create your own visited states map
Forty-three states and counting. Though I've only actually lived in six of them for longer than two weeks. Einstein and I spent a long ago summer before kids driving around the country, pitching a tent, and seeing the sites. We went from the deep South up the coast to Maine, across to Washington State, and down the West coast. We hit all the major attractions-- Statue of Liberty, Ben & Jerry's, Acadia State Park, a Dead show in Albany, Niagra Falls, Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, Powell's Bookstore, The Redwoods, Zion National Monument, and everything in between. Gas was 98 cents a gallon that summer!
Sunburst joined our traveling family eight years ago, and because we've since toted her along with us, she has seen her fair share of the country as well. She's been working on her own "been there" map of the states since just before our move from Texas. She works on it sporadically, maybe every couple of months she'll sew a new state on. Not because we travel every couple of months, but because her pile of "been there" states has not been exhausted yet. She hasn't even come close!
I caught her working on it again, the other day.
I copied the artful map from the very cute book The Scrambled States of America as a template. I cut the states out from wool felt, matching the colors from the book, and then handed Sunburst a needle and some embroidery thread. Her sewing skills have greatly improved from the first few attempts.
I've promised Moonshine that I would make her a map just like this one when she was old enough. We're slated to move again next summer. I think by then she'll be more than ready!
