Monday 19 November 2018

An Education In How To Teach Your Kids As They Travel

When it comes to traveling as with a young family, most of us keep education in mind in some form or another. Who doesn’t want their travels to teach their kids a thing or two about this wide world we live in? Isn’t that half of the argument for taking children away while they’re young in the first place? It’s fun, of course, but it’s also an educational experience. By seeing plenty of the world at a young age, your kids are set to know about everything from history to geography and even diversity.

Of course, not just any old trip brings all these benefits. Flying out to a hotel resort in Spain, for instance, won’t teach them much more than how to swim, or spend days in the sun. That’s great stuff, but focusing on this would see your kids missing out on a whole load of potential lessons.

That’s why you may want to book into destinations which include areas of historical interest. Far from sitting in your hotel day in and day out, this would allow you to take your kids for trips which stand to be educational. Get this right, and you can bet they’ll remember the lessons of a trip like this for a long time to come.

Of course, when you bring education into your time away, you do face a few pressing issues. Namely, you risk your kids losing all interest in the holiday. It’s unusual for children to embrace learning, after all, especially during their holidays. If you aren’t careful, then, they’ll switch off and not learn a thing. That’s why we have some pointers to help you ensure they both learn from and enjoy excursions like these.

Choose destinations you know could interest them

First, take the time to choose destinations with plenty you know would interest your children. If they have a fascination with the Roman empire, for instance, Rome could be ideal. If they love Aladdin the movie, why not try to India, and locations like the Taj Mahal? You name their passion, and you can bet there’s a destination out there somewhere which would suit it. By hand picking your options like this, you more than double the chances that your child will stay engaged for the duration. Having a personal connection to a place gives them a reason to get excited about seeing these things. That doesn’t ensure they’ll stay engaged for long, but it at least means they’ll have some initial excitement when heading out. You can then work with that initial excitement to ensure the whole family gets the most out of every day you’re away.

Always turn to tour guides

It’s also worth noting that you should always turn to tour guides when you visit places like these.


Kids have shorter attention spans than adults. As such, they would find it difficult to pay attention to something like this aimlessly. If you traipse around a castle like Caernarfon without structure, you’ll soon start hearing those wails of ‘can we go yet?’. By comparison, a tour guide can bring structure to the visit. That ensures those little attention spans stay focused for a whole lot longer. So, don’t embark on a trip of the Colosseum without first signing yourself up for a walking tour. Don’t visit Istanbul without first looking into a Hagia Sophia private tour guide to keep things interesting. In some destinations, you may even find that there are child-specific tours. These are sure to keep those kiddies engaged for the duration of your visit. That, in turn, guarantees they’ll learn a whole lot more than they would have otherwise.

Think about timings

It’s also worth thinking about your timings when you visit places like these. You may be happy to spend three or four hours looking around an ancient ruin, but your kids won’t be. Remember, young attention spans can't concentrate on something for long. And, why should they have to? This is a holiday, after all, not another day in school. To keep this fair and exciting, always be aware of how long you spend looking around during your excursions. As a general rule, try to keep trips like these below the two-hour mark. If you go past that point, even your best efforts to make things interesting are sure to fall flat. What’s more, long excursions like these mean your kids will be reluctant to repeat a similar experience. That’s bad news for your future efforts, so don’t let it happen. Instead, keep things short, sharp, and interesting. Leave them wanting more, rather than forcing them into begging you to leave.


*This is a collaborative post*
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