How to teach your kid to read a map and find their way

Many kids today ride in the back seat everywhere they go, with no idea how they got there. Ask them the way home from the park and you'll get a shrug. That's not a lack of ability. It's a lack of practice, because the grown-up always navigates.

Map reading and finding your way are skills, and ages 8 to 10 are a great time to hand over some of the navigating.

What the research suggests

In a 2020 study, researchers asked 159 college students about their childhoods and how they navigate now. Those who reported traveling farther from home on their own as children reported less anxiety about finding their way as adults. The researchers suggest that letting children explore and navigate outdoors may help lessen wayfinding anxiety later.

It's one study, and it relied on adults remembering their childhoods, so it shows a link, not proof. But it fits common sense: you get better at finding your way by actually finding your way.

Skill 1: Read a mall or park map

Start with the big posted maps at parks, zoos, malls and museums. They're designed to be easy.

1. Find the "You Are Here" dot.
2. Find where you want to go.
3. Trace the path with your finger.
4. Lead the way there.

Tips:

• Turn the map so it matches the direction you're facing. Many kids find this makes it click: what's ahead on the map is ahead in real life.
• Name landmarks. "We pass the fountain, then turn at the gift shop."
• Let them make mistakes. Taking the long way around is part of learning. Correct gently only if they're really off track.

Skill 2: Give directions home from a nearby place

This one builds a "map in your head."

1. Picture the way home from a nearby place, like a park or a friend's house.
2. Say each turn: left, right or straight. "Out of the park, turn right. At the stop sign, turn left…"
3. Walk it together to check.
4. Fix any wrong turns as you go.

Left and right are tricky for many 8-year-olds. A trick: hold up both hands with fingers up and thumbs out. The hand that makes an "L" is your left.

A privacy rule: directions home are something your child says to you in person, never in a voice note, message or post. A route from your home is private information.

Skill 3: Guide the family to a destination

This is the mastery goal: your child guides the family to a place, using a paper map or a map app.

1. Find yourself and the place you're going on the map.
2. Plan the route before you leave. Write the main turns down if it helps.
3. Lead the way, checking the map as you go.
4. Arrive, and explain how you did it.

Pick somewhere new but not too far: a library across town, a new playground, a museum. On foot or by bike is ideal, since kids notice so much more than from a car. If you're driving, let your child call out the turns.

Paper maps or apps? Both are useful. Paper maps show the big picture and make kids think about the whole route. Apps are what they'll use as adults. A good habit is to plan on a map first, then check with the app.

Safety along the way

• You're with them. At this age, all these skills are practiced together with a grown-up.
• Practice the route before your child ever uses it alone. The AAP recommends rehearsing a route to school before the first day, and the same idea works for any route.
• Know the plan. The CDC's tips for ages 9 to 11 include knowing where your child is, and making plans together for when they'll call you and when you expect them home. Map skills are the first step toward that bigger independence. (More in going places on their own.)

Make it a quest

In Family Quests, this is the Navigator skill. Practice quests are read a mall or park map and give directions home from a nearby place, and the mastery quest is guide the family to a destination using a map. A photo of the map with the route, or the family at the destination, makes good proof, and the directions-home quest is told in person, never recorded. Start free.

Next: teach your kid emergency skills, or go back to speaking up in public.