Stack the States

Although she doesn't know it, my friend Bonnie is indirectly responsible for getting Ehren and Christian excited to learn about the states.  When she got a new iPad, she asked her blog readers and friends on Facebook what apps they and their kids liked. I don't have an iPad, but we love our iPod touch, so I scoured Bonnie's comments for good ideas. Lo and behold, someone mentioned "Stack the States."  I downloaded the free version, and the rest is history. I haven't found many educational iPod games that the kids really like, but Christian loves, loves, loves this one, more than any other game we have right now.  He's collected 41 states so far, and going strong. For the moment, he has forgotten that Tower Defense and Angry Birds exist.

This game is perfect for second graders except for one thing: reading the names of cities, states, and landmarks.  I forgot how hard some are to pronounce until my kids started trying to read names like Cheyenne, Phoenix and Louisiana.  Also, Christian likes to call Iowa "Aloha," which totally cracks me up.

Now Ehren generally isn't that excited about computer and video games, but even he like this one. In his excitement about the states, Ehren drew me this Texas-themed picture the other day.

As you collect more states, you unlock bonus games. The first bonus game is called "Pile Up!"  State shapes pile up.  At the bottom of the screen, a state name appears, and you have to click the corresponding state shape to make it disappear.  Given Christian's excellent visual memory, he excels at this game. He was correcting me as I tried to play. He might not remember how to pronounce "Louisiana," but he knows exactly what shape it is!