The Road to Discovery

On a recent family holiday in an unfamiliar city we relied heavily on maps to get us around, using public transport and finding the local entertainment spots. Maps of roads and streets, maps of transport lines and maps of buildings and shopping centres. So it got me thinking about how you can use maps as a tool for learning.

NAVIGATION

Learning to read maps in the car or when you are out on a family trip can help the kids to learn navigation skills like directions north, south or left and right and concepts like distance and travel time.

As kids on long trips my brother used to try to calculate how far we had to travel, what average speed we were travelling at and work out how long it would take us to get there. So many times he would be within the minute! 

LANGUAGE

Using maps can even help with learning language by increasing their vocabulary, learning terms and phrases they might not normally hear in every day conversation, and it can help with reading and spelling.

Many maps and directories often have extra information written in them, information about places of interest in towns and cities, or stories of history in the area. The surrounding information can be just as interesting as finding where you are headed. 

TREASURE HUNT

Creating your own maps to set up treasure hunts can be a really great fun family activity. You can use them for children's parties to find the secret treasure, or get into pirate mode and make your own maps by staining paper with tea and burning the edges to give it that olde feeling. Remember X marks the spot! Treasure maps are a great way to get the kids outdoors and moving around, creative and kinaesthetic learners will get more from these types of experiences.

After some months of learning "sound pics" (phonic combinations of letters that make specific sounds) I took one of my tutoring students out for an afternoon around town. We spent an hour Window Shopping, looking at signs, posters and shop fronts for words that contained the sound pics we had been studying. Like CH for the sound K (as in Christmas), or EA for the sound E (as in meat that you eat). We had a great time moving and learning in the outdoors, doing something unusual but fun. 

Here are a few quick ideas for playing and learning with maps:

• Geo Caching (get your GPS, search the internet and join a world wide activity to find the hiding spots...there are 5 in my town alone). 
• Mapping out your journey
• Make their own Pirate Treasure Maps
• Plotting out their dream adventure / holiday around the world
• Marking out where family and friends live
• Find your house on Google Earth 

Happy Learning!

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And remember to get your photo entries for the Renovation Rescue in this week!