While growing up, instead of posters of pop bands or movie stars, I covered all 4 walls of my bedroom with National Geographic maps. Right next to my bed was a map of the United States which I traced with my finger the routes and places in my reading. By the time came to officially memorize the capitals I was ahead of the pack. Seton requires memorization of this information in the last quarter of 5th grade. While Tim was quizzing the children at supper the other night I realized that our method actually worked, both kids could spit out the capitals with ease, even Charleston, West Virginia which I'm pretty sure he thought was Wheeling.
Every day for weeks we have played Mad Dash, a fun geography game I picked up at the thrift store
followed by filling in a blank map of the US, xeroxed from Uncle Josh's Outline Map Book.
When she could fill it all in with no trouble we switched to my homemade color-coded flash cards to match states and capitals.
In less than 8 weeks she is better educated in US geography than many of today's high school seniors.
1 comment:
Hi,
I've been following your blog for a little while now, but I think this is my first comment.
I love Mad Dash and I wanted to let you know that there is also the game World Dash. A little more complicated, but still a lot of fun. Something to keep your eye open for.
I like the flashcard idea. In my family we have a US map and a world map on the wall in the kitchen. We play a game where one person starts by saying a state and the next person has to name a state touching that state (no peeking). We keep going until someone makes a mistake or you get stranded because you can't repeat the name of a state. We have also played it where we work as a team and try to get around all the states without stranding anyone. We have played a variation of this just using the state capitals. So, if I said Augusta, the next person would have to say Concord. That one requires you to think a bit more. Anyway, it's all fun!
I enjoy your blog. Thanks,
Sarah
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