Family Activities: Educational Travel Will Thrill Your Children

Traveling with kids on fun and educational trips can create family memories that last a lifetime. These excursions can be either a local trip or travels to an exotic destination. A local trip might be a day in the park while travel to another country might be a visit to one of the great cities of the world like London, Paris, or Moscow.

Children love these trips because everything is refreshingly new for them. Such trips expand their horizons. Local or international trips are both educational and emotionally rewarding. Make no mistake, these trips are good for the soul.

Quality Time

It’s difficult to create quality time with your family when you are at home. Despite your best intentions, each member of a family has a busy life, and this makes it difficult to arrange when to spend time together. However, going on a short or long vacation together is an experience in which the whole family can finally enjoy spending more time with each other. Psychologically, this is very healing for both parents and children. While parents — no longer preoccupied with their usual routines — get to know their children better, children begin to feel much more open and secure in their relationship with their parents. Such trips bond families together and expand everyone’s knowledge about the world around them.

Experiential Learning

Educational travel provides deeper learning than books can ever offer. Visiting Stonehenge in the UK, for instance, is far different from reading about it, looking at pictures about it, or even watching a documentary about it. Although academic learning is a wonderful thing, it pales in comparison with experiential learning because more senses are involved. Sometimes, too, these trips can be so moving to a child that they can even have a long term effect on their lives. For instance, a trip to Cape Canaveral in Southern Florida to watch a spacecraft launch may inspire a child to develop a lifelong love for science or space exploration.

Cross Cultural Awareness

Perhaps one of the most profound discoveries a child has is learning about other cultures. Appreciating the similarities and differences between cultures is a thrilling experience. A trip to another country involves observing different landscapes, tasting unusual foods, and hearing unfamiliar languages. This is not only exciting for children, but for parents, too. Sometimes, of course, it’s not possible to travel overseas to expose your child to other cultures. However, you can still expand their perspective on a smaller scale through weekend getaways to parts of the country with cultural signifigance or by visiting ethnic restaurants, stores, and neighborhoods in the town you live in.

Affordable Trips

There are many historical places in the US that you can take your child. In Pennsylvania, the historical significance of Gettysburg can help your child understand the struggle of the Civil War in a way no textbook can convey.  You can also make your child aware of a broader world through joining historical societies and visiting museums.

Summary

An educational trip is a wonderful experience for your child as well as your entire family. While travel overseas is always a delightful way to educate your child about the world, you can also make local, regional, or countrywide trips to expand their horizons. These trips are a wonderful occasion for families to feel closer together.