Nifty Fifty

How many US States can you name? Without looking... How many states do you think you could have named when you were 5? Well, A few weeks ago Avery came home from school singing a song about the Nifty Thirteen United States. And despite the fact that I tried very hard to inform her that there are 50 states and 13 colonies, she insisted that her teacher said there were 13 states. Now, if I didn't know Avery's teacher all that well, or if I didn't know my daughter all that well, I probably would have written her teacher a nice little letter asking her what on earth she was teaching my daughter. But, since I do know both of them pretty well, I decided to not make a big deal out of it. But Avery continued, day after day, singing about the Nifty 13 states. Until this weekend, that is! I was in the car with Avery on Saturday afternoon, and I realized that she was singing the exact same melody she'd been singing for weeks, but now she was singing about the Nifty Fifty United States.

"Nifty Fifty United States,
That started from 13 original colonies.
Each one has it's own unique name and space,
So now I'll give them all a proper mentioning."

And then, Avery proceeded to name the states. I could not believe my ears. I knew she missed a few along the way, but I was stunned that she named a lot of them, in alphabetical order no less! I couldn't wait to get home and tell Hector. We decided to have Avery sing the song to us, and we were going to count the states as she named them. Granted, Tennessee came out sounding like Henesee, and Utah came out sounding like Ooo-ah. But she named 43 states! Unbelievable! So, Hector and I gave it a try. I named 48 states and Hector named 45. So, now it's your turn. How many of our Nifty Fifty United States can you name? Go on, try it... I dare you! :-)