Printable Maps

In case you're ever in need of this information, here are a few tips for how to find good printable maps (online) that can be colored in.

I didn't think this would be a difficult task. I'm coordinating the kids' portion of our church's mission event this evening, and the womaan I'm working with suggested that, as part of our craft, we use maps. The kind that just give the outline of the country in question, and can be colored in.

I kept thinking of these as "coloring maps" and since I've had a lot of success in finding good, free coloring pages for children online, I went looking with that phrase in mind. Turns out that was not a smart idea. I keep expecting internet search engines to be more intuitive than they are. Various attempts at searching on "maps to color" and "coloring maps" or "maps for kids to color" yielded nothing anywhere close to what I was driving at. I forget how much search engines disregard words like "to" or "ing" endings. All the search engine picked up on was the word "color" and the word "map" apparently -- so it kept giving me full-color maps, exactly the opposite of what I was after!

I finally got smart and tried the word "outline." As in "Madagascar map outline." And bingo! A plethora of useful, educational sites with the graphics I needed. I ended up using the geography sections at about.com (geography.about.com) but when I have time, I hope to go back and take a look at a few other good geography sites this searching turned up.

When I have time....hmm...that would not be now. Must go and finish getting the things together for the craft project. We're making mini-photo-albums, by the way, of the missionaries our church sponsors, so each child can have their own "missionary book" which they can look at at home and use during prayer time. We've done this with the Sweet Girl for almost a year now, I think, and it's been great. Our missionary book at home includes a number of our church missionaries, but also some other friends on the mission field. It's been a good reminder for me and D. to pray for them as well.

I've still got some photocopies to make, and lots of cutting to do, so I'd best get to it!