Children begin to learn at an early age their "place in the world." Through their natural curiosity and in using their five senses to explore nature, children begin to understand human-environment relationships: sensing how to get from point A to point B on their own, experiencing the movement of products and people, and observing how places change over time. In this article, the author discusses how to match geography activities with the children's cognitive growth and explains why geography is important in the early years. She states that parents and teachers can lay the foundations for geographic concepts by understanding what is developmentally appropriate for the early years of childhood and then encourages rich and playful activities that build skills and knowledge. (Contains 12 notes.)