How to Make Geography Part of Your Child's World

The most valuable piece of art in our house is a cheap, colorful map of the United States that hangs above our kitchen table. As a learning tool, it’s priceless.

I hung it up when we moved from Texas to New England four years ago. My kids were 3 and 5, and I wanted to give them a sense of our journey. Over the years, we’ve used that map to play geography games and dream about future travels. We’ve marked where our relatives live, and when events hit the news, we point to where they happened.

I firmly believe that map-reading is not an outdated skill. It remains a key tool for building children’s spatial reasoning skills and helping them make sense of the world. Geography is about more than physical maps, though. It’s also about climate, land, animals and, of course, people and their diverse cultures.

Kids are brimming with questions about the world, so geography is naturally appealing to young kids. Where is it hottest and coldest? Where are the mountains, deserts, jungles, and volcanos? Where do polar bears, giraffes, and tigers live? Where are the pyramids, Amazon Rainforest, and Statue of Liberty?

Here are five simple ways you can introduce young children to the fascinating world of geography.

We often use that kitchen map of the United States as a conversation starter, and it never gets old. Here are a few questions my kids have posed recently:

• Would you rather… visit New York or Florida? The Golden Gate Bridge or the Grand Canyon? Maine in the winter or Arizona in the summer? The beach or the mountains?
• I’m thinking of a state… that begins with the letter C; or, that ends in the letter A; or, that touches the Pacific Ocean; or, that is a rectangle; etc.
• If you drove from Massachusetts to Texas, what path would you take? How many ways are there to get from A to B?

When my son turned five, he got a globe for his birthday. Sometimes he sits with the globe beside him when he watches “Wild Kratts,” and he hunts for the countries they visit. We also use it to play “Where in the World?” He spins the globe and presses his finger to a random spot. He then asks us to find that country. “Where in the world is Ghana? Where in the world is New Zealand?” You can do the same with a paper map of the United States or you favorite maps smartphone app: “Where in the world is Kansas?”

In the PBS KIDS show, “Let’s Go Luna!,” each episode introduces kids to a country’s language, music, food, and a couple of customs. About once a month, we do something similar at dinner time — on a super simple level. We order (or make) food from a particular country, and while we are eating, we find that country on a map. We might also play a song from that country or look up some pictures or short videos. For example, on Lunar New Year, I got a rice cake and dumplings from a Chinese bakery, we learned how to say “Happy New Year” in Mandarin, and watched this two-minute explanation of the holiday. Next time you eat pasta or tacos, it can become an easy geography celebration!

We have a well-loved United States floor puzzle. Not only is it fun to put together, my kids find other ways to play once it’s assembled — from driving little cars around it to placing toy figures in different states.

Kids can also learn about geography by drawing their own maps! Here’s a guide for helping your child make a neighborhood map. Once they get the hang of it, encourage them to draw a map of their room, home, or favorite playground.

Quality media can be transportive. The “Let’s Go Luna!” website has video clips, games, and activities that introduce kids to different countries, and “Wild Kratts” takes kids around the world to explore animals in their native habitats.

Books can also open up a window to the world. We love going to the library and checking out fairy tales from different regions. (Did you know that there are over a dozen versions of Cinderella, from Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China to The Egyptian Cinderella?) Children’s librarians are my favorite ally for finding children’s books that treat other cultures with accuracy and dignity. Most libraries are doing curbside pick-up right now — so call up and ask them to pick out some great picture books that feature India, China, Mexico, Greece, or any other part of the world you and your children want to explore.

Because of COVID, we haven’t traveled more than 20 miles from our house in a year, but we are constantly traveling in our conversations, in our play, and through books and videos. I love this big, beautiful world — and I love learning more about it as my kids and I explore geography together.