{"id":1249,"date":"2010-08-05T23:28:38","date_gmt":"2010-08-06T06:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/?p=1249"},"modified":"2010-08-05T23:28:38","modified_gmt":"2010-08-06T06:28:38","slug":"free-learning-united-states-geography-tool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/free-learning-united-states-geography-tool\/","title":{"rendered":"Free – Learning United States Geography Tool"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Lori Cunningham<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Excellent<\/a>Recently, a friend of mine, Janet,\u00a0told me about this great website she’d found on the Internet to teach her daughter about our 50 states.\u00a0 Janet’s daughter is entering 5th grade and she wanted to give her a head start on some of the things she’ll be learning this year in school.<\/p>\n

The website is a free educational website produced by Sheppard Software<\/a>.\u00a0 They profess to have “hundreds of educational games, activities, quizzes, articles and more for kids and everyone to use online – and free!”\u00a0 There is so much to look at, I’d probably need to write a 10 post series on all of the resources!\u00a0 At first glance, the website with all its vibrant colors appears simplistic.\u00a0 To me, it didn’t appear to have a lot of “depth,” meaning it didn’t look like it would be very engaging.\u00a0 But, looks can be deceiving!<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/a><\/p>\n

Today I want to focus on the US Geography Names <\/a>section of the website.<\/p>\n

On the US Geography Names page, you can learn about Capitals, States, and Landscape (rivers, oceans, and lakes).\u00a0 For each of these three sections, there is a tutorial\u00a0 to explain where the Capital, State, or Landscape item is located.<\/p>\n

First you start with the Tutorial<\/strong>, which tells your child the name of every state s\/he clicks on.\u00a0 There is a drop down list to the right, I recommend you help your child to learn by regions first (ie, Southern States, Great Lake States, Pacific States, etc.)<\/p>\n

Now you’re ready for States 1<\/strong>.\u00a0 In this level, the game says the name of a state and wants you to click on the outlined state within a region in which is belongs.\u00a0 If you get it wrong, you get two more chances before it shows you the right location.<\/p>\n

Once you’ve mastered States 1<\/strong>, you’re ready for States 2<\/strong>.\u00a0 In this level, you drag the picture of each state into the correct spot.\u00a0 The game works region by region so placement is easier.\u00a0 However, the are no states lines, so it is still a challenge.\u00a0 This is where you begin to see how rivers tend to divide state lines.<\/p>\n

The fun continues until you reach States 9<\/strong> where you are to drag, rotate it, and size each state onto the map.\u00a0 Talk about difficult!\u00a0 Perhaps at this level, it stops being fun!\u00a0 LOL!<\/p>\n

I spent two hours with my 7 year old daughter playing the States game.\u00a0 We started with the Tutorial<\/strong> and worked ourselves up to Level 4<\/strong>.\u00a0 She couldn’t wait for her daddy to get home.\u00a0 After dinner, she took him into our office and showed him the game.\u00a0 He was overjoyed to see how much she knew about the location of the states.\u00a0 UNTIL….<\/em><\/strong><\/span>she turned the tables on him and asked him to place the states on the map without boundaries!\u00a0 He squirmed a bit and then asked her to help him place them.\u00a0 She was delighted to help.<\/p>\n

When my friend first told me about the game, I was intrigued, but not moved enough to go find the website.\u00a0 After all, aren’t we all too busy these days?\u00a0 But once you see how the game works, you get hooked, and it was a great bonding time for my daughter and I.\u00a0 So, for those of you who don’t want to take the time right now to check it out, I have prepared a video you can watch that shows the US States game in action — at Level 2<\/strong>.\u00a0 Take a look………….<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

A Mom’s Perspective<\/span><\/h2>\n

I had a great time re-learning our country’s geography along with my daughter.\u00a0 Earlier in the day, my daughter asked me if I would play Mr. Potato Head with her (again!).\u00a0 I told her I had something special planned.\u00a0 She sat on my lap as we took turns strategically placing each state on the US map.\u00a0 After we were done, my daughter ran to her room to get her US States Map Book she received for Christmas.\u00a0 She now has renewed interest in it.\u00a0 In fact, she’s eager to learn our 50 capitals now!<\/p>\n

In reflecting upon my US Geography learning experience with my daughter, there are three points important for moms to know:<\/p>\n

1.)\u00a0 Learning needs to be interactive<\/strong> – educational games like this one engage children and make it fun to learn.\u00a0 I think back to when I was a 5th grader – I came up with picture words to remember the US capitals.\u00a0 It was tortuous trying to remember all 50 of them.\u00a0 With today’s free interactive games, learning is fun and competitive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

2.)<\/strong>\u00a0 There are plenty of interactive educational games online to supplement your child’s schooling.\u00a0 <\/strong>Sheppard Software<\/a>\u00a0is a great resource, but there are plenty of other free resources.\u00a0 Search Google <\/a>and YouTube <\/a>on the topic you want to learn about.\u00a0 You’ll be amazed at the resources available – right at your fingertips!<\/p>\n

3.)\u00a0 Use online learning as a bonding time with your child.<\/strong>\u00a0 My daughter has enjoyed spending a lot of time on Disney.com learning all sorts of things.\u00a0 I have been very impressed with all the things she has self-learned.\u00a0 But spending time with her on the US States game really hit home for me the fact that 1.) I can easily direct her learning to more relevant educational topics and 2.)\u00a0learning together on the\u00a0computer is a great bonding time and\u00a0that’s priceless!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SheppardSoftware.com offers kids and adults wonderful interactive games to help with educational learning, making the learning of US geography fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,22],"tags":[56,110,142,143,146,237,285],"class_list":["post-1249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kids","category-websites","tag-child-tech","tag-geography","tag-kid-tech","tag-kid-technology","tag-kids-interactive-learning","tag-sheppard-software","tag-us-geography","entry","has-post-thumbnail"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wellconnectedmom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}