Random Thoughts

Here's another wonderful article from www.MomCenter.com

A family vacation isn’t just about going somewhere, visiting sights, and taking lots of pictures. Vacation trips can be fun and educational not just for the little ones, but for you too. Here are some tips on how to do that.



1. Choose a place with lots of potential

The perfect educational vacation spot may be a place that none of you have been to before. It may also be a place that you enjoyed in the past and that you can’t wait to share with your family. It can also be a place that your child is learning about in school and actually bringing him there makes it come alive for him.

2. Involve the kids in planning for the trip

There are many skills that children can acquire when invited to plan a trip. Older kids can learn a lot about real-life application of math when they look for hotels, restaurants, and activities. Give them a budget to work on and see that they present to you a plan that fits its.

Give younger children a list of activities that you can do on your vacation and ask them to choose which ones to go to.

3. Build the excitement

If your child is already in school, knowing the entire school calendar will help you plan trips early. When you can plan early, the anticipation for the trip can be fun unlike the stress of cramming preparations for an excursion.

Give your child books about where you’ll be going. Don’t stick to history, geography or current events literature though. Storybooks are a subtle way of introducing a culture to young children.

If you’re going to a foreign country, try learning a few phrases together. Practice saying, “Where’s the bathroom?” or “Do you speak English?”

4. Use the trip as a vehicle for learning

Will you be flying? It’s a great opportunity to teach your kids time zones first-hand. Let them use a map, too, to see where you’ll be going, what places you’ll pass along the way, and the distance you’ll be travelling.

Is it going to be a long drive? Fill it up with plenty of driving games like spotting a specific type of car or vocabulary games.

5. Follow a schedule but don’t fill it up

A vacation should be just that, a time to rest. But it’s not only our bodies that need rest. Our minds also need a time away from our regular and sometimes hectic schedule. The change in scenery, immersion into a new culture, taste of novel cuisine all contributes to a relaxing vacation.

Although it sounds like an oxymoron, not having a schedule for your holiday trip may actually be stressful. You need to know when the attractions are open for example, or when the best time to see the dolphins will be. If you do not get a full experience because of poor scheduling, it would be like paying to get into the movie theater only to miss the plot twist.

Having a schedule also helps your children anticipate what’s coming up. This makes them feel more involved and less of a passive spectator.

6. Dare to go off the beaten path

Vacations are also a time to try something new: new food, new sights, and of course, a different culture.

Don’t be satisfied with what the tour guide will let you experience. With almost everything accessible online, search for what the locals are actually excited about in their city. Instead of tourist buses, be brave enough to ride on public transportation. This not only saves money but also allows visitors to catch a glimpse of the daily lives of the locals.

7. Delve deeper into the beaten path

Going on guided tours are the norm when visiting foreign countries. They allow you to see many tourist spots in a fairly short amount of time, but they also bring you to supposed industry showrooms in the hopes that you would buy souvenirs. This is unfortunate especially if all you want is to relish the sight and atmosphere of where you are visiting.

Using many resources available online, most of which are free, you can make your visit to a tourist spot more meaningful by reading ahead with your children and exploring the site unhurriedly. Since most tourist spots are picturesque, you can turn this into an art lesson by handing a digital camera to your child and have them fire away. A more laid back option would be to give your child a sketchpad.

8. Debrief immediately

While still on your way home, ask the children what their favorite parts of the trip were. Ask if they would consider coming back and what they would do differently the next time.

Give them the job of making a scrapbook of the trip. It can either be an old-fashioned one, which for little ones will act as a showcase of their cutting and pasting skills, or a photo book from a digital layout created by an older child. It can even be a digital movie or slideshow.

Reminiscing immediately after an event allows the mind to remember more details longer.