Russia is really big mom!
We have been feeding the boy's natural curiosity, which has resulted in a fascination with world geography. In trying to pinpoint exactly how or why, I think it came down to "where's grandma?" and the Olympics.
The result?
First there is the birthday surprises. Declaring a few states his favorites, I wrote the governors of those states, asking for them to take a minute to write Will a birthday note. He got a birthday proclamation from New Mexico, a governor trading card from Louisiana, a note from Tennessee, and a book and postcard from Alaska.
This has also lead to the playing of two games, Stack the States and Stack the Countries. You are given a question and 4 choices, and have to answer correctly to earn a piece of land to stack up. Once you cross the line, you earn a randomly chosen state or country. I power played both until I earned the US, then the world!
For a birthday present - nerd alert - we got him a globe. First thing he did was look for Michigan, and next, Russia. Daily, he has brought me the globe the minute he wakes up, either pointing to a new country or asking to help him find another country. "Mom, Brazil is so big!"
I'm pleased that he can, at least in an abstract sense, understand the concept that the world is much bigger than our backyard. He took his first plane ride at 3, something I never did until I was 26. At his young age, he is much more traveled than I was, and has already decided his new life ambition is to be an adventurer.
In keeping up with an ambitious adventurer, mom has been relearning her geography to a few surprises. I've got North and South America down cold. Europe took me a while since the geography I learned was during the Soviet years. The "ia" sisters and the "stans" have made me stumble. I'm slowly but surely getting the middle east and Asia; Africa and the Australian area islands are just going to have to wait.
So we are all learning something new and fascinating about our world.
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