When we arrived, all three kids were happily enjoying their own day camps and this special slice of the California coast.  Lorna was in a sailing camp, Lucy in a horse camp and Kai in a flag football camp.  After Will and I arrived, we had a moment to walk on the beach, repack, eat good food, repack, catch up with family and friends, and repack again.  Even though there is less stuff, there’s still the task of keeping the stuff organized and the weight of the luggage equally distributed.

My sister Daisy, her husband Tim and daughter Charlie also came down from Tahoe to say farewell.   Daisy Barnett, Sarah Tinsley, Gary and Carol stopped in to say hello/goodbye.  We checked and rechecked our lists while trying to convince everyone to come visit.

Val fed us well and somehow it feels better when you’re doing something big to touch in with your parents.  Their excitement and encouragement makes it all seem less intense.  But after a while, we were all done talking about it.  It’s just time to go!  So off we went for sixteen and half hours in coach…

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My kids started playing “pudiddle” after my oldest one learned it from a friend.  The current ‘tween version involves punching a sibling whenever you see an out-of-state license plate.  We live in a college town, with lots of summer tourists so there has been a lot of punching going on.  And if you’re a mom like me, there’s probably LOTS of time spent driving around in a car.  It was getting to a point that there was lots of fighting, frustration from younger ones and I just wanted to ban the car game.  Admittedly, I raised my voice a few times and enforced 24 hour bans.  But it kept coming back.

But then I got an idea.  What if my oldest could only punch when she could name the capital of the state, and not just the state?  This could level the playing field, less one-way punching. (And it’s not really PUNCHING, but more of a love-tap.) So I quickly created a cheat sheet of states and capitals that were kept in the car.  Finally, my nine and ten year olds were yelling out “Carson City!” and “Lansing!” while tapping each other.  Sibling rivalry and games are excellent motivators.

Then I remembered this great Melissa and Doug license plate game that we got before a Colorado – California road trip two years ago.  I loved it and kept ticking off the states, but my kids lost interest quickly back then.  But this summer, I brought it out again and their level of interest from the “pudiddle” game has kept it going strong.  When we’re driving through town, we are on the lookout for new states, so that as a team we are trying to get all fifty states before the end of July.  (Less sibling rivalry.)  When Kai (9) is holding the board and we have found, say, Montana, he needs to physically locate the state to flip the block.  He asks,

“Where is Montana on the map?

I say, “find Colorado.  And trace your finger north.”

And then he might say, “what’s ‘North’ again mom?”  And I tape a NESW compass to the back of my seat.

Now I can say, “Washington state is in the NW corner of the US,” and he can find it straight away.

And when we are stuck in traffic:

• They quiz me on capitals. They say the capital and I say the state.  (start easy.) Once they hear these enough, then I will start saying the capital and they will say the state.
• We wonder and guess the answers to the questions about why there is a peach on the Georgia plate, or why we see so many Texas plates and none from states like nearby Nebraska.
• The younger kid holding the Melissa and Doug Board, might ask, “Name five states south of Colorado,” or “Six states that touch the Atlantic.”

Have fun!  And yes, I recommend the Melissa and Doug board.  It wasn’t the right time two years ago, but it’s a huge hit now.

Side note: Fact memorization, like state capitals, might seem like a waste of time but memorization skills are developmentally important and easily translate to many other life-uses beyond school.  Memorization is a muscle that needs to be trained and the confidence of learning something as simple as every state capital, will embolden each kid with a sense of accomplishment.

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