Toddler Family Fun with the 50 States, Silly Bean Style

The other day, we got to talking about the different towns that family members live in, and since Nanny and Grampy live a state over, we needed a visual to show Silly Bean what we were talking about. Luckily, 婆婆 bought us a puzzle that is a map of the US, and I've been waiting for the opportune time to break out of the closet!

Silly Bean just loved the interactive-ness of learning the states this way. In addition to the songs about each state that my husband looked up, I showed Silly Bean this little song from Animaniacs that I saw when I was little (must have been helpful because I still remember it even now!) and he absolutely adored the little dog jumping and dancing on the states 😁

Silly Bean loved doing this puzzle! In addition to learning the states and regions, it gave us an opportunity to practice turn-taking (everyone had a chance to pick a piece and put it in) as well as teamwork (we told Silly Bean that teamwork is when we work together to do something)! It was also a great developmentally appropriate way to spend time together doing something fun. However, we did this more than a hundred times and Silly Bean memorized where every piece goes and could put them down in no time at all @_@

We needed some variety so we decided to try a different puzzle. Silly Bean seemed very disinterested in puzzles in the past but we figured we could apply the same concepts of playing together to this new farm puzzle.

 

It was a hit! When reasoning where the puzzle piece should go, you could tell Silly Bean was really thinking about it. Yay for working on some critical thinking!

When we're looking for fun family things to do when it's just way too hot to go outside, maybe a 50-piece floor puzzle is next!

What are fun things you and your toddler have been learning or playing together as a family lately?