There is no age to teach your child to read a map. It helps your child develop his abstraction skills and spatial orientation.

Proceed step by step. Start from his close environment and extend it to widen his world vision:

• Draw your house and its surroundings. Draw a path and follow it;
• Teach him to identify the different pictograms of a map (churches, parks, tourist information centre, etc.);
• He will then spot the different colours (lakes, forests, rivers, etc.) ;
• Then, explain to him the notions of distance and scale;
• Help him understand the different reliefs;
• Show him how to place the map according to his own position in space;
• Let him choose a route and take you from one point to another. He will then choose his own route to discover some places: a building, a river or a short cut.

Your turn, now! Take him on a walk and let him guide you. Prepare a picnic, you never know…

If the experience is successful, have your child prepare several walks in the Ardennes with you.