Kid Geography: Scrambled States of America and activities

My son has been interested in the United States puzzles.  We have one that is a wooden puzzle that we have been working on which he loves.  The states are color coded so that the similar state colors go together but he is starting to recognize them and try to read the names of the capitols.

We got a Melissa and Doug floor puzzle with the states because he was enjoying the other puzzle.  It was a great find at a consignment sale which we use all the time.

 
The Melissa and Doug floor puzzles are great because they are durable and if you can find them at a deep discount, they are well worth the cost.  We have a puzzle shelf in a corner of our spare bedroom (which has gotten a little out of hand).  If you are looking at the picture and wondering why all of my puzzles are upside down, all of the big Melissa and Doug floor puzzles have the box tops underneath so that my son can get to the pieces without having to open the top.  The boxes are really hard to open and my son used to have to ask me to open each one which makes puzzle making less of an independent activity and the boxes were left on the ground and getting smashed and broken.  The boxes are the same size so they can easily pile on top of each other.  It is always great to make your learning tools so that kids can get at them when they want.  We also have two foam floor mats on top which he likes to get out and building and the cubby holds other extra smaller stuff.

When we went to the library, I saw a DVD for the Scrambled States of America which I thought looked interesting.  It was really funny and had all of the states deciding to try out other areas to see if they liked a different part of the country.  It was a great story about liking who you are for the kids but also great because it mentions all of the state names and moves them around the country and then moving back.  There are two other stories on the DVD including This Land is Your Land and The Star Spangled Banner which both had great pictures and songs through out.  

I learned that there was a book that goes with which is The Scrambled States of America by Laurie Keller.
I think that we might have to check that one out of the library too!!  My son thought the story on the DVD was very entertaining and talked about it for days.

We also got a great deal on a globe from Leap Frog at a garage sale (it sells for $95 in stores and online and my mom got to $7).  My son has played with it a little bit but it is still advanced for him.  I think that it is great to introduce a few things that they can play with before it is something that they will use to learn with because then it doesn't seem like as much work because they are already familiar with how it works and how to use it.

If we have lots of fun with it now, I am hopefully that all of things that we will have to learn later will be easier like state capitols but we are long way from learning that information.  We are also going to look for a book that is good for different information about the states so that we can learn a little more about each state starting with our own, Virginia.  I hope that you have fun learning about the United States with your kids because there are a lot of fun things to learn!!!