It all started with an interest in knowing where their Road Warrior father was when he was traveling. “Where is Daddy now?” they would ask and then I’d have to get out the map. Then we began traveling with Daddy sometimes and the real fun began! They enjoyed watching the map on the airplane to see where we were and loved tracing their fingers over our map at home showing how far we flew from Florida to our latest destination. Now their curiosity has a name, Geography, and it is just a regular part of our curriculum.
As an ongoing project we are working on a lapbook of the United States. So far we have completed sections for Florida and Texas. My initial idea was that we would complete the states as we visited them, but that has proven to be overly ambitious so we are going to complete a new state chosen by each child every few months.
Inspired by Flip Flops & Apple Sauce we recently began collecting the state quarters using this beautiful folding US coin map. We purchased two maps (one for the boys and one for the girls), although at this point my goal is to keep Cutie Pie away from all things the size of a coin so it’s safe to say that Pumpkin will finish this project on her own! Now the kids are happily raiding the pockets of every visitor that comes to our house not to mention Daddy’s change drawer, the family coin jar, mommy’s purse and the sofa cushions. Any family member reading this blog should feel obligated to help us search for missing coins! We are currently on the hunt for: Alabama, Maryland, Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico and Hawaii.
Of course when you start a project like this you often end up on various learning rabbit trails and that is exactly what happened with us. An interest in collecting coins lead us to an interest in learning about how coins are made. There is also a good video on the subject. Maybe one day we can go to the US Mint and take a tour!
The state coins were first issued in 1999 with the final states released in 2008, so if you have never started a collection, now is a great time since they have all been issued.
You can view the complete list here and download a coloring page for each state’s coin. We chose Florida, Texas, and Pennsylvania. When we finish this project I think we’ll begin collecting the Presidential dollars. What a great project for learning about the U.S. Presidents—and saving money.
Bummer. I just had a New Mexico quarter and I must have spent it because I can’t find it! I would have sent it your way. I also have a state quarter collection and brought it in to show my class a few weeks back because we are learning about coins. I still have several to go. My grandmother gave me the folding map on my wedding day and she had collected all the coins up until that point for myself, my brother and my five cousins!
I found New Mexico! We are finishing our basement and have been without a washer and dryer for about a month now. I am coming across many a quarter in my weekly trip to the laundromat. Can I send the boys the New Mexico quarter? I will send a little info about Oregon since that is where it is coming from and you can show them where I live on the map.
Great idea to use with geography…and my boys love being collectors! Their current collections include rocks, leaves and shells. I can really see them enjoying coin collection, too!
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