I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list.

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page." --Saint Augustine

Ready for another fun and easy activity with your kids?

My kids love maps. I don’t know if it’s a passing fancy or if they inherited it from their granddad who also loves maps. Either way, we’ll take this opportunity and run with it!

I use glossy maps from the dollar store and white erase markers, so I can wipe it off and use it multiple times (because we use this as an ongoing study tool). Do you have any outdated AAA maps sitting around your house, or old driving atlases you don’t mind being destroyed? Or you can print one, or draw one—whatever you have on hand! (Just don’t mark on it if you wanna use the map again!) The point is, get your map out and y’all are going to talk about it.

We always start with something easy like, directions. Which way is north, south, east, west? Where do we live? Once they can recognize our state, we move on to where grandma, grandpa, and cousins live, where Davy Crockett was born (Tennessee), where Davy Crockett died (the Alamo, Texas), and where Davy Crockett served as a US congressman (Washington DC).

Can you tell that someone in our family REALLY loves Davy Crockett?

But you can make this about whatever YOU want! My older kid has graduated to a world map (even a globe, at times), and we now identify oceans, continents, and more. This week, we started talking about where COVID-19 originated (Wuhan, China) and that led to an opportunity for all kinds of conversations!

Map reading is a super-useful skill, even in these modern, smartphone times (Bus schedules! Vacation plans! PIRATE TREASURE!!!!) and who knows where this activity may eventually lead? You can stick with a geography study or use it as an intro to cultural studies or dive in to history or plan a future adventure… The possibilities are basically endless!