Map Mania

I mentioned earlier here that my little one is into maps lately. It's been about 3 months or so, and that fetish has not waned, nope, not one single bit! In fact, it's increasing in a magnitude that I cannot even begin to fathom. What do I mean?

Picture this: when we go on a trip, the first "distraction toy" he'd choose to bring is Sansbury's Picture Atlas. He would go over the pages all throughout the train ride, talk us into his guessing game about "which country is in the left of Spain," or "what is the capital of Morocco," or "what flag has blue and white stripes with a cross in it?" This caught the attention of passengers who cannot help but listen in awe to the loud excitement of this bright little boy. But this is also to the detriment of his mom and her geographically challenged mind (I actually thought that Oslo is the capital of Sweden!)

Ok, so he knows the capital of almost every country you'd ask him (some of them, I've never even heard of until now!) and tell in what part of the world this or that country can be found. He can also identify to which country each flag belongs. Hence, the World Cup gets him so excited with all those flag-themed costumes and masks of fans.

Of course I worry that his brain development is just too fast for his age. And of course I am aware that this might mean that his physical-motor development would be relatively neglected. That's why I make an extra effort to impose motor activities on his play time.

But what is a parent to do if one's boy is just so in love with maps and flags and capitals and countries. I bring out his lego blocks and he comes up with the brilliant idea of making flags out of blocks. I buy him a play-doh and all he wants to do with it is make a 3-D map of Europe or Africa. I bring out papers, crayons and scissors, and--aargh--flags again!

Dora's singing Map is at the root of all these, compounded by that one moment when his lolo showed to him where his plane would be flying on his way home to the Philippines. The fact that many of his classmates and friends come from different regions in the world didn't help in lessening this obsession with maps. He'd come home from school and share that so and so went home to Nepal, or this other classmate is now in India, or this or that tita will be going to Greece, Peru, Suriname...Next thing I knew, he would choose Sansbury Atlas for his bedtime story (I had to explain to him time and again that the book is not a story book!!!)

The day came when Lakay and I just decided to let him be. In the first place, we didn't force this down his throat. It all just came out so naturally. All that's left for us to do is support him in his development, stimulate his interests some more (Lakay recently bought a much bigger map, to my little one's delight!) and we'll see from there where this goes.

This, of course, means, we will have to be more patient and cooperative whenever he'd start out with his "What is the capital of....?"(Breakfast at that!)

For in the end, his parents, with all their unused and aging neurons, are the ones being helped here.

The map of Poland, Belarus and Russian Federation (he says: Fersheration!)

The other map: Norway, Sweden, Finland