Learning through Map Zones

• Eating around the world: Our kitchen table is laid with maps which we’ve taken from tourist pamphlets and from a booklet that we took apart. We secured them to the table with Prestik, and placed a clear plastic tablecloth over them. Mealtimes at our house are often an impromptu geography contest, with one member choosing a place and the others having to reason which place it is by asking no more than twenty questions.
   
• Jigsaw puzzles: One blistery winter on holiday at my in-laws house, we laid out a 1000 piece puzzle of the flags of the world, together with an international map against the wall. Uncles, aunts, and even guests who dropped by joined the family in completing the puzzle over a period of two weeks. Every time my children found a flag, they had to find the capital of that country by looking at the wall map. At the end of that period, my seven-year-old could accurately identify most countries of the world, even the smaller, more obscure ones like St Vincent in the Caribbean.
   
• Sleeping under the stars: We noticed the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling of a guest house we stayed at recently, and thought it was a playful touch to the main bedroom. It took a while for us to realise that this wasn’t a haphazard arrangement but was instead a scaled-down reflection of the night sky. Lying in bed with our children, we were able to spot Orion, the Big Dipper, the Southern Cross and the Milky Way.

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