I definitely think that if my family and I had visited the locations we studied about in history classes I would have retained more of the information. Granted travel was not as international when I was a kid, but we could have ventured further out within the US. We went all up and down the New England coast exploring though.

Educational travel doesn’t necessarily have to entail dragging the kids to boring museums, stuffy art galleries and historical places of interest on your journeys (although many of these kinds of places have wonderful programs in place to make them entertaining/enlightening for children).

Just try to be observant and talk with the kids about how things are similar and different to the way things are back home - houses, clothing, music, smells etc… Read age-appropriate books about the destination before you go to stimulate their natural curiosity and open the dialogue. Get off the tourist trail and stroll through a real neighborhood with them. Make them try the local food and have them learn a few basic words of the local language (a simple hello, please, thank you and a smile can go a long way in bridging cultural divides). Young kids in particular are adept at making friends with local kids even if they don’t speak the same language - they find a way to communicate through play.

Some of the best learning comes through these kinds of natural experiences rather than forced “educational activities”.

Darren, you’re absolutely right on this subject. Myself, I grew up in a very small provincial town in Sweden, and all I learned about the world was really from history books and the news. I would have loved to see the places we read about.

As an adult, I’ve visited a number of them (especially Paris, which I love) and I feel that I lost a fair few years where I could have been traveling instead of consuming when I was younger.

I completely agree with you Darren. It would be nice to have seen more children get involved in the project in Sri Lanka that we recently participated in. It was a package holiday, but we spent three days helping build a new school.

That was an education.

Thanks for this, Darren. My secret to educational travel is to ignore my children’s protestations. No, really.

It’s become a ritual in our family - I announce a trip, I announce which museum we’ll see or cultural event we’ll attend or unusual food we’ll eat, the kids complain (especially the teenager,) I tell them to “put a cork in it” and take them anyway.

They proceed to learn something and have a good time.

Months/years later, some related question or issue comes up while they’re in school, and my kid gets to be the class smarty-pants, as though they DIDN’T fight me tooth and nail to go see Notre Dame or whatever. At this point, they actually thank me for taking them, and I try not to say “I told you so.”

I’ve written educational travel overviews for many US states on http://www.education.com and people are always amazed at the many interesting places and fun events out there. I cannot imagine a family just going somewhere to park themselves on a beach or ski slope, and that’s it. Has never been my style and never will be.

Hi Darren,
Sheila hits the nail on the head (as expected) in her comment.

I do exactly the same things with my kids - although my kids are a little younger & I’m still waiting for a “thank you” for fighting with them when I insisted on taking them somewhere they deemed “too stuffy”.

That said, there are ways of making the destinations which may seem too much for kids fun for kids. For my (very wild) boys, I evaluate all the things we could do (at a given destination) in advance and then pick the ones I think they will enjoy - if I can get them in the door. Venice is a perfect example.

I decided not to even try visit St Mark’s Cathedral or many of the art galleries. Instead, we visited the Doge’s palace - where they zipped past all the wonderful paintings in the outer galleries and we stayed over an hour in the two rooms where medieval weaponry and torture instruments were on display.

I wasn’t willing to fight with them to visit many art galleries, so I chose one: the largest Scuola which contains a huge body of work by Tintoretto. The funniest part? There were mirrors for patrons to use to see and appreciate the work on the ceilings. There was no way I was going to let either of my children hold a mirror on their knee - dollars to donuts broken glass would ensue.

So we all lay on our backs in a quiet corner of the room and enjoyed the ceiling in that way. My kids thought this was fantastic. I thought the few curious stares we were getting were a small price to pay.

Thanks so much for this Darren. As you probably know, this is one of my passions! We have started our third year of traveling the world and our primary reason for this special journey has been to educate our child.

She was only 5 when we started, but an avid reader and I can’t not even tell you how much the travel has enriched all of us and given her an education that could never be duplicated. In that time she has been to 4 continents, 27 countries, traveled over 50,000 miles and immersed deeply into her second language, culture and literature when we winter in Spain.

There are sooo many great books for kids, even young kids that can enhance the travel plus prepare them before and help them remember it after. Trust me, there is nothing quite like reading Homer while visiting Troy, reading Harry Potter on a punt in Cambridge or double decker bus in London, or Pippi Longstocking in Sweden, etc.

I have made several videos http://www.youtube.com/user/soultravelers3?ob=1 ( & blog posts) about how we use books as part of our itinerary that has added a lot of fun for our child.

Not everyone can do a trip like we are doing, but we even used many of these same techniques when our child was very young, locally. I don’t think one can be too young for museums, historical sites, open air museums or cultural events. They can all be done in a fun way. No, not in an adult way, but in an age appropriate way. Kids actually love to learn and there is nothing better than family travel, learning together.

We never would have taken the trip to the Sahara if it had not been for my daughter, or Turkey either for that matter. Both have been highlights with incredible learning opportunities for all of us, wonderful bonding and shared memories that we will cherish forever.

Educational travel for families is a must for global citizens of the 21st century in an ever shrinking world!

Our kids are too young to have preconceived ideas about museums or churches not being fun, so for now our goal is to find a way to make each place fun, respond to whatever they find interesting (even if we think it’s not) and to be willing to walk out (instead of dragging the kids through) when they start loosing interest.

