Filling in the Blanks

The other day we got a postcard from one of my best friends. Patty and her daughter Trixie go to Colorado every summer for a vacation. They sent us a great postcard with a map of the state. Pictured on the map are things found in the state. My daughter zoned right in on the drawing of the dinosaur. Oddly enough my son noticed the hummingbird first. B found Denver on the map and we talked about how they put the capitols of states in a central location of a state so everyone can get to it.

Once we found Colorado on the map we found the places aunt Patty and Trixie visited. Now they want to go to a glacier to so they can have a snowball fight while wearing shorts. I would like to go to a glacier just to see it up close. Our state has a lot of features because of glaciers. It would be a shame to live here and reap the benefits of them without ever experiencing them personally.

Today we received a postcard from the parents of my best friend. I almost consider them family, I have known them as long as I can remember. They visited Ticonderoga, New York. My children have already had a couple postcards from New York so they had no problem finding New York on the map. Then because the postcard described Ticonderoga as being between Lake Champlain and Lake George. They already knew where Lake Erie and Ontario were. My daughter is fascinated by the finger lakes so and when she found out neither lake was a finger lake they looked on the other side of the state.

I love when I watch them looking for a place on the map. The excitement in their eyes is breathtaking. They found lakes and read their names, my 6 year old was reading the names of places she had never been to. The found Lake George first then found Lake Champlain. Just like the postcard said Ticonderoga was right between the two. I read that Lake Champlain was on a long fault, wow I never knew that. Though I knew about Champ, the local monster who lives in Lake Champlain. P asked me what a fault was, B thought it was something you did. I guess for a 6 year old that is what fault is.

We talked about earthquakes and how the earth's crust moves and somehow we started to talk about California, probably because that is where a lot of earthquakes occur. P asked about Tsunamis and we talked about Japan. Then back to California and we looked for photos of the San Andreas Fault. That is why I love exploring the world with postcards. We start at Ticonderoga and go to California and Japan. They ask the questions and lead the way, I just follow and fill in the blanks.