My daughter, Clara, is a bit of a geography nut. At the tender age of eight, I would venture to suggest that she knows more about world geography than most human beings.
And it has nothing to do with her intelligence or our attempt to instill a love of geography in her. She simply became curious about the topic and was handled the tools to pursue that curiosity.
Books. Maps. Websites.
The desire to learn is so powerful.
In a recent competition to name countries beginning with certain letters, Clara included these three in countries beginning with the letter S:
- Sudan
- South Sudan, “which isn’t the same as Sudan!”
- Singapore, which she informs me is both a city and a country. “Just like Vatican City, Daddy!”
When we reached the countries beginning with D, she opened with Denmark.
I countered with the Dominican Republic and suggested that there might only be two.
“I can think of another one,” she said.
After thinking about it for a minute, I finally surrendered. “I give up. What?”
“The Democratic Republic of Congo, of course!”
Of course.
For the record, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and Djibouti also start with D. Clara didn’t know North Korea’s official name (nor did I) but she knew about Djibouti and quickly showed it to me on a map.
