Turning Family Travel Into Education Travel
Though you might want to take time out of the school year to take your children on a trip, most schools want you to tell them that you are going to partake in educational travel. They don’t want children to miss any more school than necessary, so if you are planning a trip, you want to include some educational activities to keep the schools happy. Most vacations do have some educational value, and just learning about a new place by visiting it can be enough.
When you visit a new country, you can consider that educational travel. You have to learn how the people live, how communicate (in some cases), and you will learn about local traditions, customs, and ways of life. This is educational travel for just about anyone no matter how old you are. You may find something like a safari is one of the most valuable learning experiences you can have as a family. You could visit the capitol of a country to learn about how their government works, and how it might differ from your own country. You can also visit areas where wildlife is protected, or where events in history have happened.
You might include trips to zoos and local points of interest when you go on educational travel trips. Your kids can learn about animals they may have never seen before, and they can often see plants they may have only read about in books. You can visit local museums to learn about the culture, and festivals are always great additions to educational travel. When you meet new people anywhere in the world you are going to learn about them, and you are going to take those experiences home with you for the rest of your life.
You don’t have to go far from home for educational travel. You can find spots in your own state that would qualify. Those that live in Pennsylvania might want to take a trip to Amish country to learn about a different way of life. While there they can see Hershey. They can visit the wax museum, view a large collection of miniature trains, and perhaps find some time to just explore the capital of the state. All of these activities would easily fall under the category of educational travel, and the best part is that it will be fun as well. Best of all, your children will have so much fun they won’t even realize they are learning something.
This article was written by Duncan Wall, an educational travel advisor who specialises in helping families make family travel both a learning and fun experience.
Add comment January 10th, 2007