By Sally Black, Huffington Post
Parents know experience is always the best teacher. Travel can certainly bring school lessons to life for our kids. It absolutely reinforces classroom skills from history, social studies, language and even math. The thought of a family vacation that enhances your child’s education is certainly music to any parent’s ears.
family vacation
Beyond all the glossy travel brochure photos and obvious claims, traveling as a family is truly an investment in your child’s character. Travel gives children the opportunity to stretch and grow in so many other intangible ways far beyond the obvious.
As a young parent, I simply viewed family vacations as a time for fun. If they learned something new along the way, it was a bonus. Now that my kids have grown into young adults, I can fully appreciate the impact our family vacations had in changing their perspectives.
Our family travel experiences helped to mold and shape their characters in ways I could have never imagined…
Responsibility – CALIFORNIA 1985 – “I feel so very bad that I forgot Aye-Aye bear on the plane. I hope somebody will take care of him like Paddington Bear.”
Independence – CRUISE 1986 – “Go enjoy yourself mom and don’t worry, I’ll play here in the club and you go have fun… We’ll do lunch.” (Instructions given to me by my toddler son)
Cooperation – DISNEY WORLD 1987 – “We are all going to have to take turns if we all want to get onto our favorite rides. I will wait in line for your rides without complaining and you two need to do the same for me… Deal?”
Consequences – FLORIDA 1989 – “I never thought fire ant bites would hurt this bad. Guess I should have stopped and listened to the guy from the hotel when he yelled at me for walking on the lawn barefoot. I thought he was just being mean about the rules but he was trying to keep me safe.”
Empathy – WILLIAMSBURG,VA 1990 – “We’re late checking in because my sister was car sick the whole ride so we had to keep stopping. We’re all tired and it’s been a long day for all of us, especially my sister so she really needs a good bed so she can rest and feel better.”
Patience – NYC BLIZZARD OF 1993 – “Let’s deal with reality, It’s snowing and our plane is stuck. Whining isn’t going to get us anywhere so let’s figure out something to keep busy and make the best of this situation.”
Tolerance – BOSTON 1994 – “Getting stuck in traffic due to a Gay Rights Parade on the way to walking the Freedom trail is really what freedom of speech is all about. Now I get it.”
Pride – GERMANY 1995 – The one thing that really impressed me mom was that, Because I was a visitor to their school, they played the star-spangled banner to welcome me. I felt proud to be an American.
Respect – THAILAND 1996 – “I really wanted to wear a different outfit but I didn’t want people to think I was making fun of their religion at the temple.”
Read the full article by Sally Black from Huffington Post.
