Today is Mother's Day and I sit here in reflection of how I have been raising, and want to continue raising, my two children. Having experiences is the best way to learn, more than reading a book or absorbing whatever they teach you in school. And what better way to learn than through the experience of traveling.
In my opinion, travel is essential for learning, especially with having first-hand experiences. I am lucky we have been able to travel so much with our son in his 8 ½ years, and we plan on doing the same with our daughter, who is just 21 months. I believe that traveling has helped my son in many ways so far and I am happy he is incredibly enthusiastic to learn about other countries and the people who live there.
But what are the benefits for having children travel?
Through traveling, I want my children to learn to:
- be global citizens, connecting with and learning with others from different countries and religious and cultural backgrounds.
- accept everyone for their differences.
- become open-minded.
- learn other languages and not be afraid to try new things, such as food and local transportation when abroad (or even in our own country).
- learn some history wherever they travel to.
- learn about the local currency, and, therefore, some basics about the economy in the country they are traveling in.
- become aware that people are people everywhere and we can all learn to get along no matter where we are from.
My son has been traveling since he was 6 weeks old, which got him used to being on an airplane. Now he flies all the time and is such a great traveler! He has been to Canada 10 times, as well as once time each to Iceland, Mexico, and Scotland. He's learned to barter at markets in Mexico with the pesos he had. He has learned basic conversational words, such as "hello", "please", and "thank you" in several languages. He has been to castles in Scotland the Blue Lagoon and around the Ring Road in Iceland. He has been to both the eastern and western parts of Canada. And he has also been to 22 states. Being 8 ½ now and having traveled so much, I feel as though he is more worldly than many of his peers and has a lot of self-confidence. He has many friends of diverse backgrounds at school and accepts everyone for their differences. Asking my son what traveling has helped him with, he said, "It helps me explore the world and learn new languages and learn about other countries." I am so proud of my son and the person he is becoming. I can only hope we can travel as much with his sister and that she will be as open-minded as he is.
Traveling is a wonderful way to educate children by helping to create open-minded and tolerant individuals who will hopefully, one day, make this world a better place.
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