My husband is a geography nut. When we used to do cross country road trips during college for internships he would pull out the Atlas and memorize the capitals of the Canadian provinces while crossing eastern Colorado. Or want to really get him ticked off let him watch one of those pieces on Leno or Letterman where they are on the street asking people where the capitol of the U.S.A. is and no one can get it right.
So I was out recently at a local learning/toy shop and came across a placemat that was a map of the United States. I knew he would be thrilled to be able to share his geography love with the kids, but it turned out it was me who got the ball rolling. See in order to get our nearly 4yr old daughter to eat her peas my husband does pea math...you know...5 peas take away (eating them) 2 leaves 3 peas. Well, I decided one night to do something similar, but with the placemat. And to make it fun we would focus on the States where we were planning to or have traveled to recently or have friends who we have or will travel with us shortly. This way it is something relevant and fun. In less than two weeks we have 13 states down with ease. Even the other night she did it with broccoli spears.
The placemat is from a company called Painless Learning Placemats. I found it at a locally, but see you can also order them on their website.
For your older children another fun thing a friend of ours in Michigan does with his boys is loads their travel destinations into Google Earth. This allows them to better see topography, relationships, and routes traveled. His boys love it.
Happy Learning!...and maybe getting some nutrition to "go" too.
So I was out recently at a local learning/toy shop and came across a placemat that was a map of the United States. I knew he would be thrilled to be able to share his geography love with the kids, but it turned out it was me who got the ball rolling. See in order to get our nearly 4yr old daughter to eat her peas my husband does pea math...you know...5 peas take away (eating them) 2 leaves 3 peas. Well, I decided one night to do something similar, but with the placemat. And to make it fun we would focus on the States where we were planning to or have traveled to recently or have friends who we have or will travel with us shortly. This way it is something relevant and fun. In less than two weeks we have 13 states down with ease. Even the other night she did it with broccoli spears.
The placemat is from a company called Painless Learning Placemats. I found it at a locally, but see you can also order them on their website.
For your older children another fun thing a friend of ours in Michigan does with his boys is loads their travel destinations into Google Earth. This allows them to better see topography, relationships, and routes traveled. His boys love it.
Happy Learning!...and maybe getting some nutrition to "go" too.
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