Our family just returned from our summer vacation to Washington, DC. We stopped at Gettysburg, PA on the way for a little Civil War introduction. We spent nine days in DC doing all the typical tourist things: monuments, White House, Capitol, Supreme Court, Library of Congress, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, museums etc. We followed up with several days on Chincoteague Island to see the wild ponies and then a day in Williamsburg, VA on the way home. Sound like the perfect educational trip? It was. But the reality is, almost any travel is educational no matter how it's packaged. Kids are like sponges and just keep absorbing: they gain so much by seeing the rest of the world or more of their own. Even when they don't appear to be fully engaged, it's amazing how much they pick up over the course of a trip. Just being in a new place and being exposed to new ideas gets their mind cranking and they will ask the most thought provoking questions. A tour of a windmill in Holland leads to curiosity about alternative energy. A blocked website in China translates to censorship discussions. Even a day at the beach becomes educational when the people around you are acting differently or wearing different "beach garb" due to their culture.
A year ago, our family returned from a one year trip around the world. We left in June 2008 and spent the next twelve months circumnavigating the globe visiting forty locations in seventeen countries. The kids missed an entire year of school, yet learned so much more than they would have had they spent the year in a classroom. No, they didn't learn Ohio history, but they learned world history. Which will serve them better in the long term? With constant exposure to new things there was always something they could "sink their teeth" into. Sometimes they would get captivated by a topic and run with it. In Ljubljana, Slovenia we went on a tour of the architect, Jose Plecnik's house. He was a prominent figure in designing the city. Several days later, the girls created the "Plecnik Tour," leading us around the city pointing out the buildings that Plecnik designed along with their key architectural features. My daughters are not architecture geeks, nor do they have a particular affinity to Plecnik, but when you give kids space, their creativity can't help but take over!
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lisa Shusterman is a mother, part time arbitrator, world traveler and author of Around the World in Easy Ways. She lives in Cincinnati, OH with her husband Marty, her two daughters, Siena and Avocet and their rats Pearl and Rue. Purchase her book on her website, aroundtheworldineasyways.com or at Amazon.com. Check out her current blog at aroundthworldineaysways.com or her around the world travel blog at oneworldonetrip.blogspot.com.
