All About Maps

These last few months, S has been all about maps. I think it started with The Scrambled States of America. I had bought it to help K memorize his states last fall. It lay dormant for a time. Now S reads that to himself daily. 

A couple days ago, he began making Lego models of the states, including Utah and Texas.

He carries around a cookie cutter of the United States, and has requested I buy one for Alaska and Hawaii.

 I recently found this folded up world map and taped it above his desk. He's been happily studying it. "Mom! Antarctica looks like Australia!" He also spends a lot of his free time drawing his own maps.

Drawing his own maps.

 One day he took out our Landmark Flashcards (thank you Target dollar bins!) and placed all the U.S. cards on a map in the Scrambled States book, in approximate geographic order.

When I deep-cleaned his room, I took out the books in his middle school/toy bin. I told him it was now his maps bin, and asked him to put all his maps in it. He remembered his cookie cutter and his Lego states. 

Our fabric map also goes there. We've enjoyed it for a long time. Recently, however, S pointed out that the shape of Kuwait on the fabric map did not match the shape on our flashcard of the Kuwait City Towers.

Cory is home sick. Seeing S's flurry of mapmaking, he introduced him to Google Maps. "We're in Russia!" S exclaimed when I walked by the pair.
All of this (excepting Google Maps) was his own studying, his own projects. None of this was "assigned." If we ever end up homeschooling him--you know--for "real," I think he's a good candidate for Project-Based Homeschooling.