See Canada Up There By Costco?

I had a conversation with my grandma not too long ago about Lilly Gaskin, a 26-month old girl, who was on Oprah's World's Smartest Kids episode. My grandma was adamant that the girl was a genius. While I don't want to take away from how smart this little girl is (because no doubt she is), I think that given time, repetition, and creative parents, most kids are capable of such feats of memory.

Determined to prove my point I bought a state map and a country map and hung both on our kitchen wall.


Within minutes our daughter, who was 26 months at the time, could point to the state she was born in, the state we currently live in, and several surrounding states for each. Now she can say the names of the same states when we point at them. She also knows several countries (Canada, Mexico, China, Brazil, and Singapore) that are meaningful to us for one reason or another.

I have to admit that I haven't actively continued teaching her the rest of the states and countries. We have found other fun uses for the maps, we'll save that for another day... But, it did reinforce the idea to me that I should actively be involved in teaching my daughter the good things that I want her to learn. A little time, repetition, and creativity will help along the way.

So what is it you are teaching your kids? And how do you do it?

* The title of the post is the description our daughter gave one of her uncles when he asked her to show him where Canada was on the map.