Do family conversations at your house ever lead to map look-ups? We bought a huge National Geographic Atlas early in our married life that has been used to death. The binding is falling apart and much is outdated. On its dog-eared pages Peking is still a city in China and the U.S.S.R. still glowers over the top of Europe. We obviously need to invest in a new atlas.
While there's nothing like an atlas in book form to pore over, there are some handy web options for mapping and for indulging other geographic interests. Take a look at nationalatlas.gov. It's the National Atlas of the United States, provided by the U. S. Department of the Interior, and contains loads of maps, map-making features, and other geographic data.
You can create maps and tailor them to your own needs--great for kids doing reports, and for grownups doing reports too, for that matter. It's a terrific resource for anyone with curiosity and questions about geography.