I can not navigate on the fly like my husband can. He seems to have an internal GPS unit. He can turn down a strange road and get exactly where he was trying to get. He houses a 3D map in his head. The only map I have is on my phone and I have to stare at it and compare it to my surroundings. Even then sometimes I go left when I should have gone right. I wish I had a better navigating sense and so I REALLY want it for my kids.
How do I teach what I don't know? With Ginger, I put us in the situations where she has to figure it out. Don't worry, we won't get lost. I can usually get us back to point A even if I never manage to find point B. I'm pretty good at the retracing my step skill. Maybe that was my trade off for being horrible at the navigating skill.
I took Ginger for a walk a while back and told her to pick a path. She thought she had gone right a long time ago and seemed to have her landmarks down, so we walked. We walked about a mile until we reached a park we didn't know existed. (That's cool, right?) Since it was not where we intended to go, we turned around and went back. After a water break at Point A, she decided to take us left.
Left had roughly the same landmarks, but she says she never went this way. After another mile we finally got to Point B. She was excited because she did it.
I knew the way was left to begin with, but I let her lead because I wasn't trying to teach me anything. When I gave her that first left or right choice I did hesitate momentarily. Then I got out of my daughter's way and let her teach herself a lesson.
I'm sure Robert Frost would be proud.
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