Remembering our travels

We moved to France when the girls were about 2.5 years old. We didn't travel much to start with, but once we started, so did the questions. "Where is that?" "What country is that in? "What country are WE in?" And so on. We did 2 things that really seemed to help the girls understand the basics of geography.

First we got a globe. This helped us teach the girls about the difference between Europe and the US. We would pull this out whenever we needed to explain why we had to take a plane to visit family or why we couldn't call the grandparents first thing on a Saturday morning. They still ask those types of questions but they are more refined now. We are more likely to hear "What time is it in (insert name)'s land?" or "Is it morning or afternoon in the United States?"

The other thing that we did was buy a large map of Europe and mounted it on a wall just outside the girls' room. Every time we traveled, we used a different color sticker to mark that trip. We started with simple circle stickers, but had to branch out as we had more visitors. Each family that visited got to use special stickers to mark all of the places that we went with them (you can click on the picture to enlarge it and see the stickers). Now the girls can talk about visiting "all the ribbit places" (Paris and Normandy) with AunT, Uncle D and their cousins A and Z this past fall. It also helps me remember where we went on each trip. REALLY good on those memory-lapse days.

We hope to travel more within the US once we move back, and I would love to continue this same idea with a US map. I am just not sure where it will go in the new place.

If you are looking for helpful suggestions that might make your life easier, go over to Rocks in My Dryer for "Works for me Wednesday."