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World Geography - Countries and Capitals

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World Countries and Captials

About six years ago I decided that I wanted to learn all the country names of the world. I had no geography course or books, so I decided to look online. I found a ton of useful pages! I started with just a few sites of quizzes, and over the years have come to find many, many more sites that are great learning tools. This year I decided to learn all the capitals that go with all those countries I know, so now I have even more sites.

I have compiled a great list resources over the last six years. I created this page so others could have the benefit of all my searching without the six year investment. :) Have fun, enjoy, and Happy Learning!

Country Lists

There are several lists of countries. You would think they would all be the same, but you would be wrong. There are sovereign states, which we know as countries. There are de facto states - countries not recognized by all other countries. Then there are dependent territories which in itself has two categories. Self-governing territories - Territories that have their own government, and non-self-governing territories - Territories that are governed by their "Mother" country. Some territories like, Western Sahara are listed as non-self-governing territories and de facto states. It can get confusing at times, but you'll get it eventually. :)

Some lists and quiz sites use all countries and territories as countries, but most only use the list of sovereign states.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: List of sovereign states only
Information about Countries: A list of countries and information about them.
List of dependent territories: List of dependent territories, self-governing and non-self-governing.
United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories: Lists only non-self-governing territories
Online Interactive Maps: List of countries and capitals in a scroll-over map form.
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: This lists shows a list of countries by population and density.

Online Quizes

These are links to the sites I used to learn all the countries and capitals. My favorite is Lizardpoint, but I use all of them at different times because I didn't want to just learn the names once, I wanted to master that information. By using multiple sites I am able to learn what country the listed capital is in, and what the capital of the listed country is. It's helpful to know it both ways.

Lizard Point: Clickable Map Quizzes - just click on the map to answer the questions. Great geography practice for students of all ages.
Trivia Plaza: Flags, Countries, Cities, Landmarks and Capitals Geography quizzes. Have fun with this World quiz and get a grade for your trivia knowledge in this online Geography Trivia Quiz.
I like 2 learn: Geography map quizzes
JetPunk.com | Geography Quizzes: Geography Quizzes
Funbrain.com Where is that: Improve your geography skills. Fun game teaches states and countries with their capitals.
Rethinking Schools - Just For Fun - Map Quiz: Limited area map quiz
World Maps - geography online games: World geography quizzes galore - over 250 fun online map games teach capitals, country locations, and more. Also info on the culture, history, and much more.
Gimme5games - Bod World: This game is really fun. It works well for people who need scoring as a motivation. If you miss too many questions you're out, but if you get 5 in a row right, you get bonus points. This game includes questions on country location, capital, physical size, and population.
Maps.com: Several geography games and quizes
Map Puzzles: Learn United States and World geography with Maps that Teach. Free interactive maps to learn continents, countries, states, capitals, borders, physical features and cultural monuments.
Can you name the Countries of the World?: You have 15 minutes to type in as many countries of the world as you can. This one gets tricky because a lot of countries aren't spelled like I think they should be. ;)
Border countries Quiz: Name any bordering country for the listed countries.
Geography Quizzes and Games: This site has almost 500 geography quizzes.

Online Flashcards

These are a great way to quiz all the countries and capitals of the world at once, as opposed to one continent or geographical area at a time.

Flashcards: Study History & Geography Flash Cards: I work mostly in the "Regions" section of this menu.
Country Capitals Flashcards: Full list of countries and their capitals
World Capitals flash cards: Tests on all 193 countries and capitals. Includes studying games and tools such as flash cards.
Countries+Capitals study tools: All Countries and Capitals of the World. flashcards, matching games, crossword, hangman and other study tools.

Printable fill-in maps

Sometimes I like to print fill in maps to label the countries and capitals that way. It's just another way for your brain to understand and retain the information.

Outline Maps: Free outline maps for geography tests. Blank world map, blank map of Europe, United States, Africa, and Asia.
Limited area printable map: This site is just one map, but it serves it's purpose. Every map helps. :)
Outline Maps: You have the option to print these maps with or without the labels.
Print Maps Large and Small: Print maps of all sizes. Up to 66" x 86". The larger sizes print out on multiple sheets of paper for you to connect together.

