Here’s an activity I’ve meant to do with Veronika for some time, and now with the era of COVID-19 upon us I was propelled into action. For babies who might not get to see relatives in person very often, it’s helpful to have a visual depiction to go with names (Grammy! Papa!) as well as of where people live.

I used two maps for the game, one a world map and one a close-up of the United States.

Print out pictures of family members, and then cut the faces into small squares; tape these down to the map. She loved looking through all the photos as we worked, proudly saying the names of grandparents and aunts and uncles.

Of course Veronika is too young to fully understand geography, but it was a fun way to introduce the names of different states as we positioned all the photos.

Then we moved up to the world-sized map to look at relatives who live abroad, and also the places where her ancestors come from, like England and India.

Hang this on the wall and refer to it often!