Briana has been asking me to show her how to read a real map
for 2 weeks now. Last week was her
4th birthday and in all of the preparations I did not plan an
activity for the week – the first time since I started the blog that I didn’t
do an activity (except holidays and vacations). While she was happy with new toys to play with, Briana was
still angry that we didn’t do an activity. She made me promise on the way to school on Monday morning that
we would definitely do a map activity after naptime. I’m happy that she’s thirsty for new knowledge.
When the kids get up from their naps, I uphold my end of the
promise and am ready to teach them how to read a real map. They, however, insist that Barbie and
Ken need new clothes on before we can start. Apparently, learning about maps is a black tie affair in
Barbie’s world. Now we’re ready.
Directions
The first thing we do is to learn what directions are on a
map. I draw a star on the dry
erase side of their easel and tell them that the star is where we are now. Then I draw an arrow up and tell them
that if we go up on a map, that is called North. I put a big capital N at the top of the arrow. I draw an arrow pointing down and tell
them that down is called South. We
practice saying North and South.
Then I draw an arrow to the right and the kids both say “right” and Bree
adds “r-r-right. Draw an R
there”. I tell them that on a map,
the right is called East and the left is called West. We practice all of our new directional words, and then Abby
erases the board so I draw it again, this time writing out all of the words.
Briana grabs the marker and draws a new line and asks what
that line is called. I tell her
it’s called southwest. I draw all
of the lines in and Abby decides that she needs to write the letters over. She makes a very respectable E. We’ll only talk about the E. J
Compass
Then I move us on to seeing the directions in action. I grab my new iPhone and show the kids
the compass. I tell each of them
to walk and tell me what direction they are going by looking at what letter is
written at the top of the compass.
They love this and Briana squeals that this is just how real pirates
find buried treasure – with a compass!
We play with the compass until I
start to fear for my new toy and decide to reclaim it from the kids.
The Map
FINALLY I get to the real map – a
Rand McNally map that I keep in the car.
My dad instilled in me a love of
maps. I remember how my dad used
to love getting a new Rand McNally map before any roadtrip and we’d lay it out
on the dining room table and plan out our route. The whole trip I’d try to ride in the front seat while my
dad drove. He’d let me put my feet
up on the dashboard – a serious offense to my mom – and I’d lay the map out on
my legs and try to follow along our route. My dad would periodically ask what the next big city that
we’d go through would be and I’d try to find out by consulting the map. Then he’d ask how many miles until we
got there. I’d have to add up all
of the tiny little mileage numbers on the route until the next big city. Then he’d ask when I thought we’d get
there. I’d take the mileage and
divide by our speed. Then we’d see
if I was right. It really made the
time go by when you’re holding your breath in anticipation for the last 5
minutes into any big city, hoping that the clock says what you’ve
predicted. I can’t wait to do the
same with my girls, but alas I fear they will just glance up and the GPS and roll
their eyes about my paper map. But
for now they are as excited as I am to really look at my map.
I ask where they’d like to
go. “Texas!” Bree screams. We’ve been talking about roadtripping to Texas to visit the
grandparents lately. I point out
on their placemat and again on the map overview where Ohio is and where Texas
is. They correctly tell me
that we need to head “south and a little bit west”. I started with the placemat because it was a simplified
version in case the map itself was overwhelming, but neither girl is phased, so
I put the placemat away and we just use the map ongoing.
We trace out multiple paths to
Texas from Ohio.
Then I tell them that the big blue
lines represent highways. “Life is
a highway” sings Abby. So we all
sing some Tom Cochran while I have the girls find a highway path from Ohio to
Texas.
Next we dive further into the map
by opening a map of just Texas. We
find highway paths to get from Dallas to San Antonio and all around the
state. I have the kids read the
highway number for the highway that we are “driving” on. This is already more detail than I was
expecting to be able to show them so I’m thrilled.
The kids then decide to jump to a
new state. Abby takes this
literally and jumps on the map, asking “Where am I now?”. Bree thinks this is hilarious and a
new, destructive game is born.
I allow them to turn the pages
randomly and then scream “JUMP!” and jump on the pages (although I worry about
the pages being ripped) because when they jump on, they ask me where they
are. I read the page and
tell them which state, or on many occasions, states, they are now in. We then consult the US map overview
page and decipher how we jumped.
The kids love that they can make the “Biiiiggg West and then a South Jump”
all the way from Michigan to California, and they follow up by jumping as far
as they can to the left to reenact the first jump. This kind-of baffles me since they found California by
randomly flipping pages and then they jumped on it – but I guess in their
imaginations they actually jumped from the previous location (Michigan) to
California. They are having fun
and learning North/South/East/West so that’s fine by me.
When we finish we call my husband
to see when he’s coming home from work.
He gets an earful of kids screaming about compasses and jumping states. I love maps, and didn’t see this level
of excitement coming. While I cook
dinner Briana sits down at the table – with a Barbie and Ken in their 3rd
outfit for the day (Barbie ready for a night out on the town and I have no idea
where Ken is going in a tuxedo top and jeans and his king crown, but I
digress), and Briana teaches Barbie how to read a map.
I’m really excited for our next
roadtrip now. Even if we will
really be relying on GPS’s instructions, we can have fun following along on the
map. As Abby sings, “Life is a
highway…I want to drive it ON MY OWN.
Hey!” Now, one day, she can
- without getting lost.
<3 Pedigreed Housewife
I learned something about maps here. I never have been able to read the things. And the jumping states was laugh-out-loud funny.
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