Resources to help explore a passion for mapping...software and otherwise?

[GranolaMom]

I came across this forum trying to find guidance, direction, assistance in supporting my son who has a passion for all things maps and geography and can spend hours drawing them on his own. While I know much of the mapping software listed in the software forum is fantasy based I was hoping some of you can steer me in the right direction for tools that are age appropriate and will support his interests. Looking for:

* Mapping software where he can bring his imagination to life. Mapping neighborhoods, towns, cities, states, countries, etc. Not interested (at the moment) in mapping buildings.
* Books, websites, etc. that can provide the tools to map making using compass, protractors, etc.
* Any other resources that will help us delve deeper into his passion for maps and mapping.

A little about him:
* He turns 6 on Saturday so something age appropriate that's not going to advertise gaming, violence, etc. He already knows all the continents, countries, states, territories, cities, landmarks, etc. He has an uncanny ability to look a map, remember it and apply it so we don't need anything that teaches geography.
* He spends hours drawing his own maps.
* He also has a strong sense of numbers, computing, etc.
* This love of all things geography and maps started soon after his 4th birthday so it's pretty ingrained!

I'm looking for tools that will allow him to explore deeper into this passion however not exactly sure what this looks like as it's all new territory for me. He would love to bring his own imaginary places to life as well as recreate ones he already knows.

Thank you for sharing any thoughts and ideas you may have!

[sensimelon]

It is great that your son is very interested in mapping. I am a professional cartographer and while the software I use is very complex, I think just letting him explore by creating his own maps is a great thing. Explain to him that maps contain a legend, scale like 1" = 1 mile. When I think about my childhood, I used to look at maps and create playmat for my hot wheels. Showing him a globe and looking at surrounding can help teach him about geography. Exploring with Google earth and google maps are some great software. On Google Earth you can place pins to show the location of a house, school, relatives or favorite places to visit

[GranolaMom]

Thanks so much for your reply sensimelon! We've had globes, atlases, wall maps, etc. for the last couple of years as he's delved deeper and deeper into this passion. I'm not exaggerating that he can tell you which territories are disputed or not. He could spend hours on google maps if I let him however really wants to create his own. He goes through notebooks drawing his own maps and recreating roadmaps and if you ask him to draw a map of any continent he will labeling countries, cities, etc. Looking for something that lets him do this more accurately or a program where he can delve deeper into the developmental aspect of creating maps. Any ideas along those lines?

[Chick]

There is always MS Paint if you have a windows computer. That should already be on your system and it allows freehand drawing.

For something better, I would suggest GIMP as a free and reasonably sophisticated program, if you think he can handle it. It's sort of like photoshop and my 6 year old niece is able to use my photoshop with some of the basic functions, so if he sticks to the simple drawing capabilities, he should be able to use it.

http://www.gimp.org/

If you try GIMP, start with this tutorial and work through it with him: Hand Drawn Mapping for the Artistically Challenged: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=10655

That should give you guys enough GIMP education to draw maps

[GranolaMom]

Chick thank you! Absolutely will check out GIMP and the thread. We're on a MAC so fingers crossed it's compatible. I've got some exploring to do today...many thanks!

[Azélor]

You could check Natural earth, http://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/
there is pretty good content there, either with images (jpeg or png, can't remember) or with a geographic information system (GIS) like QGIS (free) http://www.qgis.org/en/site/

[Chick]

I sincerely hope you will remember us here and start posting some of his maps as he learns! It would be so much fun to see a child's level of start grow into some really fine mapmaking abilities!

[Korash]

One thing that I think would be absoluely indispensable for a kid who likes to draw maps would be a tablet. Espesially if he is going to be doing maps on a computer, because he can draw instinctively with the stylus and then tweek to his hearts content with the program. The wacom bamboo would be a good, cheap intro THAT aspect of computer graphics.

And I GOTTA second chick on getting him to post his progress. We should be able to help him grow as fast and as far as he wants to go....at least as REPRESENTING his world...BUILDING it might be a whole different kettle of fish ;-)

He might also be interested in this thread...

[Gamerprinter]

While I can't imagine a graphics software that is ideal for a six year old, yet still be capable of many of the complex functions needed to create effective maps, I use Xara Photo & Graphic Designer, which is a vector drawing application, which in my experience, is very easy to learn and use (still that's easy from an adult's point of view only). You could download the 30 day free trial HERE, and then go to Xara.com video tutorials to learn the basic tools quickly. I also have a number of "quick and dirty" map tutorials in the Tutorials forum of this site, that though is easiest enough to use with any software was designed in Xara as well.

I am a professional game cartographer and I use Xara for all my maps.

[Chick]

And I GOTTA second Korash that a drawing tablet would be perfect! Once he mentioned it, I realized that drawing with my tablet was the thing that got my niece started using photoshop.

Here is an example of a inexpensive tablet (this example is a used one) http://www.amazon.com/Bamboo-Small-T...+bamboo+tablet

and if you can spend a little more for new one, this would be a good choice: http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Intuos-S...m+bamboo+table