Blank World Map
Have you ever watched one of those TV shows where little children are interviewed about world leaders or international events? The idea is to get children to say cute things because they don’t comprehend the international world. It’s a fun idea but it points to one of the failings of our educational system which is how deficient we are in teaching geography and world affairs to children or youth at any level of our educational system.
While its ok for kids to be cute on TV, more and more teachers at the elementary school level are finding ways to introduce principles of geography and world affairs into the classroom at earlier ages. Part of the problem is learning to make lessons in the organization of countries around the world fun and interesting to young minds. In many cases simple tools like blank world maps can give teachers a lot to go on to make world geography interesting to the kids.
When a teacher introduces a blank world map or just a part of the world with the countries showing but no details, the children immediately recognize that as a game. And while it is a serious educational method, it is the challenge aspect of learning what countries are which works well to capture the attention of the students either in the classroom or at home. One way that teachers can use world maps that are blank to get children working is to send home a game to be played with parents called "name that country". When the children lay out a blank map and it is a family project to provide the details that the blank map worksheet is asking for, kids get a kick out of it when even parents stumble with this kind of assignment.
When the children return to class, the same blank map work sheets can be used as teaching tools. With the incentive of learning to out perform mom and dad, children often begin to excel at quick spot games about the countries on the blank template and where it is in the world as well the names of key cities and other important landmarks. This is a "painless" and fun way to get the children used to understanding and getting a firm knowledge of world geography and affairs. From that base of knowledge then, political theory and international relations can be taught without the big words. But the children become sophisticated pretty fast which prepares them for advanced studies in later years in school very well.