Mapping Out a Route to Geography Proficiency : If you involve children in trip planning, discuss global events and buy educational games, they’ll quickly learn about the world.

When it comes to family trips, 13-year-old Jory Hecht goes along for more than the ride. He pores over maps with his parents and two brothers, helping to decide which route to take and what they’ll do along the way. In so doing, he’s become an adept navigator.

“I like to see where we’re going,” he explained.

“We always have maps all over the car,” said his mother Ellen, who is a teacher. At home in Albany, Calif., near Berkeley, Jory often seeks out maps to look up places he’s been hearing about on the news.

All that map-reading has clearly paid off: Jory Hecht is California’s 1993 champion in the National Geography Bee, beating out thousands of other youngsters in the state. He’ll be heading to Washington, D.C., to compete in the finals May 25-26 in the National Geographic Society-sponsored contest, to be broadcast on most PBS stations around the country. First prize will be a $25,000 college scholarship.

The Hechts have been busy studying maps of Washington.

So have the Mehls in Belvidere, Ill. Fourteen-year-old Jared is the Illinois contender. His favorite car game: “We look for license plates from every state and then mark them on a map.”

“Buy the kids their own maps so they can follow your route when you’re traveling,” his mother, Marsha, suggested. “The kids think it’s fun but they’re really learning geography.”

It’s a hot topic these days. More and more educators are encouraging kids and their parents to pore over maps and atlases as they plan trips together, to play geography games and riddles as they travel, and to look up newsmaking locales such as Egypt, Russia and Hong Kong.

“It’s a grass-roots resurgence of interest,” said Central Michigan University geography professor Mike Libbee. The Michigan Geographic Alliance has gone a step further than most other such organizations around the country. The nonprofit coalition of teachers and geographers, partially funded by the National Geographic Society, has developed a program to help busy parents integrate geography lessons into their family lives--complete with a workshop to explain the subject to neophytes.

(The California Geographic Alliance for Southern California does not have such a program, instead emphasizing the training of teachers to instruct children in geography.)

Some 7,000 Michigan families have participated in the Michigan Parents Geography Project. But for families that don’t live in Michigan: Here’s the way to start teaching geography at home. Buy a large world map and put it up in the TV room. Watch the evening news once a week with your children. Then use the map to talk about the news. “It’s easy,” Libbee said. “Geography is all around us.”

At the same time, there are scores of glitzy new games and toys designed to help. Check out the National Geographic Society free catalogue (800-447-0647) for everything from a $99.95 electronic geography game called GeoSafari to a globe basketball for $27.95 and a jigsaw puzzle of the United States for $33.50.

“Parents are willing to spend $20 or $25 on a game if it’s to teach geography,” said John Schneider, who buys toys and games for Rand McNally’s 22 retail stores. (The newest is scheduled to open in July at the Century City Mall.)

There’s “Geographunny” by Mort Gerberg (Clarion Books, $7.95), a book of global riddles. (What is the smallest city in Korea? Inchon.) Or Hugg America, a pillow shaped like the United States with all 50 states included. Some parents let kids mark the homes of relatives or friends on their pillows. For the preschool set, there is My World and Globe by Ira Wolfman (Workman Publishing, $12.95), a kit that includes an inflatable globe, stickers to put on it and a little book explaining everything from how a map maker puts a round world onto a flat page, to why it’s night in Los Angeles when it’s morning in London.

On the low end of the price scale, to help American families get their kids more interested in geography, the U.S. Department of Education has published a 26-page booklet, complete with illustrations and maps, called “Helping Your Child Learn Geography.” A bargain at 50 cents, it includes geography awareness games such as how to investigate your neighborhood (what’s unique to your house; what’s similar among many houses). To get a copy, send a check or money order for 50 cents to: Geography, Consumer Information Center, Pueblo, Colo. 81009.

That geography can be fun is seen in the popularity of the Emmy Award-wining PBS series, “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” Sponsored by Holiday Inn Worldwide, the series is a mystery show about a gang of savvy thieves who leave clues as they travel the world. The show has spawned a board game and an in-school curriculum that allows children to trace their family heritage from the next town to the next continent.

“Geography isn’t the old way of memorizing state capitals,” explained Mary Lee Eldon, who oversees the National Geography Bee. “It’s learning about places, why they are where they are and the people in them.

“When you travel,” she added, “you should take the opportunity to get out in the neighborhoods and see what makes a city a city and talk to your kids about why places are different.”

“Parents have got to teach kids to be really observant--to really look, not just to see,” said Salvatore Natoli, a spokesman for the National Council for Social Studies, an association of 20,000 teachers. “Just like you have a good dictionary, you should have an atlas in your house and use it,” he said.

Such advice comes not a moment too soon: Studies show that Americans are woefully lacking in their geography skills. In a 10-country Gallup survey conducted in 1988 and 1989, Americans ranked among the bottom third. People aged 18 to 24 came in last.

These dismal results spurred the National Geographic Society and educators across the country to launch a major offensive against geography ignorance with everything from the Geography Bee--some 6 million kids participated this year--to teacher training, to the formation of state geographic alliances such as the Michigan Geographic Alliance.

The campaign is far from won. Geography still has image problems. The Geographic Society, for one, is concerned because boys dominate its contest. Just two of the 57 geography finalists this year are girls. Past contests have had similar boy-to-girl ratios.

“Don’t just assume your sons want to be the navigators,” urged a Geographic Society spokesman. “Hand the maps to your daughters.”

But even geography champions are careful not to be too enthusiastic, lest they be perceived as academic nerds. “Reading maps isn’t my favorite thing to do,” Jory Hecht insisted. “I’d rather be at Great America.”

Taking the Kids invites reader questions and comments about family travel. Address them to: Taking the Kids, 2859 Central St., Box 119, Evanston, Ill. 60201.