My Little States Expert

For Christmas, my daughter received two US States puzzles and quickly mastered them. We had one for our house and one for my parents house. She would do the puzzle at least once a day for most of January or February. She got to the point that she could identify a state if we held the piece up to her backwards so she couldn't see the words and pictures.

Since she has an iPod Touch, I went searching for a states app for her. I found the free app GeoMaster - US States. This state shows a map of the contiguous 48 states and gives you a capital and state name and you have to tap the corresponding state (once to tap the general area and once to tap the exact state). It says the capital and state aloud and displays them. She quickly mastered this application often reeling off 40+ states correct in succession. While I knew the 50 capitals once upon a time, I have to admit that she has helped me to remember them.


With the release of the iPad2, we decided to buy a discounted first generation iPad. While GeoMaster - US States will run on the iPad, she had already mastered that application and it was running at lower resolution in the large screen size. So, I started searching for a different application. I decided to give Stack the States a try. There is a lite version, but I decided to buy the full version because it includes extra state games. Stack the States is also nice in that it is both an iPad and in iPhone application.

My daughter loves Stack the States. The application will give you a multiple choice question providing 4 possible states. The questions include identifying a state by name, matching a state to its abbreviation, capital, landmark, nickname, bordering state or country, or "large" city. After answering the question right, you will be given a state to add to your stack. Once you stack your states to the line, you will be rewarded with a state for your collection. As you collect more states you will unlock three additional games. Also, with time, your line will rise higher making it harder to earn your states.

The application does require reading since it does not read the questions aloud. My daughter does need a little help since she is still a beginning reader, but she is getting more confident in her reading on this application. Also, I talk her through some of the questions when she does not know the answer.

My daughter has learned so much about the states playing this game. I even learn something about some lesser know state parks, state nicknames, or some of the smaller cities. She is also learning about stacking the states to keep them from toppling learning a little physics.

My only complaint about the game is that some of the "major cities" are not that major. For example, the other day we were asked what state Columbus was in. My daughter and I both thought it was easy - Ohio. But, Ohio was not one of the choices. We ended up having to guess. I don't remember which state it was in. There have also been a few other small cities that I only knew because of living in the area.

With her fascination with the states, I have told my husband we are going to need quite the travel budget to keep her satisfied. She has already been to 13 states at age 5 and will be adding one more shortly.

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Discovering Reading

My daughter is learning to read. For a couple of years, she has been great at picking out store and brand names. She has also learned her name and can pick it out among the variations.

But, she is starting to recognize sight words. She surprised me two weeks ago by knowing how to read her colors. She brought me a color by number page in a coloring book and crayons. I figured I'd color a line under each word so she could do it independently. As I look at it she says, 4 is pink. With some encouragement she recognized red, blue, orange, green, and yellow as well.

It is a tough road, because she has a wonderful memory and can remember a story the second time you read it which means I'm constantly searching for new reading material.

Last year for Christmas, my mother-in-law got her a subscription to Highlights High Five Magazine. Each month she gets a new issue. Each issue has stories, hidden pictures, a recipe, silly pictures, a game, and more. For the beginning of the year, she was not too interested in the magazine, but lately has been devouring them. Yesterday, she was searching each magazine to check out the recipe and decide if she liked it. We made peanut-butter honey dip for bananas yesterday.

We were just reading a story and she wants to read it, but she also keeps looking to the pictures to figure out the words. I'll point to a word & ask her what it says and she moves her eyes up to look at the picture. She is starting to figure out to at least look at the first letter to match the picture with a letter.

I am also figuring out, that we need to carve reading into some part of the day other than nap or bedtime. At those times, she tells me she is too tired & I should just read it.