One of my favorite things to do when my son was young was to give him the map. It started in a museum, the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH to be precise. The Currier gave out a scavenger hunt of pictures for the kids. The map consisted of a detail from paintings or sculptures through out the museum. The kids were delighted to be looking for something and the adults had an opportunity to follow and look at the whole museum. A win-win!
So look for the tourist map, campus map, museum map and give it to your child and ask: “what do you want to see?” or "where should we start?" With the follow up question: “Great! how are we going to get there?” My son became very good at reading maps, and figuring out ways to get to the sights. To this day he is now my ‘go to’ guy in directions. He surpassed me when he “owned” the subway system in New York City. He got it, he get’s it and I am so lucky to have someone to rely on when visiting.
Maps are fun they can take a little time to figure out, read, and follow. This is a great opportunity to explain the grid of numbers and letters to your child, it has real meaning when you are walking and exploring. When you are on vacation a map is a scavenger hunt looking for the fun sights, museums, restaurants, or even the closest restroom. This is not just fun, reading maps feeds into higher thinking and problem solving skills. All natural, non-contrived, fun manner. Let the adventure begin! Below is my favorite city tourist map, and a picture of one of our favorite finds.
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| The Seattle Tourist Map |
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| The bridge. |
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| The troll under the bridge. |
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| The Public Market. |
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| The beautiful ferry system, a must do! |
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