Thinking Maps And Mind Maps For Helping Kids To Make School Notes

The boy has been taught thinking maps and I have not. So, I thought I had better update myself on these things so I can give him some information, the correct ones, if he comes to me for help. I think it  is a good idea to teach thinking maps in school. It helps the visual learner. My son is one such learner. He likes to draw his information or things he learns. He remembers them better this way. He remembers better through visual association.

In today's post on thinking maps and mind maps for helping kids to make school notes, I will share with you some sites and apps which I find really useful in teaching anyone about visual maps to organize information. I'm also putting them here as a bookmark for myself for easy lookup and reference. Feel free to bookmark this post for yourself too for when you need it.

1. Thinking Maps from Park Meadows Elementary School website. This site has all the thinking maps my son has been talking about. It gives a brief explanation of what thinking maps are all about and each kind of thinking map including circle maps, bubble map, double bubble map, flow map, brace map, tree map, multi-flow map and bridge map and how these maps can be used for to organize information. A pdf printable for each type of thinking map is also included. Very useful, concise and precise.

2. How To Mind Map - This is an ios app for ipad and iphone users on How To Mind Map by the man himself, Tony Buzan. I love this interactive course. It has videos, quizzes and other tools to help you learn what true mind mapping is. It helped me understand exactly what a true mind map should be like. Now I know it well, I can help my children to use it for making school notes. It is a very useful memorizing tool that can be used by anyone of any age. If you do not have an ipad or iphone, you can opt for this online interactive course on How To Mind Map.

Image Credit: Image is from the How To Mind Map app description page on iTunes

3. Inspiration Maps - This is a visual learning app for the ipad. It includes templates for all sorts of visual maps including graphic organizers, concept maps, webbing etc. You can visit the Inspiration website to learn more about these visual maps.  I like that the tools include graphics shapes and pictures which you can use for your visual maps. You can also use your own pictures from the camera on your device.

Image Credit: Image is from the Inspiration Maps app description page on iTunes

4. Kidspiration Maps Lite - For very young kids, you can also use Kidspiration Lite on the iPad. However, you are only limited  to 5 maps from the many beautiful templates you can choose from unless you upgrade. Still 5 free is better than none. They are excellent and include templates for Science, Math and others. 

Image Credit: Image is from the Kidspiration lite app description page on iTunes

Updated: Finally check out this school site (SMK Taman Tasik) which gives an explanation on the 8 types of ithink maps including circle map, bubble map, double bubble map, tree map, brace map, flow map, multi-flow map and bridge map. Here are examples of the 8 ithink maps in use.

Next: Visual Learners will also benefit from this visual search engine for educators, teachers, parents and students.