Maps for kids start with a place your child already understands: a small town with a house, a school, a park, a shop and a hospital. On this page the map is a friendly picture on a 5 by 5 grid of roads, with Golu, our purple glass marble, ready to walk. Your child taps places to hear what they are, moves Golu with four big arrow buttons, and learns the four directions. Every word is spoken, so no reading is needed.
What is a map? An easy way to explain it
A map is a picture of a place seen from above, like a bird looking down. That one idea unlocks everything. Try this at home: put a cup on a table and ask your child to look at it from the side, then stand on a chair (safely, with you) and look straight down. From the top the cup is a circle. A map draws every place from the top, and it is smaller than the real place so it fits on paper or a screen.
What your child learns about map reading
- Ages 4-5 (LKG, kindergarten): position words (up, down, left, right, next to, between), recognising places on a picture map, following a two-step route with help.
- Ages 5-6 (UKG, class 1): north, south, east and west on a map, following and giving routes like "go up, then right", and drawing a simple map of a room.
Left and right are genuinely hard for young children, and many still mix them up at 6 or 7. That is normal. Up and down usually come first.
How to play the map game for kids
The town sits on a 5 by 5 road grid. The house is in the middle, the school is to the north (up), the park to the south (down), the shop to the east (right) and the hospital to the west (left). Trees sit in the four corners, and a small "N ↑" badge shows which way is north. There are three modes.
- Map: tap any place to hear about it, for example "This is the school. Teachers work here." Tap the house, the park, the shop and the hospital to hear what happens there.
- Go!: your child helps Golu walk from place to place with four big arrow buttons: up, down, left and right. The game speaks the route, such as "Go down, then right". If Golu steps the wrong way, your child hears a gentle hint, then the right arrow glows, then a pointing hand shows it. There are 5 trips, and the last one brings Golu back home.
- Directions: the game asks a question like "Which way is the park from the house?" and your child taps North, South, East or West. In Hindi these are उत्तर (uttar, north), दक्षिण (dakshin, south), पूर्व (purv, east) and पश्चिम (paschim, west).
Nothing here says "wrong". Each finished round adds a marble to the Goli Jar, saved on your device. The अ+A button sets Hindi first, English first or one language only. Grown-up settings (behind a quick check) choose your child's age band, which changes how many choices appear, and offer calm motion, fewer choices and captions. For younger children, stay in Map and Go! and leave the compass words for later.
The four directions for kids: north, south, east and west
| Direction | Hindi | On this map | Place in the game |
|---|---|---|---|
| North | उत्तर (uttar) | Up | School |
| South | दक्षिण (dakshin) | Down | Park |
| East | पूर्व (purv) | Right | Shop |
| West | पश्चिम (paschim) | Left | Hospital |
"Up" means north on most maps only because map makers agreed to draw them that way. It is a convention, not a rule of nature. Some old maps put east or south at the top. That is why good maps show a small north arrow, like the "N ↑" badge in our game.
Never Eat Soggy Wheat: a memory trick
Start at the top and go round clockwise: North, East, South, West. The first letters spell Never Eat Soggy Wheat. Children aged 5 and 6 love the silly picture. Draw a big plus sign on paper, write N at the top and let your child fill in the rest while saying the rhyme.
How to find north and east at home
The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. In the morning, stand your child facing the rising sun: that is east. North is on their left, south on their right and west behind them. In India this links nicely to everyday life, since many families greet the morning sun, and the words पूर्व and पश्चिम are often heard at home.
Map activities for preschoolers and kindergarten
Map skills grow best with real movement and real places. Spend 5 to 10 minutes a day on one of these.
- Draw a map of your room: look down on the room together and draw it from above: the bed as a rectangle, the door as a gap, the window as a line. Ask "Where is the toy box on your map?"
- Treasure hunt map: hide a small toy and draw a simple map with an X. Give directions like "three steps forward, then turn left". Swap roles so your child hides and draws.
- Walk and talk: on the way to school or the market, say the turns aloud: "Now we turn right at the tea shop." Later, ask your child to lead the way home.
- Toy town: use blocks for houses and a chalk road on the floor, then drive a toy car with route instructions, like Golu in Go!
- Left hand, right hand: put a sticker or a small band on the right hand for a week. It gives a quick check when left and right get muddled.
Printing works through the browser, so you can print this page and use the directions table as a simple directions worksheet. There is no separate PDF.
Places, helpers and staying safe
The five places on the map connect to other topics your child is learning. The school, the hospital and the shop are full of community helpers such as teachers, doctors and shopkeepers. Our places in the neighbourhood page goes further, with more buildings to explore. Knowing the way home is also a safety skill: pair map games with safety rules for kids, like holding a grown-up's hand when crossing a road and knowing your home address.
Keep it calm and inclusive
Praise the thinking: "You checked where the school was before you moved!" If your child gets frustrated, return to Map mode and just tap places for fun. Children with dyspraxia or attention differences often find left and right especially hard; use colour stickers and plenty of body movement. For autistic children, the fixed layout (school always up, park always down) is reassuring. Keep screen sessions short and play together, then take the ideas outdoors. For toddlers, exploring real rooms and gardens with a grown-up teaches more than any screen.
Later, look at bigger maps together, such as a map of India or a world map, and find places where people say hello in other ways with hello in different languages. Spotting the shapes on a map also builds on shapes name practice. Everything here is free, with no sign-up, no ads and no tracking, and works in any browser.
