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I have learned enormous amounts through travel.  And I remember trips that I took as an adolescent in which I learned much.  At least from the perspective of today, I remember them as very education

Today I’m a parent with three kids (ages 15, 12, & 10) and I’m finishing a two week family trip through Colorado.  While the primary purpose of the trip was to have a family vacation together, I would like to think that it contributed to their education.

But, did it?  I’m not sure that it did.  Many of my efforts to exploit teachable moments appear to me to have been heavy-handed and not that successful.   

There was some success.  Most notably, the trip to the ancient ruins of cliff-dwellings in Mesa Verde.  If you haven’t visited these with your family, you should. They are in the extreme southwest corner of Colorado.  There’s a national park which is primarily a series of archaelogical sites about some ancestors of the Pueblo Native Americans who built amazing cliff dwellings.  The kids  got both to climb and to listen to park ranger talks about this mysterious place.

What successes have you had?

What hints have you got to share about blending vacation with education?

2 Responses to “Summer Travel and Education”

1. Snake Says:
   July 8th, 2009 at 8:58 am

   Very interesting subject. We’re trying to do the same everytime we go somewhere. We have 5 and 7 yr old ones, so havent made any longer trips yet, one of the longest “expeditions” is going to be in two weeks time – will be going to Scotland via Wales and the coming back through North and Central England… It takes considerable amount of time to plan and schedule everything, not to mention all the bookings we need to make. It’s really surprising that information is not that easily accessible, I mean there’s plenty, but involves lots of google’ing…

   So far in our trips, we used to learn basic things like, east/west/north/south, sun movement, animals, birds, bits of history (kings, queens, major events/battles)…

   This is basically one of the reasons we created http://www.slipperysnake.co.uk, it’s primary goal could be condensed into “educational family days out”. We trying to follow our kids curriculum as they go and adding materials to the site, with short introduction (it’s not our goal to provide comprehensive information) and list of places to visit that relate to that topic/subject…. Haven’t collected that many yet, but it’s ongoing process, if you have any ideas it would be great if you could share with us pls!

2. webmaster Says:
   July 8th, 2009 at 11:24 am

   Thanks for the comment. I like your site. In addition to helping with travel, who can resist a site with headlines like: Who cut off Van Gogh’s ear? and Donald Duck is 75 today!.

   I trust that you’ll report on Ed Mouse’s upcoming fifth birthday. lol

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