Traveling with Kids: Building a Foundation of Learning

Rainer Jenss was a Vice President and thirteen-year veteran of National Geographic. As the Publisher, he helped transform National Geographic Kids into the most widely read consumer magazine for children throughout the world. In the summer of 2008 he decided to put his professional expertise and personal passion to the ultimate test by traveling around the world for a year with his family.

Rainer continues to report on family travel as a Special Correspondent for National Geographic Traveler’s Intelligent Travel Blog and shares with us why traveling is a great way to build a foundation of learning in your children.

If you’re reading this post, you’ve probably fantasized about quitting your job, packing a suitcase, and leaving town for a while to travel the world. When we first got married, my wife Carol and I often contemplated taking the leap — sometimes seriously, sometimes not. There always seemed to be some excuse why we couldn’t, wouldn’t or shouldn’t. Our careers, responsibilities, and commitments had to be considered, and how about what our friends and family would say? It was always something. Then after the birth of our sons Tyler and Stefan, all this talk about packing our bags seemed to suddenly fade away. After all, you can’t possibly do something like this with kids, right?

If we teach our children to travel, we thought, then they will travel to learn –
a foundation that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

In January 2004, it all came roaring back. I had just returned with the family from Europe after visiting relatives for the holidays when Carol and I started reflecting on how much the boys (then seven and four) seemed to enjoy the experience of being in another country. Couple that with the post-9/11 mood of a country that was getting deeper into a war in Iraq and isolating itself more from the rest of the world, and suddenly it dawned on us that taking a year off to travel the world might actually be more sensible now that we had children. Increasingly, we found ourselves looking at taking a year off to travel not from the perspective of what we had to lose, but from all the benefits we could gain.

It dawned on us that nothing could probably better prepare the kids more for their future than traveling and experiencing what life is like outside the U.S. If we teach our children to travel, we thought, then they will travel to learn – a foundation that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. So after more than four years of saving and planning, we sold our house, put our careers, lives, and possessions in storage, and left for an around-the-world adventure that would cover 28 different countries in just over a year.

If you are a parent who might be contemplating something like this, it pays to consider some of the benefits your children will gain from traveling. Gathered from our experience, I’d like to share some advice that might help make your travels just a little more meaningful.

An Opportunity to Learn and Gather New Experiences

First, I’d like to recommend that you look at your travels not just as a time to relax and get away, but also as an opportunity to learn and gather new experiences. If you consider that the true function of education is to enable children to successfully navigate the world around them, than travel probably does this better than any other single activity because it embraces such a diversity of subjects.

Remember, kids are incredibly curious, so when you expose them to new things, you’ll be amazed at how quickly they forget about their electronic gadgets and watching television. For example, we visited museums in China and Rome, toured monasteries in Bhutan and Thailand, and explored archeological sites in Peru and Greece that offered up history lessons far more engaging than any textbook. For a dose of science, the geysers at Yellowstone and Costa Rica’s Arenal volcano gave them a real-life demonstration no classroom could ever simulate. There was no worrying about missing a year of Spanish class either. Six weeks in Central and South America took care of that.

Learn New Life Skills

Traveling also affords kids a chance to learn new life skills, so don’t be afraid to let them try something different and challenge them with activities they’ve never tried before. Our youngest son learned to surf in Costa Rica, play cricket in Australia, and make sushi in Japan. His older brother rode a horse for the first time on a dude ranch in Wyoming, picked up the art of origami in Japan, and snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef. But we discovered that photography was what he was most passionate about. While traveling may have opened his eyes to a whole new way of looking at the world, a camera became his outlet for expressing it.

And one other major piece of advice: make sure everyone in the family has their own camera! Not only will this keep your kids thoroughly occupied, but if you share a camera, you risk possibly missing that perfect sunset shot because another member of the family is off somewhere with yours taking pictures of who-knows-what.

Making Personal Connections

Making personal connections is another wonderful side of traveling that we sometimes take for granted. We learned that meeting people and talking to them about their lives was the best way to really understand a place and appreciate its culture. Despite the language barriers, this wasn’t hard to do in countries like Greece, Japan, and Peru, especially if you have a guide.

But even here in the U.S., there are some fascinating regional differences to explore and learn from. In South Dakota and Montana for example, it was refreshing to see how strong its people are connected to the land and the history of its Native American heritage.

So don’t think you can’t take a career break just because you have children. The opposite is really true: the kids are the reason why you should go – if not for your sake, for theirs!

Briefcase to Backpack - Travel Advice for Career Breaks or Sabbaticals

Photo Friday: Aurora Australis – Antarctica

This Photo Friday of the Aurora Australis in Antarctica is from Keith Martin, who this week shared with us his career break experience in Antarctica (Part 1 & Part 2).

During his final days in Antarctica, Keith was able to finally capture the photo he had hoped to get – that of the Aurora Australis over the Discovery Hut.

