How to help kids learn to read maps-and why it's important

My husband and I love to watch Amazing Race, where people travel all over the world completing challenges. We always feel frustrated (along with the competitors!) when they get hopelessly lost on the way to their next destination.  I actually have a terrible sense of direction, but I was taught to read a map, so I feel somewhat more secure when I have one in my hand and find myself wandering around in a new city. 

Is it even important for kids to learn to read maps anymore? Why teach your kids to read maps when they’ll have smart phones with GPS to do it for them?

It’s important for them to know how to read a map because obviously, technology sometimes fails us. We hit a “dead” spot or our phone dies.

If you know how to follow a map, you have a picture of where you are and how to get to your destination.

If you know how to follow a map, you know what the GPS means.

If you know how to follow a map, you can lead others and help them where they need to go.

According to PBS Kids, “Temple University’s Dr. Nora Newcombe describes spatial thinking as “seeing in the mind’s eye.” Spatial skills are what allow us to “picture the locations of objects, their shapes, their relations to each other and the paths they take as they move.” Maps support spatial thinking by helping children visualize where objects, places, cities, and countries are in relation to one another. Quite literally, maps help them figure out their place in the world.”

So, how do you teach your kids this skill?

My answer will be no surprise-through books and art.

What a Map Can Do is a delightful book by Gabrielle Balkan and illustrated by Alberto Lot. Written for young children, it can be enjoyed by a variety of ages. it uses big, bold shapes and colors to show many kinds of ways we can make maps, and what maps are used for. 

I love the way it describes 12 different kids of maps, including a map of the weather, a maps of the stars, or a trail map. 

It has simple drawings using shapes and symbols easy for a child to copy and to understand.

Here's an art idea for you: Choose one area for your child to map out. It could be the room you are currently in or an outside place, like a backyard, playground, or park. Invite your child to draw a shape for each object they see in the area--for example, circles for trees or pillows, squares for chairs, rectangles for tables or couches, etc. Help them draw and label each thing in the area, as if they were looking from a bird’s-eye view. The younger your child, the simpler the maps will be. The idea is to get your kids thinking about where things are as if they are seeing it from a high point of view. If you are outside at a playground, maybe you can climb to the highest part of the play structure and draw it from there.

Helping your kids see the world around them and to draw it will develop their “mental map,” their place in the world, and their spatial thinking. You can start today, inside or outside, with just paper and pencils, starting simply and expanding to detailed drawings as kids feel comfortable with their new skills.  

It’s not a race helping kids love to read and draw, but it is certainly an amazing journey. Step out into it today with the book What a Map Can Do!