背景：

上一篇文章： How Do As Seen on TV Products Really Rate?  The 2004 List

Kids Can Learn and Have Fun on Vacation: Get Fired Up About Geography

Get Fired Up About Geography

Whether you're flying off to distant beaches or piling into the car for a weekend getaway, nurture a love of new places in your child this travel season. There are some terrific products and media available to help get your kids fired up about geography -- and still maintain your reputation as a fun parent.

For the youngest ones, don't miss the adorable Hugg-A-Planet, Earth (peacetoys.com, $19.95). It's a soft, stuffed globe that's covered with a colorful map of Earth. Kids will eye it like a treasure, toss it like a ball and hug it like a friend (maybe even sleep with it too).

For toddlers, the nifty puzzle My Town A-B-C (Great American Puzzle Factory, ages 3 and up; $12) helps teach the concept of place as it illustrates the relationship of one location to another. Also worth looking at for younger kids is the very cool CD-ROM Tonka Town (Atari, ages 3-6; $19.99), which lets children steer their favorite giant trucks down some adventurous paths.

For the older kids, probably nothing beats handling the actual map that your family's using to get to your vacation destination. Whether you are traveling by car, bus, train or plane, show the kids how to follow your route. Ask them to narrate the trip. What landmarks do they see along the way? What flora and fauna do they notice? Before the trip even starts, they may want to make their own maps, using realistic or whimsical legends.

During your journey, consider weaving in a history lesson or two. Discuss how the famous explorers used maps to chart their journeys. An excellent book is The Lewis & Clark Expedition (Williamson Publishing, ages 9-12; $12.95), which shows how the Corps of Discovery bravely pushed westward. For a tour of this country from whatever comfy seat your kids happen to be sitting in, try the game Borderline USA (Borderline games, ages 8 and up; $9.95). Each card in the deck shows a state or body of water; on the other side is a map that includes bordering areas. Children, in turn, play a state card that shares a borderline with the previously played card.

Love music and want to work it into your vacation in a meaningful, catchy way? Sample the delightful video States and Capitals Songs (Educational Insights, ages 7 and up; $14.95), which will have you and your brood humming for hours afterward.

Or, if you want lots of laughs as you travel (and who wouldn't?), try Scrambled States of America (Gamewright, ages 8 and up; $11.99). It's a fun game of observation and fast reflexes that sets players scrambling to find, for example, a state that ends with the letter A. Then quick! Name one that borders Kentucky. Or "Go the Distance" and find a state's closest neighbor. Whoever matches and collects the most cards wins the game.