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I want to share one of my absolute-favorite homeschool resources: Pin It Maps.

I cannot begin to tell you how much learning has occurred as a result of these gorgeous maps. Children cannot keep their hands off of these beautiful maps. These maps inspire delight-driven learning and that is my favorite kind of learning!

I’ve even used them on Christmas Eve. I kid you not, you guys. It was my kids’ idea, too!

Today, I’m sharing all the info about Pin It Maps. I will tell you what is included, how to use them in your homeschool, and even how to organize and store the maps.

I just know you will love them as much as we do!

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How to Make Your Homeschool Geography Amazing and Fun with Pin It Maps

Pin It Maps makes homeschool geography fun, hands-on, and memorable

I am a huge fan of strewing.

Strewing is the art of sprinkling books, games, and other resources related to a child’s current interest. Pin It Maps are perfect for homeschool strewing!

Pull out your Pin It Maps, add some fantastic geography books, and follow with a geography game. Boom! You’ve got yourself a lazy unit study and I promise your kids will have fun!

Pin It Maps are an amazing hands-on way to learn geography

I should back up and tell you more about Pin It Maps.

Pin It Maps is a company run by Sara, a homeschooling mom. Like many homeschool parents, Sara was interested in finding high-quality affordable educational materials that could be used across curriculums and for a wide range of ages and learning styles.

Sara created Pin It Maps, a company that provides beautiful, hands-on, Montessori-inspired pinnable maps.

Each set of maps comes with flags for pinning, large-scale maps for pinning, and a set of control maps. The control maps allow for self-monitoring and correcting, and the maps can be used again and again.

Through hands-on exploration, students quickly learn geography.

How to Make Your Homeschool Geography Amazing and Fun with Pin It Maps! | My Little Poppies

Here is an example of one of the flags used for pinning.

What do you need to get started with Pin It Maps?

Pin It Maps is an amazing experience that will last for years to come. But, in order to have the best experience possible, I would recommend a few things:

First, you’ll need to purchase size 28: 1-3/4 inch straight quilting pins.

Trust me, you want to get the correct size. I purchased regular ol’ dress pins and they were too small. These pins are easy to find at online or at local craft stores like Michaels Craft Stores.

I should note that you don’t need the pins.
You can use the maps and flags without pins (and this is a great idea for young children), but we loved making the little flagpoles!

Second, if you want to make the flag poles, you will need to assemble them. Assembly is easy and my kids loved helping me.

All materials (with the sole exception of the pins I already mentioned) are included in your order. The flagpole is a plastic tube placed beneath the flag label. It will keep the pin from bending and the flag label from slipping down the pin when a child pushes on the flag. For each pin, a soft silicon flag base is provided. It holds the tube in place, makes the pin stand up straight on the map and stops the pin from poking through the foam sheet.

Finally, if you order a large bundle of maps, you’ll want to think about storage.

I’ve already said it, but these maps are stunning. When they first arrived on our doorstep, I was in love… and completely paranoid that one member of our party would lose a piece.

I immediately contacted Pin It Maps and Sara was super-responsive. She suggested the following for organization:

Iris® Photo Box, 16 Cases – These are available through Amazon and local craft stores. I purchased ours at Michaels Craft Stores. (Psst… gameschoolers: These cases are also perfect for card game storage!)

If you want to be super-organized, Pin It Maps also offers labels on the site.
The flags are super-easy to sort once you’ve used them because the continent is noted on the back of every flag. The kids can clean up after themselves!

You can watch an instructional video explaining how to organize and store the pins here:

Why I love Pin It Maps

There are so many reasons, but here are a few:

The maps are gorgeous.
They are durable.
Pin It Maps allows for hands-on learning.
This is an incredible way to learn geography. Pin It Maps are so much more fun than any worksheet, coloring page, or puzzle.

How to use Pin It Maps in your homeschool

There are countless ways to use these maps in your homeschool. You could just leave them on a coffee table and see what happens, or you could try these ideas:

These maps can be used in so many different ways. Here are a few ways we have used them:
- Tracking Santa on Christmas Eve.
- In conjunction with Give Your Child the World by Jamie Martin.
- Pair the maps with Around the World Stories.
- While studying U.S. states and capitals, we have used the US map and the game Scrambled States.
Pin It Maps can be used with a variety of age ranges. My 6-year-old is having just as much fun as my 9-year-old, and I can see our family using these maps for many years to come.
The maps encourage cooperative learning and collaboration among siblings.
I could see these maps being used in a homeschool, classroom, or co-op setting.

Do you love geography?

Here are some helpful resources:

Add more joy to your homeschool routine…

Now, it’s your turn. Tell me: What are your favorite geography resources? Share here!

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