How frequently must atlases, maps be updated?

[Wind-in-my-hair]

How often do you recommend buying brand-new globes, atlases, and geography texts? Every 3-4 years? Every 5-6 years?

[Crimson Wife]

Depends on how much attention you personally pay to changes. So if you're someone who knows a lot about foreign affairs and can point out changes to your child, you can go longer between replacing atlases (maybe every 10 years instead of 5). When we covered European geography last year, I realized that our atlas had an outdated map of the Balkans (former Yugoslavia). I was able to point out that Montenegro and Kosovo were no longer part of Serbia. But if I paid less attention to foreign affairs, then I wouldn't have been able to do that & we would've been better off with an updated atlas.

[Farrar]

None of ours have South Sudan.  I'm not rushing out to change them.

 

Shrug.  I say every 5-10 years is fine.  Being abreast of political geography changes, as Crimson Wife notes, is helpful.  But after the fall of communism finished shaking out, there haven't been that many changes of the sort that most kids will really need to know.  Not that having a globe where Mumbai is still Bombay is ideal or anything, but it's not going to ruin a child's education, especially not before high school.

[Rosie_0801]

When both covers have fallen off. :p

[happypamama]

Honestly?  We are using an old globe that my ILs had.  It still has the USSR on it, but the geographical features haven't changed.  I just tell the kids, "these countries used to be combined into one big country called X" or whatever, and they shrug and move on.  We have an older world atlas too, but our wall maps (world and US) are both pretty new, only a few years old.  So far, nothing's been a problem.

[Tracy]

Our 6' x 9' wall map is wall-papered to our wall, so that is not going to get updated any time soon.  But when South Sudan was created, dd8 just made an overlay of the country to stick to the map.   :)  

 

We are using 10-yr-old atlases that were gifted to us.  It is good for the kids to see how the countries have changed in such a short amount of time.

[Walking-Iris]

I'm with others. Much isn't going to change significantly to worry about a US map, world map, or a globe.

 

I did get rid of an out dated atlas recently for a newer one. But it was mainly for aesthetics and an attempt to spark the kid's interest in it.  

 

http://www.amazon.com/Childrens-World-Atlas-DK/dp/0756675847/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_4

[Kathryn]

We use the globe from my childhood. Our huge wall map is about ten years old. For more up-to-date needs, we use the Internet or apps on the iPad.

[kubiac]

I say only when this list is updated, IF you have a vested educational interest in the changed region.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_date_of_formation#Sortable_list