San Francisco: Day One

For day one of San Fran, I wanted a good intro book. I thought I couldn't find one. Both the books from the library were longer than I would have preferred, but without another option, I brought them home.

We only ended up reading one, and it held my children's attention far longer than I expected. In fact, I read a lot more of it than I expected.

Bravo, Deborah Kent, author of Cities of the World: San Francisco.

My favorite part of the morning is when we would read about something in Kent's book--for example, Fisherman's Wharf, and Miriam would say, "Oh, I learned all about that in [such and such book]."

I picked out several books for Miriam to read about San Fran and she liked them all.

In The Boxcar Children: The Mystery in San Francisco by Gertrude Chandler Warner, Miriam learned "all about" Fisherman's Wharf and cable cars.

In Good Luck, Ivy by Lisa Yee, Miriam learned "all about" Chinatown.

From Into the Firestorm: A Novel of San Francisco, 1906 by Deborah Hopkinson, Miriam learned all about the 1906 earthquake. This is the only one of the three that I read, and I quite enjoyed it. Good historical fiction for the younger crowd.

There is also a Magic Tree House book about San Fran: Earthquake in the Early Morning. Miriam really likes that one as well.

After reading the Kent book, we colored a map of the United States, paying special attention to California. The following is Miriam's map. I thought it turned out super nice. Yes, I wrote in the state names for her but she had to find the states in the atlas and then point them out to me before I would write it in.

I use this website for map outlines. That wasn't the greatest link as it goes straight to USA map outlines. Here's the link to outline maps for the whole world. If you don't like this site, many options come up when you google "outline maps."

After looking at all the pics of Fisherman's Wharf--I really wish I was eating seafood right now!! San Fran has definite travel appeal--and that is saying something for me. Usually I only want to go places with no people. But the seafood. And a chocolate factory. Oh, my.