Let me tell you a secret…. this is the way the aristocracy have been teaching their children for centuries ! Now, due to massive reductions in travel fares this form of education has become accessible to all.
Although you’d love to take a family holiday perhaps you’ve also had some niggling questions such as these (I know I did);
Are you scared of the school’s reaction taking your child away during a school term?
If you take the time to share with your teachers that the experience is an educational one, do the preparation and planning. A good educator will always be supportive of this type of travel if you’ve especially planned it as an educational trip. They will be pleasantly surprised with the amount of thought you have put into your child’s further education development and reap the benefits upon your return in their classrooms.
Do you worry about what other parents will think of this bold idea?
Travelling abroad with young children helps mold them into being global citizens as individuals who have a broader understanding of ‘the way things are’, than the myopic outlook that can develop from “vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime”, as Mark Twain puts it.
Are you concerned they will miss some fundamental school learnings and therefore always ‘lag behind’?
While a regular study of school subjects is important, travel schooling offers an opportunity to provide real-world application of concepts from all areas of curriculum. History, the Arts, Science, Language, and even Math can all be studied hands-on through travel, and brought to life in a way that’s impossible through ‘school learning’ alone. Children can experience first-hand ancient Mayan ruins, snake-eating frogs, feeding dolphins, elephants and giraffes, Hindu temples, currency exchange, various forms and styles of art, and diverse languages. As they learn about these subjects during their schooling, they often connect what they’re learning to real-life experiences.
Will they remember the trip in years to come?
Deciding not to travel with your children while they are young ‘because they won’t remember’ the trips you take is a little like saying you’re not going to read to your children while they are young because they won’t remember the books you read. You read to your small children because of sounds they will hear, the words the will see, the skills they will acquire, and the habits you hope they will form. Traveling with young children is very much the same.
Do you think you are being selfish?
A life of travel for young children is so important to their development, often it’s been done at the sacrifice of career, a comfy home in the suburbs, and a social life – in many ways it is a selfless, rather than a selfish endeavour.
I’ve discovered that it’s always in the detail. It’s all in the preparation and planning and ensuring its’ linked back to an educational plan. This is how Kidsetter evolved. Travelling to 18 countries and counting with our Kidsetter we can speak from experience and many other Kidsetters that this is the future of a enhancing your child’s education on a global scale.
