Take a Trip Without Leaving the House

Take a Trip Without Leaving the House

By Rod. B.  guest writer for Dadsworld’s blog. 

Check out his blog at:  http://rnbergren.blogspot.com/search/label/KidsDads

Cost: $0 – $50

Quiet factor 0 – 90 db

What you need?
A Globe and the internet and/or a good library.

The Idea.

The idea is to explore the world at large.   To take trips and plan how you would get to that spot.   To maybe even eat a meal or speak a few words of the language you might encounter.

The Rub.

Have your child pick a spot on the globe/map at random,  As they get older they will want to pick more and more specific spots.   Then comes the fun part.

Usually in my house we will make the trip a week long process.  On Sunday we might pick the spot where we are going.  Then we immediately discuss ideas for how to get there?  I usually steer the family towards using as many methods of transportation as possible.  Say if we are going to the Yamal Penn. In Northern Russia.  Then first we will probably drive to the airport. Then fly to Russia, and then we might ride horses to the last part.

Monday thru Thursday we all spend sometime surfing the internet searching for pictures, languages, recipes from the spot where we will be traveling.  We try to spend a little time each evening 5-20 minutes talking about the new spot.  It can be quiet fun to hear the kids say that Mom can stay on the beach in Australia while we rent a boat and sneak up to the island of Kai Kecil (Indonesia) and get coconuts.  Just craziness.  Kids can be really inventive at this point in time.  Talking about how to help out the other children in Sao Paulo in Brazil and many other things that have happened.

Friday/Saturday we try to greet each other with the word for Hello in that language.  And maybe even make a meal that would be sort of traditional from that area.  Some of the meals have been spectacular. Others…well lets just say the dog wouldn’t eat it.

Benefits.  Obviously the children learn about geography.  They also learn respect for other people (cultures) and they really branch out in ideas on how fun differing types of travel can be.   But don’t ever discount the things you will learn.   Not just about areas of the world you thought you would know well.   But from the angles of thought your children would bring to the subject.

Rating:   This is a 10.   This is probably one of my favorite things to do with my children.   It is something we can all do together anytime and any place and we can have so many fun discussions when we are actually on the trips we have taken together.   When you talk about how exciting a plane trip is. You can then be amazed at what the kids are looking forward to during the trip.

Have fun!  Thanks, Rod!