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.
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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
Once your brand new wall map is all glued together I recommend coloring it somehow. I love the look of using Watercolor Pencils
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
Wondering what you can do with a wall map like this?
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.
Unfortunately, I do not have a clear wall in my budget 😉 You should see my house – bookshelves are everywhere!
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.
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 🙂
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!
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.
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.
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.