This year (09-10) I am letting the tree oldest pick any country they like each week. After they have chosen their country, I print out an outline map of the country for them to label the borders, major cities, capitol and population. They then draw a picture of the flag and write a short paragraph including any interesting facts, major exports / industries. Each week's map and paragraph goes into a page protector and then into a binder. So far it is working well. Simple and fun.
For maps we have a very large (3' x 5' ish) map of the world on the wall, another large one of the US under a piece of glass on the kitchen table and we love our new atlas
