Fifty Nifty Unites States

When I was in third grade, my music teacher taught our class the time honored classic tune of "Fifty Nifty United States". You know how it goes..."Fifty Nifty United States....something something...shout em....something...tell all about em!...something something..."

Okay so maybe I don't remember ALL of the lyrics. But I am very thankful for learning that song because even if I don't remember the intro, I committed my little third grade self to fully memorizing the part of the song where you shouted all 50 states in alphabetical order. And thankfully, I can still recall all 50 states alphabetically in under a minute at the drop of a hat. Thank you, Miss Jefferson!

Now all of this to say... I am teaching my 2 year old about the 50 states. You may think that is a bit young for a child to learn the states, but let me remind you... we're dealing with a prodigy here. Not to mention she probably has a natural gift for learning the states passed down through my DNA. Also, she's already learned all of her colors, shapes, numbers, letters, and animals. I really wasn't sure what the next step for learning was but I could tell that if I didn't challenge her with something soon she was going to get bored real quickly, and I was pretty sure it was a bit early to learn the periodic table of elements.

So I printed off a map of the United States that shows each state in a different bright color. I wasn't sure how it was going to go, but we dove head first into learning over the weekend. I pointed out to her the following states because I thought they would be the easiest: Kentucky (because duh), Texas, California, Florida, and Maine.

I showed them to her 1 time and then quizzed her to see if she could remember. And y'all. My smart little whipper snapper remembered every single one. Such a proud mama! I taught her a few more states, and we ended up turning it into a game where for every one she answered correctly she was treated to a goldfish cracker. I realize this may appear to resemble the way to train a puppy on how to sit and rollover, but whatever, it worked!

In addition to Kentucky, California, Texas, Florida, and Maine, she also now knows Nevada, Georgia, Alaska, Illinois, Montana, and North Dakota.

Y'all. My 2 year old daughter knows where North Dakota is on a map of the United States. Somebody call the Ellen show. She's going to want to see this.

Now before you go feeling sorry for Amelia that her drill sergeant mama quizzes her on state memorization "for fun", rest assured that we also know how to have real actual fun in the Nation household too.

For one thing, over the weekend I let Amelia drive the grocery cart with the plastic car attached to the front at Kroger. Only fun moms break out the car grocery cart, believe me. Amelia honked the horn all throughout the aisles while exclaiming "Beep! Beep!" to everyone we passed. And we only ran into one display of cereal boxes and barely scraped the end of the aisle with the gift card display a teeny bit, which may have caused a fellow shopper to tell Amelia she needed to "help Mommy drive."

And if you're still not convinced that we know how to have fun, let me just drop this bomb on ya. Amelia told me I was funny. Through bouts of laughter she literally shrieked, "you're funny!". I could now die happy.

Now enough of this happy, funny stuff. Back to the map, Amelia. It's time to learn about the great plain states.