Do you have 30 + years of National Geographic magazine piled up somewhere? If so drag them out, because I found a great way to entertain and educate! The pullout map of "where ever" that comes with every issue has become my son’s favorite current obsession.
I found one of Mount Everest (May 2003), on one side is a topography map made with digital images from the space shuttle marked with previous expedition trails and elevations etc. On the other side are small maps of the parks around Everest and the history of the people of the region.
My son took one look at the map and proclaimed it to be a "treasure map". So being the opportunistic teaching mom that I am, I grabbed a crayon and we sat down to trace the “trail to the treasure”.
While we were tracing along the expedition trails already on the map to hunt for the X (don’t forget to mark an X somewhere on the map) that marks the spot, I told him about Mt. Everest and why it was special. He loved it and continued on his own to follow the trails up and down the mountain peaks.
I plan to use this approach with other maps (I have decades of them). It’s great because we are finding a use for something that he can learn from and also carry all over the house with out hurting anything. Also it uses many learning skills… hand eye coordination, learning direction and following a map, history, math, reading and of course building imagination and story telling skills!
It works for us and maybe it will for you too!
*Note…special thanks to my mom for never throwing them away, Thanks Mom!
5 comments:
What an ingenious way to make learning fun!
i would have LOVED that when I was a kid. sounds like your making some really good memories
What a great way to teach!
You are so right with 40 years of National Geographics! All those magazines my DD wanted me to save are now piled over her house! There has to be a way to put them to better use than sitting in the basement!
Thanks for your comments, I'm glad I found a use for at least part of the magazine.
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