Sunday, July 26, 2009

Fun with maps

I ordered a United States highway map last week. Its arrival on our table has prompted all kinds of realizations. The first was that I finally need reading glasses. Well, at least for this map. (I kind of like them. They make me feel wise.) It's been fun figuring out different possible routes for our trip to the northeast next month. Then there is the fantasizing about a future road trip to Montana; and the planning for next week's much anticipated short trip to hang out with unschooling friends at a state park, down south!

In addition, this map (as well as the road atlas and state maps that started to accumulate on the table) caused Jesse to pull out his old puzzle map. Tonight, after dinner, he asked us to hold this map and play a game of capital guessing with us. Turns out he's been looking at this map a lot lately. He knew most of them! Nicolas, hoping to do better in his world capital knowledge, then brought the world map off the wall. (I too have been humbled by this nine year old. Yesterday he beat me in Bananagrams.)The whole world in his hands:In awe of his Papa. : )

6 comments:

mrs boo radley said...

Oh my goodness, I was CRAZY for maps, geography, climates, state capitals, etc., when I was little.

But we didn't travel hardly at all when I was little because of the farming...

So now having lived in a few different places in my twenties, I feel like I've gotten the chance to experience a few climates and places and spaces.

Christy said...

We love maps here! We have them all over the walls.

Tamar Orvell said...

Back after a too-long hiatus. I rejoice in your nonstop learning — intentionally and along the way. Glad geo-wise ones are close by. I just checked out of my library "Don't Know Much About Geography," because the companion "Don't ... History [really, American History] I cannot put down. I grew tired having my eyes glaze over when a reference was made to an oft-heard place that I couldn't identify on a map or in history, including now. Kurdistan, Kilimanjaro, or even Rwanda, where our mutual beloved pal is headed off to this week all come to mind.

Madeline Rains said...

Thanks for the comments. I wish I had looked at maps more as a child. My sense of where I am has always bee a bit off. The kids have made me super interested in geography.

Welcome back Tamar! Does she leave this week?! Wow. I need that book.

Sarah said...

A road trip to Montana? That would be quite a trip. I believe Billings is eight hours from where we are here in southern Idaho.

I remember talking to our farriers at the stable in Ireland and they'd come over from the opposite coast to do the stable's hoof care. Very different distances from coast to coast.

When I was little, my sense of 'place' was off too. I used to think that when we visited family in Utah, it was daytime in Oklahoma when it was nighttime there.

Madeline Rains said...

yep, it will be a looong road trip. But hopefully an adventure. It is too expensive for all of us to fly there.