Bright Ideas Press ~ A Review

WonderMaps is a “customizable collection of over 350 maps” that has just been released by Bright Ideas Press:

With WonderMaps’ made-to-order geography materials at your fingertips, there’s no more skipping map studies due to a lack of preparation time and resources!

This amazing digital map software offers a wide variety of maps from which to choose including:

• 60+ maps of the world
• 60+ maps of the USA
• 125 historical maps, including 25 biblical maps
• The complete map sets from The Mystery of History vols. I–III and All American History vols. I & II
• historical or modern-day maps
• outline, reference, political, or topographical maps
• black-and-white or color maps 

Our Thoughts

Wow!  That’s what I said to myself when I first downloaded this layered map software onto my computer.  To give you just a glimpse at what this product offers, here’s an example of how I am using this map collection.

Next year my kiddos and I are tackling American History in our history studies, and I am beginning to gather notebook pages for my kiddos to complete during our studies.  I like to include maps among these pages because they help give a visual of places and events that we are studying.

When I get to the WonderMaps home page, I have a couple choices to make:

• The World, Continents, Regions, Nations
• The World, Continents, Regions, Nations: Alphabetical Index
• United States of America
• United States of America: Alphabetical Index
• Historical Maps
• Historical Maps: Chronological Index
• Thematic Maps
• Thematic Maps : Thematic Index

I click on Historical Maps and I am given the choice of four time periods {Ancient times, Middle Ages, Renaissance/Reformation, and Revolutions to Rising Times}.  When I click on Revolutions to Rising Times I am given 35 different historical events to choose from, including Revolutionary War Battlesites, Lewis and Clark, Mexican War Battlesites,  US Immigration, and Europe after WWII.  I chose to print the “Revolutionary War Battlesites”  and “Lewis & Clark” maps for our studies next year.

Then I head back to the home page and click on Thematic Maps: Thematic Index.  In this category I have four pages of themes to choose from, beginning with Biblical Maps {Abraham’s Journeys, David’s Journeys, Paul’s Ministry and Letters}, moving on to Chinese Dynasties, Native American themes {Aztec Empire, French & Indian War Battlesites}, Explorers, 14 maps related to American History, World Wars and finally 20th Century Treaties.

I chose to print “Thirteen Colonies Original Land Claims” and “US Immigration I” from the American History category to add to our American History notebooks.

The maps contained in the WonderMaps collection are beautiful too!  Many of the maps are full color and they include features such as names, borders, rivers and cities.  

You can also customize the maps by clicking features on the sidebar of each map page.  For example, you can choose to have a map key {or not}, have city names listed {or not}, and have a modern overlay displayed on historical maps {or not}…and much more.

More Information

Wondermaps is a digital product that is available as a CD or download format from the Bright Ideas Website, either format is $49.95.

You can view a 6-minute tutorial of the WonderMaps software on the Bright Ideas website.

This software requires Adobe Reader version 9.1 or higher.  You can download Adobe Reader for free on the Bright Ideas Website.

Click on the banner above to read what my fellow crewmates are saying about WonderMaps.

I received a free download of this product in order to provide my honest and unbiased opinion of my experience with this product.  I did not receive any further compensation for this review.