Postcards from the Past

As homeschool parents who seize every opportunity to teach, and view the world as our classroom, we have added some learning ideas around our home. We have a clear tablecloth on our table over a map of the United States. We also have the times tables, the planets, and very large write-n-wipe A, B, C, D, and E, but this story is about the map.

I love to hear people’s comments about the map, not about the map as a tablecloth, but their stories about the places they’ve visited or lived.

Someone left her purse behind while traveling through Texas. Someone lived in Arizona and fell in love for the first time as a young girl. Someone else traveled to northwest Iowa every summer of her childhood. Someone else traveled to Minnesota every summer of her childhood. Someone was born in Florida. Someone wants to visit California some day. Someone has been to Mexico, but not Canada. Someone took his senior trip to Washington, D.C. Someone has been to Toronto. Someone toured a missile silo out west. Someone saw the Grand Canyon. Someone’s been to Vegas.

Listening to these stories is a little bit like receiving postcards from the past, and I like it. I have printed up blank maps for my children. They can color the states they have been to or driven through. Tim’s map includes five states, including California while Sarah’s has Kentucky and Ohio, and Marc and Luc each have the same four states. What would your map look like? http://www.nationalatlas.gov/asp/popups.asp?imgFile=../printable/images/preview/outline/states(u).gif&imgw=588&imgh=450