How to teach your kid to make maps: a neighborhood map, a globe and a route plan

Reading a map is one skill. Making one is another, and it's harder. To draw a map, you have to picture a place from above, decide what matters, and get things in the right order and direction. That's why map-making is such good thinking practice for 8- to 10-year-olds.

What schools aim for

The C3 Framework, which many states use to shape their social studies standards, asks students in grades 3 to 5 to construct maps and other graphic representations of both familiar and unfamiliar places. Familiar means places they know, like their own street. Unfamiliar means places they've never been, found on a globe or in a book.

These quests do both.

Skill 1: Draw a map of your neighborhood

1. Draw your street in the middle.
2. Add places nearby, like a park or a store.
3. Draw an arrow pointing north.
4. Show your grown-up in person.

Map-making tips:

• Bird's-eye view. Pretend you're a bird looking straight down. Houses become squares; roads become long strips.
• Start big, then add details. Roads first, then buildings, then trees and mailboxes.
• Add a key. Simple symbols, like a tree for the park and a book for the library, with a key in the corner explaining them.
• Find north. Use a compass or a phone compass app, or remember the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

Walk it to check. Take the map on a walk and see what's missing or out of order. Fixing the map is half the fun.

A privacy rule: a map of your neighborhood shows where you live. It's for the family, shown in person. Don't post it, photograph it for the app, or record it.

Skill 2: Find your state and country on a globe

1. Find the land and the oceans.
2. Find your country.
3. Find your state or region inside it.
4. Name one place that's far away.

Go further:

• Find the equator and the North and South Poles. Is your home closer to the equator or a pole?
• Find where a relative lives, or where your family's food comes from: bananas, chocolate, rice.
• Trace a trip. If you flew straight across the ocean, what country would you reach?

Globes vs. flat maps: a globe is the most accurate picture of Earth. Flat maps have to stretch some parts to lie flat. On many world maps, Greenland looks about as big as Africa, but on a globe you'll see it's much smaller. Kids love that surprise.

The challenge: plan a family outing on a paper map

The mastery goal is to plan a family outing route on a paper map, then follow it.

1. Find the start and the place you're going.
2. Trace the best route with a pencil.
3. Count the turns and guess the time.
4. Follow your route on the outing.

Where to get a paper map: visitor centers, park offices and libraries often have free local maps, or you can print one.

"Best" route is a great discussion. Shortest? Fewest turns? Prettiest? Avoiding the highway? There's no one answer, and that's real planning.

Then compare: did your guessed time match the real time? Where did you go wrong, if anywhere?

Why it's worth it

In a 2020 study of 159 college students, those who remembered traveling farther on their own as kids reported less anxiety about finding their way as adults. It's one study based on memories, so it shows a link, not proof. But map skills are a first step toward the independence the CDC describes for ages 9 to 11, when children become more independent from the family. (More in reading a map.)

Make it a quest

In Family Quests, this is the Map Maker skill. Practice quests are draw a map of your neighborhood and find your state and country on a globe, and the mastery quest is plan a family outing route on a paper map. The neighborhood map quest is shown in person and confirmed with a tap only, so a map of where you live never goes into the app. Start free.

Next: teach your kid about other cultures, or read about reading a map.