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How to make a wall map for your homeschool

January 6, 2016 Ticia 7 Comments

Most homeschoolers would LOVE to have a wall map for use in their homeschool geography or as I more commonly use it in our homeschool history.  It’s an integral part of our lessons I pull out about at least once a month.  But wall maps are expensive, and most of us don’t have that in our budget.  Here’s a complete how to make your own wall map.

 

how to make a giant world map for little money

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Easy lazy way to make a wall map

If you have a little bit of money you could print out one of your Wondermaps* and take it down to Office Max and have them enlarge it to whatever size you want, but that can also easily get expensive.

 

So, here’s what I did.

Less expensive way to make a wall map for your homeschool

First head to  print world maps, there you can pick your page template size.  I go with 3 by 3 for most projects that is big enough to get a fairly good idea of what’s going on, and I can chain them together for some of our history projects (like Leif Ericson discovering America).  If you’re ambitious you can print it out much larger.

 

Now that you’ve printed it out, put together the giant puzzle.  I use glue stick* and scissors to trim and glue and get the best fit I can.  On this one the lines slightly overlap so matching is slightly easier if you know that.

making a wall map color each country a different color
sorry for the slightly blurry picture

Once your brand new wall map is all glued together I recommend coloring it somehow.  I love the look of using Watercolor Pencils.  I lightly color the countries, the water, and all of that.

how to make a wall map lightly paint with water

Then I run over it with a wet brush, and it gives a nice dappled effect that makes it look antique, which amuses me.

 

This step is optional, but it’s saving me having to remake the maps each time I want to use them (which is indispensible), but laminate it.  I go down to Mardel which has the best prices locally, but many teacher supply stores have decent prices.  I do not recommend Office Max or Depot, both of them have terrible prices.

Laminating is another reason I do not print bigger than 3×3, it still fits in the laminator, but you can make work arounds for if you want to make a bigger map.

 

Oh and another benefit of the map being laminated you can write on them with Vis-A-Vis Wet-Erase Markers and erase it.  I may have used that a time or two.

how to make a giant world map for under 2 dollars

Wondering what you can do with a wall map like this?

 

How did World War 1 start?

start of World War 2

How did World War 2 start?

The discovery of Iceland as told by LEGOS

The discovery of Iceland

Missionary Journeys of Paul

 

And that’s only scratching the surface of what you can do.

 

Are you looking for more geography resources, then try The Ultimate Homeschool Geography Guide.

geography homeschool how to

Comments

  1. Natalie PlanetSmartyPants says

    January 6, 2016 at 2:20 pm

    Unfortunately, I do not have a clear wall in my budget 😉 You should see my house – bookshelves are everywhere!

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      January 6, 2016 at 2:51 pm

      Jeff and I made an agreement early in our marriage, we were each limited to 5 bookshelves. Of course, that doesn’t seem to count the game shelves, or the toy shelves, or my homeschool stuff shelves.

      Our wall size map doesn’t actually go on the wall. No place I’d want to permanently hang a map.

    • claire says

      January 7, 2016 at 12:41 am

      I was going to leave almost that exact same message. Lovely idea but absolutely no wall space to put it up! It is a lovely wall map though 🙂

  2. April D says

    June 22, 2016 at 10:37 am

    What an AMAZING find with the Worlds and Continents Map website!!! THANK YOU!!!! I love the idea of coloring it in and piecing it together! What a great idea! I also love your article about Paul’s journey and using the map for that. That is a great! I know the others mentioned not having a place to put a wall map. I thought that at first until I read the other article. This is a really useful article when coupled with that one. Thank you again!!! I can’t wait to use it. I think I may laminate the pieces and use it as a puzzle, perhaps, since I have a small single sheet laminator. That might be an idea, too. 🙂

    And can I just say “thank you” for your real life photos on your website? It really makes it feel “real” to me. So many sites (no offense to anyone) have photos that make me feel like maybe I am not doing things right since my kids’ work looks like…. well… kids’ work! I love that I can really feel a connection with the photos you use. I just love the “this is what real homeschool often looks like” feeling of your site. I hope this makes sense. I just love it!

    Thanks, again!

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      June 22, 2016 at 1:15 pm

      A puzzle idea is brilliant! Prior to making our laminated ones we were constantly remaking them each time we needed them, so it worked a bit like a puzzle.

      Thank you for the comment about “real life” photos, I sometimes am intimidated by the perfect photos on other blogs too, and your comment really encouraged me today.

  3. Tom Biesanz "MisterNumbers" says

    December 31, 2016 at 3:00 pm

    I love the whole process. I am making math Number Wheels for kids to play with on the floor, which would work great with the laminated result.

    Reply
    • Ticia says

      January 1, 2017 at 10:38 am

      That would work well with laminating. Just make sure to use vis a vis (wet erase) markers if you’re going to write on them. I’ve learned from experience dry erase doesn’t come off as well.

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Ticia Adventures in Mommydom Hi, I'm Ticia! This is the adventures of my family in life and learning. Follow along with us as we share our adventures. We're having a lot of fun and learning as we go.

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