side note: BEOWULF IS THE CUTEST EVER!!
    -Colleen, 9th grader

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