A few years ago, I saw fabric that had a map of the USA imprinted on it. Each state lists the capital and has a picture of the state bird and state flower. There was a key/list off to the side of the map, listing the names of the birds and flowers.

I wasted no time in buying this map panel! I also bought some solid red fabric to back it, and created a small “quilt” simply by adding some batting between the fabrics and machine-sewing straight lines, horizontally and vertically, about an inch apart, with “invisible” thread. (I used red thread in the bobbin, though.)

About a year later, a panel with the map of the world came out, so I bought that, too, along with blue material for the backing. This map was trickier to machine-quilt as the lattitude and longitude lines were already printed on the map and they are not straight, which threw me off at times.

Both maps are cherished by my two youngest children. They’re going to come in handy in a few weeks when we cover map skills once again. I also have a game called State to State, which has magnetic pieces making up the USA. I’ll bring that out to help my third-grader memorize where the states go, and what their names are. Chances are, my first-grader will whiz through this and learn it right along with his sister!

One resource that I’ve had for a few years but haven’t used yet is the book States & Capitals, by Twin Sisters Productions. I’ll have to pull some of the games and activities out of that book. I’ll also have to see if I can find the music for Turkey in the Straw–that’s the tune they use for “singing” the states in Volume 5, chapter 9.

We’ve got two weeks left of our current chapter, but I’m already starting to plan for the next one–a 30-day chapter! Those long chapters seem to need the extra planning.