How to draw a map of an imaginary land

Map making is a great skill for kids to develop: As they learn about maps, they are growing:

1. In spatial awareness
2. Their understanding of their place in the world related to everything else
3. Their ability to think in the abstract 
4. Their creative abilities by imagining and drawing their own maps
5. Their fine motor skills as they draw and color maps 

It’s fun to draw maps of places kids are familiar with, like their bedrooms or their street. But it is also important to encourage kids to dream of faraway places they may have never seen and to be able to put those places down on paper. Your child might invent an imaginary place that no one except your child knows about. Your child may draw a treasure map and put lots of fun markers pointing the way.

One of my daughters loved her imaginary country of “Tearaki,” which she drew maps of and populated with her own characters and landmarks. 

When you think about it, all authors who create fictional stories in fictional worlds must have an idea of the map of the place to write about it well. This map of Narnia was illustrated by Pauline Baynes:

To get their imaginations fired up, read The Once upon a Time Map Book by B.G. Hennessey and illustrated by Peter Joyce. In it your kids will examine maps of various literary lands and find things using their map reading skills.

Encourage your kids to try their hand at drawing a map of their own imaginary land. If they are having trouble imagining something to begin with, they can hide something in the backyard and then make a treasure map for someone else to follow to find! (Start at the mailbox, go north to the birch tree…) Be sure to have them mark the treasure on the map with an X! 

 Don't forget to include a beautiful compass rose in the corner! Enjoy making those wonderful maps--who knows, maybe your child will author a classic story to go with it!