Family holiday season is upon us, now that the school summer holidays have begun. But even though your child is, or children are, out of the classroom for six-plus weeks, it doesn’t mean they have to stop learning. You can help keep educating them on your family holiday, especially if you’re going abroad.
Whether they go to a stateside school or are learning at a private institute, here are some ways to make your family holiday abroad educational for your children.
Travelling to your destination
Making your holiday educational doesn’t have to start when you arrive at your destination. It can start when you get to the airport, harbour, or train station – however you’re travelling. It’s not every day that a child gets to experience the excitement of flying on a plane or sailing on a large ship, so you should make the most of it when they’re likely to be particularly engaged. From flight departures to train arrival times, you can keep your child learning about things like time, distance and the world clock. Together, you can also find out how fast your transport is travelling and how much weight it can carry, as well as how many passengers are on board.
Your accommodation
The place that you’re staying in for your holiday can also be educational for your child. If your accommodation is a hotel, for instance, this could include looking at how it’s set out, how many floors and rooms it has, and learning about the people that work there and their roles. On a cruise ship, this could be the size of the boat and the number of decks and cabins it has, and how it stays afloat. It could also involve watching how it sails in and out of a port, and the number and types of people that work on board the vessel. Before you go away, it’s worth doing a bit of research and reading up on your choice of accommodation with your child, so they can learn about such statistics.
Seeing the sights
This is where you can really educate your child into understanding more about everything from a country’s history and religion, to its celebrated people and famous architecture. Depending on your destination, this could involve visiting famous landmarks like buildings and monuments, historical ruins and battlefields, or tombs and temples. Before you go away, you could buy a guidebook about your chosen destination and read about its tourist attractions with your child. As a family, you could then look out for those landmarks on your holiday, which you might have previously read about together.
Experiencing nature
This is a good chance for your child to really experience nature at its best, so make the most of it. They can see, learn about, and appreciate all sorts of creatures, from the types of marine life in the sea and wildlife on the beach, to the birds that fly the skies and the types of coastlines they inhabit. You can go on nature walks with them and observe the landscapes and terrain, the plants and flowers that grow in the area, and the insects that live there. You can also see the types of creatures that might be found around where you’re staying. As mentioned earlier, to really get to grips with nature in your chosen destination, it’s worth buying a guidebook about the country you’re visiting before you go away. This is bound to include a section on the creatures and wildlife you’re likely to see.
Understanding culture
Finally, holidaying is also a good opportunity for a child to see a country’s culture and way of life, helping them to understand interesting factors, such as foreign language and the customs it celebrates. This can involve observing the locals, how they dress and speak, where they live and their housing, as well as the types of food they eat, the markets they buy from, and the music they listen to.
Depending on your child’s age, you could buy a language book before you go on your holiday, which teaches them about the language of the country you’re visiting. You can then allow them to have a go at learning the basics of that language while you’re out and about. If it’s something they appear to enjoy, they can continue studying the language when they get home. This means they’ll likely to be more skilled and have more knowledge when they return to school in September.
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