Maps

Ethan's 4th birthday will be this month. Every year, my very talented artistic husband makes Ethan's cake based off of what interest Ethan is into at that point in time. The last 2 years.....we have had car themed cakes & parties. I was REALLY hoping that this year we could do something else! So, I have been randomly asking Ethan which he would prefer....and then giving him 2 options. Up until about 1 month ago, he would pick cars, Nascar, or Disney Cars every time. Until one day, when choosing between Dora & Lightening McQueen.....he picked DORA!

Dora is a new-to-us show that we watch, and he really likes it. But, I am already envisioning having to apologize to 18 year old Ethan that I let him have a GIRL (said in that "girls are gross & have cooties" voice) for a birthday cake. Ethan, are you sure you don't want cars?! HAHA!

Soon after that, however, I noticed something. He started constantly wanting to play the Jake & the Neverland Pirate Games...both on the iPad and the computer. Then, as I watched him play one day, it hit me....it's not the characters he likes.....he likes that these videos/games follow & use MAPS! Dora is constantly pulling out "the map" to complete her goal, and Jake typically has a map to a treasure!

OK....this he TOTALLY gets from me! I, too, have always enjoyed reading/making/following maps. On road trips, I was the map reader/navigator.....and I loved it! So, this realization gave me an idea to help Ethan out with some of his anxiety.

Earlier this week, we drove to our closest Easter Seals branch....about a 35 minute drive. That doesn't seem long to me, but to a 3 year old....that seems like FOREVER! The entire trip, he kept wanting reassurance of where we were going. Eventually, either from being tired of saying the same thing over & over to him or because the light bulb finally went on in my head, I picked 3 noticeable landmarks for him to look for that were on the way to Easter Seals. This worked great, and he was even laughing whenever he would "find' the next landmark.

So, before we left for our 2nd day of our Easter Seals summer preschool, I quick sat down with Google images, and created a super simple map for him to have in the car. OH MY GOSH! HE LOOOOOOOVED IT!!!! He was having so much fun looking for the next thing, and his anxiety about a long car ride was gone! It was just plain fun! I guess I will be making a few more of these to have on hand for our car rides this summer!

Here is the simple map. I picked several things that were on the way to Easter Seals & did a quick "route." Next time, I will need to add labels to the pictures as well as our house for the start....such rookie mistakes!

Here is Ethan reading the map! You will hear him throw in a few memorized phrases from several of his "map" games. But, hey, we are communicating!