Prepping Kids for a Road Trip – Road trips are a great way to spend family time. There is always something new to see, an exciting adventure to enjoy together, and wonderful family memories to make. As a home school family we like to combine the two because educational opportunities are everywhere and in everything we do. Sometime’s we’re home to do our studies, but very often we are on the road, learning and experiencing the world. After all, there’s no school to teach how to cross a boarder, how to understand customs in other cultures and how to be respectful of all people, places, and cultures. So, to gain the most from our experiences, we always prep our kids for a road trip, allowing them to become familiar with an area before visiting. We think it’s important to have some knowledge of the events that shaped the history and culture of a region.
Preparing your children to get the most out of a travel experience can be done in a variety of ways. The main thing is to build the excitement for what is to come while giving them some background knowledge so they will get the most out of the trip.
Oh, did I tell you I WON the trip? Talk about lucky….! I screamed and jumped up and down when my name was called at the tourism event I attended in Washington DC to showcase Atlantic Canada! I have to admit that long before I won the trip on that fateful day, I had been dreaming of a road trip to Atlantic Canada, researching places I wanted to visit and had even already requested tourism booklets etc.
Well, after winning the trips we determined that we wanted to tour New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. These are just 2 provinces in the diverse region in Canada called Atlantic Canada. Now that the decision was made, it was time to get the kids on board, educational speaking. My eight-year-old daughter and I read Monica the Monarch, a fun book about butterflies that originate in Nova Scotia on the Milkweed plant and migrate to Mexico City. We also watched a documentaries with both kids about the largest ever maritime explosion that took place in Halifax Harbor and how it affected the region for decades later. The 100th anniversary of the tragedy is coming up this December. Now both kids will have a reference point when we visit the Halifax Nova Scotia Maritime Museum. Prepping kids for a trip builds excitement for what they are to see and allows them to process information they are presented with at museums and attractions much easier because they have a little background knowledge. It takes so little time to do and has a very large impact on the travel.
The day of the trip arrived with much excitement! We would be driving to Canada and crossing the border for the very first time! We were bound for Atlantic Canada and all the wonderful sights and adventures to be seen along the way. The car was packed, the house locked up tight and we were off on a road trip adventure. We drove north towards the Canadian border, passports in hand.
My daughter was excitedly looking for the monarch butterflies we had read about and we talked about the events that shaped the 2nd largest country in the world.
Prepping for a road trip isn’t hard and it’s actually fun for the adults too. Just do a little research, take advantage of your local library and Netflix or YouTube and other resources at hand. You will appreciate what you are seeing a little more and the experiences you have will be even more memorable for your family.
On our last road trip to West Virginia we made vacation journals. If you’d like step by step simple instructions so you can make a family vacation journal and record the fun in your journal go here for directions.
Now…..go have an adventure!
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