Nutty explorers and World History

I'm not a history buff. Let's face it, I can barely remember what happened last week, but I blame that on my kids. I made decent grade in school/college, though it didn't come easy and I can't honestly remember much: The history teacher that was a football coach (and my hubby wonders why I don't like football), the college prof. that had a unnatural attachment to the Wild West and railroads who based our grades on how we did on a computer (yes we had computers "back then") railroad game, and the Bible college prof that showed slide shows of his archeological digs at 7 a.m. each morning. My hubby? He does a lot better than I do, especially if it's sports related: who won the Superbowl in ___, what basketball player... , when did Rick Mears retire, or when did ___... I hope you get the idea. I honestly can't remember taking World History in HS, but I must have had it or I picked stuff up from teaching my own kids... I remember where I was when Elvis died (sorry, to all those out there who still believe he lives) when the POW's came back from the war, Nixion's impeachment proceedings, when the Challenger blew up, when The Berlin Wall came down, 911, OK City, Chernobyl, most of the presidents, and wars, and where most of the countries are (until they start changing them again)... Oldest is in 10th grade Pre-AP World History and had a posterboard project due today map the route that a certain explorer took and what did he do along the way... I am not in the ahbit of hehping my kids do their projects - I already paid my dues and graduated, I forgot to get the poster board. Granted Oldest could have written it on THE LIST instead of verbally telling me (he must have thought he had a better mom or something), but we were up until midnight, Only included because she wanted to help color the world). I must have slept when they talked about the explorer Ibn Battuta (1325-1354)and his crazy travels! Did we learn anything?

1. He didn't travel in straight lines.
2. An overhead projector is a must.
3. He went to the same places twice.
4. He traveled 75,000 miles in 30 years (mind you this is camel or hoofing times)
5. He was called the World First Tourist
6. He has a shopping mall named after him
7. Sonic does not stay open after 10 p.m. in our area.
8. They used different names for places, cities, and areas back then.
9. maps are not all the same...
10. Momma is very tired today and we'd better make a really good grade on this!