On our recent trip to New Mexico, I showed the kids Georgia O’Keefe paintings before we left home, and just before we entered the O’Keefe Museum I read them a children’s story about O’Keefe. My 3 1/2 year old son was enthralled… I think it was the first time he really made the connection between paintings and artists. He enjoyed the museum that day, and asked lots of questions about the different paintings. My daughter wasn’t so patient (she was about 22 months old), so I did what I could to keep her interested, and then high tailed it out to the lobby when she hit the end of her rope.

For the rest of the trip E re-read the O’Keefe book in the car, and it seemed to make a huge impression. A month later, on a trip to Chicago he was literally sat down and let out a huge sigh when he saw another O’Keefe painting.

So I guess my thought is to give some of the “boring” places a try, do your best to make them fun, and let the kids surprise you. That day in the museum was way more rewarding for all of us than an extra hour at the playground would have been, but you’ll never know if you don’t try.

I couldn’t agree more with you in this post! Excellent put and excellent comments added too. There is nothing better than to experience things at the spot - and to meet people in their home countries. Very educational - even for adults.

I also agree with Jack, I’ve experienced exactly the same and I’m Swedish too. My teachers made subjects that’s actually are very interesting into the most boring subjects. They really can destroy a persons curiosity for ages….

It all starts with the parents or significant adults in a child’s life. I firmly believe travel is just as important to a child’s education as a textbook is.

But those of us commenting here already realize this and do our best to teach this to the young ones around us. Darren, you are great uncle and your nephew is fortunate to have you in his life.

But yes, this also applies to adults. I know that I learn new things each time I take my children somewhere. Sometimes, they even teach something to me! The beach is all fun and great for a day or so, but there is so much more to a destination than just the hotel. That’s why I like finding hotels that offer activities highlighting the local culture and we always visit the smaller museums in a city.

Great post, Darren and wonderful comments from everyone.

I have a LOT of experience with this. As in all things parenting, I’d just advise this: be prepared for your grand plan to fail. If kids aren’t connecting with an experience, come from another angle. You can’t control what will interest them, so don’t try.

We were in the Mezquita in Cordoba with our kids this summer. The kids spontaneously started searching for animals in the carvings and frescoes. We penned a list of over 20 animals in all. Not exactly a crash course in Art History, but…something.

At Westminster Abbey, they became interested in the monks’ lives (no light, no heat, painstakingly copying every book they made by hand).

Travel shouldn’t be a drag for them (even when it’s educational). I’m trying to teach them to like travel.

Good subject! Club Med are the most ecologicaly unsound holidays on the planet (discuss….) Go with a bunch of people on a plane/ onto a coach/ into a compound/ stay two weeks/ leave compound/ home.

Zippo contact with locals, efforts are made (as fully inclusive) to keep all activity and spending on site, mainly French staff (anywhere you go). Great fun, mind and good childcare but useless for the envoironment (how do you spell that word???) Same goes for many other all inclusive outfits (Sunsail, Mark Warner (a sort of poor man’s Club Med) et al).

So, well done those who make a point of going out and finding out about local culture etc - even if it is only a day trip in a car. True, many places you cannot do this, after all, you cannot go wandering off on your own through African game reserves.

I just wish that our cousins in the New World Colonies would get out and about more, then they may learn why their “one size fits all” approach does not work…..

Yes, I suppose I am. Even if it is only to the extent of getting more of the “look and feel” of a place. Many Med resorts have become anglicised to the extent that local culture has been surpressed, I mean, do you need to understand any Spanish (or Spain) at all to go to Benidorm? Perhaps the resorts are also at fault for allowing themselves to be taken over.

Why I have a pop at Club Med is they, of all the operators, have the ability to sanitise the destination and to retain all holidaymakes in a sort of bubble for the duration of a holiday. The holidaymaker never need sully themselves of the local inhabitants.

Many of these places rely on tourism for the local economy as well. Stuck behind the windows of a 52 seater is going to do naff all for the economy and that includes being taken on a set route to set places and visiting set sites. Get out and about, I say.

You will learn nada from a holiday that goes airport, restaurant, beach, hotel room, beach, restaurant, airport etc. Kids may not want to learn on holiday and I do not really think one should say “We are going on holiday and when you come back you will a) speak French fluently and b)

Have a full understanding of the Edict of Nantes” But, if, say, in Rome, a chance to wonder at the remains of a once great empire may just spark something, or at least, kids may realise that cheese does not come from Waitrose…… I think Jamie hits the nail on the head.

As an avid traveler who loves to know a lot about the place I’m about to visit to enrich my stay, I read a few books that take place in my destination. More often than not the books I read are a combination of historical fiction and non-fiction. But let me tell you I certainly get a lot more out of my trip when I can reimagine a great book i read that took place there!

Why not take the same approach with kids? Read a historical fictional (or fun non-fiction) story before you take off on your journey. Together, with your kids, you can reimagine the story together. Or when you take the kids to the “boring” museums, relate it back to stories. Like “oh look, that piece of armor is probably a lot like what King Arthur wore…” Like Darren, I’m not yet a parent, but hanging with my nephews I feel like we’re always talking about the stories they read.