how to raise children who love to travel
If you’re a parent that loves to travel and wants to nurture that same globetrotter quality in your little ones, you’re in the right place!
When we raise children who love to travel, we’re helping the next generation foster a love and respect for the world around them, as well as the confidence necessary to follow their dreams and get outside their comfort zones.
By preserving memories, traveling with our children when they’re young, and bringing different cultures into the family home, we can raise children who love to travel and are excited to take vacations with their family!
Here are 7 ways to raise children who love to travel.
Begin traveling when they are young
Not only does traveling with young children force you to travel slower and more purposefully – potentially spending time enjoying things that, otherwise, you would have missed! It also encourages children to explore their curiosity and imagination as well as building their confidence in experiencing new places and surroundings.
We’re all guilty of getting a little stuck in our comfort zones. But when we introduce travel at a young age, we help our children to expand beyond their comfort zones from the very start! They’ll learn to love travel and start building the foundation of wanting to explore the world.
Have a look at the 7 benefits of traveling with young children here.
Encourage reading about new destinations
When I was a kid, I wanted to visit Prince Edwards Island because Anne of Green Gables was my favorite book. Also, I would be lying if I told you that multiple trips to London weren’t inspired by Harry Potter…
Reading about interesting and lovable characters going on adventures around the world and living in interesting places is a sure way to inspire a love of travel. Beyond that, you can also spend time reading non-fiction children’s books that depict destinations and cultures in beautiful and intriguing ways.
If you’ve got a destination in mind, why not see what children’s literature you can find about the country in order to start building up a little excitement?!
Watch movies set in incredible places
There’s nothing better than a family movie night that inspires! Next time you’re getting ready for an evening in your home cinema (read, living room), why not select a few movies set in beautiful places for your children to choose from?
They’ll be able to follow an interesting story whilst learning about a country that they may never have visited (or even heard of!) before. Take some time after the movie to talk about the destination itself. You might like to ask your children what they liked about the setting and if there was anything they found particularly interesting or would like to see in real life.
Let them get involved in planning
I don’t know about you, but for me, planning is at least half of the fun. Planning the perfect family vacation doesn’t have to be stressful – and if it is, that’s what we’re here for! As opposed to spending a few late nights planning your next trip while the kids are in bed, why not get them involved next time? This is particularly effective if you find that you have a little resistance from your children when it comes to travel and spending their holidays away from their hometown. When they get to play a part in the planning process, you can be sure that they’ll be anticipating the trip (almost) as much as you…
An easy way to do this is by narrowing down the options in advance so that they only have 2 or 3 (desirable) destinations, events, or sights to choose from. I know what you’re thinking, this sounds like more stress than it’s worth! But seeing your children’s eyes light up as they understand the influence that they’re able to have on your next family vacation will make it worth it.
Explore global cuisines
You don’t have to travel to explore global cuisines, however, exploring global cuisines will definitely get children interested in travel and the variety of beautiful dishes that are created around the world.
To start exploring global cuisines, you could have an internationally-themed evening once every month where the entire house gets involved in preparing dishes and snacks that originate from a particular country. You might like to play music from the country and even learn a few basic words that you can have fun with throughout the evening.
Incorporate travel into your daily life
You don’t have to visit a new country to experience it—in fact, there are lots of ways that you can bring travel into your home and daily life. Fill your home with travel-related activities such as puzzles, globes, and coloring books so that your children always have an easy way to access the world around them. My 2-year-old loves her wooden states puzzle and can already name more than half of the states!
During car journeys, you could listen to music from or audiobooks about different countries that can later be turned into a family quiz night. Sure, it may take a little creativity, but you don’t even have to leave the house!
Preserve travel memories
Preserving travel memories is a wonderful way to document any trips of vacations that you take with your children – no more excusing family trips with “they’re too young to remember”! My daughter loves looking back on the trips that we took together when she was younger and is always keen to find out as much as she can about the people we met and what we did. I personally create a Shutterfly book for every single vacation!
Reminding your children of the special times you’ve shared whilst traveling is a great way to nurture their love of travel. They’ll be reminded that, together, you’ve created memories to last a lifetime!
Do you love traveling with your children? What’s their favorite part of the process?
Find out more about what I do and how I can help you plan your next family vacation here.
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