Audio Pronunciation sites

Let's face it. A lot of these capital names are just a little hard to pronounce. Even when I think I have it right I always check on one of these sites to be sure. A lot of the time I'm totally wrong. LOL I spent years thinking that Belarus was pronounced Bell - ar - us. When someone asked me where Belarus was, (correctly pronounced Bella - rüs) I didn't know where it was because I had never heard of that country before. It really pays to take this step and find out the correct pronunciations.

inogolo: Pronounce the Names of People, Places, and Stuff in English: Pronunciations in English. Not all countries and capitals are listed on this site.
Forvo.com: This stie has pronunciations for most countries and capitals in English and other languages as well.
Merriam-Webster Online: This dictionary site has audio pronunciation for quite a few, but not all countries and capitals.

World Photography

I have started a new project to get a picture from every country in the world on my computer as a screen saver. There are a lot of countries and even more pictures of them, so this is a long process, but it's worth it. You can learn so much about a country just by looking at the pictures that are taken of it.

Panoramio - Photos of the World: This is a great tool. Pictures are shown on a map. You can zoom to see individual pictures. You can also search for pictures of the location you're looking for.
World Photography: Free Download of all Pictures with a link or reference. Most photos from amateur photographers.
PicturesOfPlaces.com - World Travel Pictures!: Pictures of places all over the world! Come see the world at picturesofplaces.com. Travel destinations, pictures and photos!
Pictures from around the World: Photos and Pictures from Around the World
Google Maps: Click on "More" to see photos, videos, and webcams.

Software

Here are a couple of download-able geography programs.

Google Earth: An awesome program! You can look at satellite pictures of the entire Earth.
Google Maps: This is very similar to Google Earth, but it's online. It's doesn't have all the features of Google Earth, but it has some options that are not on Google Earth. It will default to a road map, but you can click on "Satellite" to see satellite images. You can also click on "More" to see photos, videos, Wikipedia pages, and webcams.
Free Geography Software: This is a list of a bunch of download-able geography programs. Some are completely free, and others are just a free trial.
Share Archive - Education : Geography Software Download: Another list of download-able geography programs. Some are free and some are not. All prices are listed.

Country Studies

I recently created a Country Studies Report Form for my daughter and thought you may like to have access to it also. I have included a few more links here that will help with finding the information requested on the form.

Homeschool Tip: My daughter is taking the information from this form and putting it into a Power Point presentation. If you want to use only the paper form, you could printout and attach photos to the form.

If you have any suggestions as to what to add, please send me a message and I'll consider putting it on the form. Enjoy!

Country Study Form: 3 page PDF Country Study Report Form
The Weather Channel: To find current weather information in the capitol cities.
Countries of the World : geography, tourism, politics, economy, culture: This is an excellent site that will give you a lot of the information you will need to fill in the country study form. Make sure to check the Detailed Information tab at the top of the page for more information.
Sunrise and sunset times around the World - Gaisma: Sunrise and sunset times around the World. This site will also give you information on how far the country you are studying is from your home. Scroll to the bottom of the page. It is listed as Distance. It will give an approximate distance from your IP.
XE - Universal Currency Converter: You may have to click on More Currencies to find the currency for your country.
The World Clock & Time Zones: The World Clock shows current local time and date in cities and countries, in all time zones.
Houses around the World: Pictures and descriptions of houses from a few countries around the world.
Earth Calendar: A list of holidays from around the world. You can search by date or country.
Flags of the World - World Flags, Flags of Countries, International Flags - Worldatlas.com: Flags of the world with basic information such as date the flag was first used and color meanings.
Flags of the World: Flags of the world with more in-depth information.
Geography Statistics: Lots of great information on this site. Including bordering countries, land area, total area, precipitation, and population.
Border Countries: Alphabetical list of countries and their bordering countries.