Introducing Landmarks

Yesterday we decided to study landmarks. We don't have too many resources to start with and I was hoping to have more time to gather materials before Mr. B wanted to discuss them. He's been playing with the jigsaw puzzle (middle) for some time but just recently started asking questions about the landmarks on it. 

We've had the Haba Leaning Tower of Pisa for a very long time and we LOVE putting it together! I found it at a thrift store in perfect condition for a $1 and couldn't believe my luck. This is one of our favorite puzzles and I am excited that Mr. B is finally making the connection that it's a real place. 

The Vtech Fly & Learn Globe is a $5 Goodwill find. Honesty, I hate it. I should trust myself when I ban electronic toys. They are beyond annoying. The only feature on the globe that I don't hate is the international music setting. Other than that, I prefer to keep it off and just point out the landmarks with Mr. B. 

I also found a Wonders of the World lift-the-flap book and a World Landmark reader. The flap books is great (because Mr. B LOVES flap books) but only has natural landmarks, not man-made ones. The reader is good for showing Mr. B lots of different landmarks and has very simple descriptions. Unfortunately, some of these descriptions have some disturbing concepts (death, death, death) that I'm not ready to discuss  with Mr. B so I read this book selectively. 

The best comprehensive resources are the landmark/world jigsaw puzzle (which I believe was a Target Dollar Spot item at some point. I picked it up at a thrift store a few months ago) and the flash cards that I printed off another blog (I am trying to find the link to that blog so that I can give the author credit). 

Mr. B learns best by forming emotional attachments or making connections (For example, the Eiffel Tower is in France where Ratatouille takes place. The Taj Mahal is in India where daddy traveled last month.... ). 

I would also love to add these landmark Toobs to our resources (Around the World TOOB and World Landmarks Toob):

Once we have these Toobs, I think it will be fun to combine them with our Melissa & Doug World Map Floor Puzzle (this thing is HUGE!). 

When Mr. B is older, we also have this beautiful Haba Colosseum Architectural Block Set, a Puzz 3D - Empire State Building and Usborne's Sticker Atlas of the World. I think we'll wait another year or so for these.  

I would also love to get the LEGO Architecture Sets but they are so expensive (and a bit overkill). It may be more fun to just use our imagination and recreate the landmarks from the Lego we already have (this is someone else's brilliant idea as well).