Why travel as a family? This is a question that we can ask ourselves and that we can also ask you. Should you leave your child with grandpa and mami and leave without them? We always went on trips with our 2 children and the idea of leaving without them never even crossed our minds. We all experience unforgettable family adventures together, a magical enchanted parenthesis. Several years of travels, family mops have enriched us, children and parents. You have all the good reasons to leave with your family, find out why!
Travel for children as a school of life
The trip teaches children that our model of life, of culture is not unique: cuisine, dress, religion, parties, housing, etc. differ from country to country. They discover other civilisations, other cultures and enrich themselves through contact with them.
They integrate the notions of respect and tolerance in difference; the other is a source of enrichment and not a threat! It is thus their open-mindedness that is cultivated and the fundamental idea that before being citizens of a country, we are all citizens of the world!
For children, traveling is also a school in the sense of learning, of knowledge acquired directly in the field: the traveling child learns and discovers the world, nature, civilisations. Not a trip where you don’t do History, Geography, SVT, Arts or Geology, etc. The opportunities to learn while traveling are countless and unsuspected. Here are a few loose examples from our family travels :
Our budding traveler learned this year at school about fortified castles: she already knew a lot about the subject thanks to the many castles visited in Slovakia.
Our children discovered the life-size dinosaurs in the dinoparks of Slovakia
Our 2 budding travelers discovered the Renaissance period in Florence through the architecture and paintings of the city
During our stay in the Camargue, the children learned to recognize a large number of birds. We parents too!
I could multiply examples for hours. To use a big word, travel has educational virtues. Travel is an opportunity for the whole family to learn, not just the children, but the parents too!
Stronger family ties through travel
When the children are close in age, which is the case with ours with their 22 months difference, the trips strengthen the fraternal bonds. They have very strong memories in common. They share the same experiences, the same discoveries, the same entertainment, etc.
We are family 24 hours a day, we live strong moments together. Emotions, memories shared during travels constitute the cement of our family and strengthen the bond between children and parents.
I remain convinced that if we had not traveled as a family as we did, our children would never have been as complicit as they are.
More independent child travelers
When travelling , improvisation, adventure and discovery take precedence. All our landmarks, our daily lives are turned upside down. You have to learn to adapt, to manage in unfamiliar territory for things that are sometimes very simple and which seem obvious to us at home. The language barrier is an additional difficulty that must be overcome.
The first example that comes to mind is that of restaurants: we don’t understand anything on the menu, there is no English translation, what to choose??! And toilets in German motorway rest areas: but how does it work with this ticket?!!
We sometimes ask ourselves a lot of very down-to-earth questions to learn how to manage. Children quickly learn to fend for themselves. Their adaptability is amazing. This is especially evident on play areas which may differ from those they are used to. They quickly understand how to have fun!
A taste for languages as a child
Each trip is an opportunity for children to learn new words in a new language. Our 2 children know how to say “hello, goodbye, thank you, yes, no, etc”. in several languages. They integrated as evidence the need to learn a few words of the language of the country that we are going to visit
And we don’t need to force them to learn a language at school: they have understood what it’s for while traveling. In addition, icing on the cake, they enjoy learning a new language!
The desire to learn in children thanks to visits and discoveries
I remain convinced that if we hadn’t travelled, our children would never have been so curious, would never have wanted to learn and discover the world so much. And never either, they would have developed such a pleasure to learn and discover the world. Whenever a trip is announced to them, they are excited in advance by the very idea of travel and the discoveries it entails.
And this pleasure of learning, we find it at school that they both love! Travel is, after all, the best way to prepare children for school learning!
