Ruby has a placemat with a world map on it, and after every meal is over, she pushes aside her dishes and says, “let’s talk about countries!” As a map lover, I can’t resist this entreaty. She started by pointing at the very largest countries and asking me what they were called. Soon she was also interested in medium-sized countries as well, and I realized she now knows a LOT of countries’ names, so I made a list.
When I point at the following countries, she can name them (these are the ones she knows best): Russia, Madagascar, Australia, Mongolia, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Greenland, Canada, United States, Antarctica, China, Mexico, Bolivia, France, Norway, Papua New Guinea.
When I ask her to point to these countries, she can (these are the ones she’s learned more recently): India, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Finland.
That makes 21 countries! There are other countries she’s just now learning where she knows the name but can’t reliably find them on the map (England, Germany, New Zealand, Singapore).
I swear I’m not pushing this on her; she’s as naturally interested in maps as I am. And I’ll add that she can identify most of these countries on other maps that have different colors. I’m amazed. Is this normal?
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But does she know if Africa is a continent or a country?
Toss that on video and I bet you go viral. lol.
That is really, really impressive, and probably more countries than many adults could name.
I’m gonna need to study up. For one, I don’t think I could identify Kazakhstan on the map, and it is a little humbling that I’m losing this game to someone who comes up to my knees. 🙂