Coloring Flags and Learning Geography

Home schoolers who have coloring book-aged children might be interested in this flag coloring web site with outlines of flags that you can print up for the cost of ink and paper. As a kid, I thought flags were really cool. Maybe I never outgrew it.

Here's my first attempt:



...Oh, wait. I'm supposed to print it, then color it. But it turns out better when I do it this way!

We Americans call the flag of the United States of America "The Stars and Stripes" and sometimes "Old Glory," but I had never considered that other nations have names for their flags too. For example, Switzerland has the Federal Cross (no comment on this from the S.C.L.U.) and Japan calls their simple design the Hinomaru (sun disk flag).

Flags are a great starting point to teach geography and one terrific resource is the Central Intelligence Agency. Yep, you heard me. They have a World Factbook that was just re-published for 2008, but you can always check out their up-to-date, online version. They have a flag database, but there's so much more. Do you want a political map of the entire world in PDF? How about get an approximation of the comparative area of Uzbekistan?

It doesn't have to get very complicated. One other way to use the flags once you color them is to help your kids understand how one place can have a flag representing their nation, their province or state, and even their county and city. Point to a map of North America and have them pick the right flags for Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada or Chicago, Illinois, United States of America. Here's my home town's flag. Depending on how creative your kids are, you can have them make up their own personal flag or family flag. Ask them what they would put on it and see what they think is important to them or what makes them and your family unique to the world. You might have your eyes opened a bit by their responses.

One last thought: Geography is a great opportunity to teach your children to pray for the countries, people groups and tribes. Where people live and how they live is important, but praying for others is eternally significant.

PS: For Canadians, the proper title of this post is "Colouring Flags and Learning Geography"

See, I'm multi-lingual! "Pass me some serviettes. I spilled some Molson and soaked my tuque."