Young landmark lover and budding explorer

Sanfordville Elementary first-grader Liam Wiley has been a landmark enthusiast and budding explorer since the age of 3.

According to his mother, Wiley has always gotten excited to cross the bridge into New York City on family trips, eager to see the sites and specifically asking to pass by the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty. Two years later, he continues to expand his knowledge of national and international landmarks, and enjoys sharing it with family, classmates, and even his classroom teacher, Kitty Lowry.

“When I met Liam, he started telling me about his interest in landmarks right away,” Lowry said. “It is a true passion for him. “He’s always doing independent research on our district resources. He writes in his journal about landmarks. It’s a topic that really sparks his curiosity.”

Family affair

Wiley ‘s family encouraged his interest by helping him find online videos and documentaries and taking him on excursions to the bookstore and library. He receives postcards from family members who travel and collects them along with miniatures of places he has seen and wants to see.

He also hops onto Google Maps and Google Earth to virtually visit landmarks online. Lowry said she feels his thirst for facts may have outpaced some of the resources available to him, like PebbleGo, a great content hub for K-2 students that boosts engagement and fosters independent learning in core subject areas.

“We’re not necessarily doing geography in our classroom yet, so Liam is really exploring on his own outside of the first grade curriculum, which is kind of cool,” Lowry said. “In fact, I’m wondering if the information on PebbleGo might even actually be below what he already knows.”

Wiley ’s mom said their whole family has learned so much together through her son.

“So much so that we took an all-American road trip earlier this year,” she said. “It was his love of Mount Rushmore and the US Presidency that [specifically] inspired that trip. We saw the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Arches National Park, the Crazy Horse Memorial, and Mount Rushmore. ”

Wiley said his top three favorite landmarks he’s seen in person were on that trip.

“Mount Rushmore, the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon,” he said, using a small model of Mount Rushmore to illustrate his visit. “We were right here on this path named Presidential Trail. We could see George Washington, Tom Jefferson, Peter Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln up close. And at the Grand Canyon, it was, like, miles and miles wide!”

World traveler

Right after the trip in September, he began lobbying for his parents to plan a trip to Washington DC. His efforts have been convincing, and the Wileys are headed south for spring break. Wiley said the list of must-see places he has put on the family itinerary are the Washington Monument, White House, Capital Building, the Thomas Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, and the Martin Luther King Memorial.

“He’s also been working on convincing us how ‘cool and amazing’ it would be to see some of the European landmarks that interest him in real life,” his mom said. “He’s already got his sisters on board with his plan and continues to work on us.”

What famous spots is he hoping to as a globetrotter?

“They’re all in London,” he said with excitement. “Tower bridge, the London Eye, and Elizabeth Tower.”

Lowry shared that Wiley is the one who taught her that the clock tower structure that houses Big Ben, was originally called St. Stephen Tower, and was only renamed Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to honor Queen Elizabeth. With every new fact Wiley learns about London, his convincing gets all the more persuasive.

“Let’s just say,” his mom added, “that we’ve all applied for our passports.”