Prepare your kids for what they'll see on vacation
by Caryn Ross
(Clarkston, MI, USA)
In the Sahara
My husband and I love to travel, but when we first had children we stopped. "What would they get out of it?" we asked ourselves. After three years of not traveling anywhere but to Disney, I started feeling trapped and commented to my husband that we could take vacations as long as we prepared our children for them.
One of our first vacations followed a book series that we had begun to read with our children. Even though we have boys, they loved the "Little House" books. "Little House in the Big Woods" has bears, panthers, and vivid descriptions of how life was before televisions and grocery stores. They were enthralled! For the trip, we checked out other "Little House" stories on CD and our time in the car was spent on listening to pioneer life along the same route we now traveled. For example, the boys had a greater appreciation for the End O' Line railroad turntable we experienced because they had had a previous contact with what one was through the book. They also increased their understanding of the book since they were able to experience what they had just read.
Seeing how much they learned from that vacation made us want to take more vacations. But before we travel, we check out books from the library so they can see and learn about what they will see before they get there. It creates interest for them to see things beforehand and when they experience it in person, they recall what they have read and inevitably learn more about it.
Our most recent trip took us to Morocco and into the Sahara Desert. Before we traveled, one of the books we borrowed from the library was about the Sahara Desert. The book focused mainly on the sand dunes and oases. Yet there is more to the desert than dunes and oases. The boys would point out to us that the book they read never mentioned that the desert was rocky in places. While in the desert, the guide pointed out a mirage to us. The boys became very excited because they had read what a mirage was in the book, but hadn't quite understood what it would look like. Because they had read about it beforehand, they asked more in-depth questions.
An added bonus for all this is the reactions of other travelers to our children. I love hearing comments from others about how interested the boys are in what they're seeing and how delightful they are. Their interest has made them ambassadors for our country and I am so proud of the image that they present.
