Last year, just after she turned three, we went to Disneyland and while she had expressed interest in the zoo map before, Disneyland was the first time I realized that she understood maps and knew how to read them. It was rather disconcerting. We gave her a map to play with, but we didn't expect her to understand what it was. She pointed to the tea cups on the map and told me that is where we were and then several minutes later, she followed the path up into Toon Town and told me that is how we got to Mickey's house, where we now were.
I'm no expert on three-year-olds, but I was surprised that she made the connection so easily between real-life and a two-dimensional drawing. She "gets" maps. She gets what they represent and even though we have been to the zoo four times this year, and don't need a map to get around, we get one to give her because she loves to follow our path on it.
She knows how to get to all of our usual places around town and often asks what town we are in or what street we are on when we are on the move. Too bad I don't have a simple map of the town for her to use in the car.
So last week she started asking for a globe. She had seen a rather crude world map in the back of a book we got from the library, and loved looking at where she lives now and where she was born and where her daddy goes on trips. She was very adamant about her need for a globe so Monday afternoon, we went and bought a globe and she loves it. Now when C jets off to Japan or Spain or wherever, she can look at the globe and see where he is at.
I'm just very happy that she has my map-reading skills. I was well into my 20's before I realized that not everyone can read a map. I love watching her grow...watching her look at a map and understand what it represents...watching her read and start to understand basic addition...it's amazing to watch her learn and I can't wait to see what she picks up next.
1 comment:
How exciting! It's amazing to watch their little brains so hard at work, isn't it?
An idea for you -- when Katherine was little, she was also really good with maps. We got a world map that was pretty detailed AND was laminated. We hung it on her bedroom wall and whenever daddy traveled (at that time he was traveling around the world), we would put a little smiley face sticker on the city he was in and she'd trace the "route" with her finger from NH to wherever. She ALWAYS noticed that daddy had to fly over the ocean. We still have that map, with all the little stickers, but James doesn't even show one little iota of interest in it. :D
Post a Comment