I went to hut point and managed to get pictures of [Discovery Hut] with multiple bands of green and blue auroras streaming in large ribbons in the sky to the west of town. The lighting was just right to illuminate the hut in a nice moon glow and the horizon was lit by the setting sun making a surreal sight that I will not ever forget. Those auroras were likely the last of them that I will see on this trip since the night is leaving us quickly and the days are getting long, but I can’t think of a better way to say goodbye to them – I have been trying to get pictures of the Discovery Hut with auroras all winter and I was finally successful on the last night and with some the best auroras I have seen all winter. Goodbye Aurora Australis, I will miss your company!

Want to see your photo here? Join our Facebook Fan Page and upload your career break photo onto our Wall. Add a brief description & we may choose to feature it here!

Briefcase to Backpack - Travel Advice for Career Breaks or Sabbaticals

Volunteer Chronicles: Expectations

Prologue: We found volunteering seems to be a common part of career breaker’s itineraries, and through our Meet, Plan, Go! events we learned that you want to learn even more about it! You asked – we deliver.

Welcome to a new feature on Briefcase to Backpack, the “Volunteer Chronicles”, where we’ll follow Sherry Ott’s two month volunteering trip through the Middle East. We are starting you at square one and you’ll get diary-type updates to know what it’s really like from the moment you pick a program to the moment you arrive home. Sherry’s volunteering with one of our recommended volunteer organizations, GeoVisions, which offers unique opportunities to volunteer around the world and make a difference.

EXPECTING EXPECTATIONS

I arrive in Amman Jordan on January 4th, and I can’t help but wonder what to expect. I wish I could say that I was fully prepared for what lie ahead of me – but I’m far from it! I am in that panic mode that happens before any big trip; trying to figure out what to pack. During this pre-departure time we tend to be full of expectations and excitement, it can be a fun time and a stressful time; even for a seasoned traveler and volunteer like myself.

I am reminded of how powerful expectations are when you volunteer or simply travel deeply into a culture. During this part of the volunteering process, I have been reminded of ‘expectations’ frequently and have already had to reset them a number of times

After filling out my detailed family application next I had to wait. And wait, and wait. In fact, that has been the most frustrating part of the process so far; waiting to hear about my volunteer family assignments. It was only frustrating because one – I was anxious to learn more about where I would be living for a month, and two – because I couldn’t really make my flight arrangements until I had my family assignment. I had hoped that I would receive the assignments sooner, but the process takes time.

About 4 weeks later, the day came when I received an email announcing my Jordan family assignment. GeoVisions sent me a document with information on the family including ages, professions, the family environment, interests, leisure activities, emails, and photos. I was encouraged to contact the family via email shortly thereafter. It was great to see photos of the house and family members – it made the whole process really seem real for the first time.

As it says in the GeoVisions documentation, “Keep an open mind and involve yourself as much as possible in the host culture and in the life of the family. You are embarking on a wonderful cultural voyage!”

That’s when my first expectation was shattered. I read through the family information and was surprised when I read that the family was Christian. I had always assumed that I would be placed with a Muslim family in Jordan, but to my surprise, that wasn’t the case. I felt silly for even making that assumption. I had assumed I would be learning extensively about the Muslim culture by living with a Muslim family. It’s important to realize I can still accomplish my goal of learning about the Muslim culture, regardless of what family I am living with. The key is that I’m living with a local family – and from there, my possibilities about cultural learning will be endless. I love to travel because it breaks down stereotypes and that’s exactly what this did to me; the Middle East is not only populated by Muslims – they are a part of the culture. I actually started to get excited about additional stereotypes it would begin to break down for me.

I immediately started an email to the family asking them a few questions and introducing myself. I wondered how in the world they would even understand my note since I wasn’t sure what their English level was. The next morning I woke up and had a Facebook friend request from one of the daughters! So much for not knowing if anyone would know how to speak English. Once again I was reminded that I needed to reset my expectations. I wasn’t going into a remote Nepalese mountain village with no plumbing or electricity; I was going into a major thriving, modern Middle Eastern city. A place where Facebook is prevalent; heck, these days Facebook is everywhere!

Next I had to focus on purchasing my airfare and went through the long and sometimes frustrating process of finding the lowest price fare that would work for my budget. GeoVisions does have partnerships and discounts with airline agencies, however their discounts are for students. Since I didn’t even come close to qualifying as a student, I was on my own when it came to figuring out my airfare. I think this is pretty standard for volunteer organizations; you arrange your own transportation. However it sure would be nice to have discounts beyond student discounts!

Now I’m a week away from leaving to head towards Amman and I’m frantically trying to get organized. GeoVisions sent a great tutor’s packet that not only includes a few documents on tutoring ideas for various levels and ages, but it also included access to ESL websites. The document also covered general travel information such as packing, culture shock, returning home, and a whole section on the ‘E’ word… Expectations.

This is only the beginning of breaking through the wall of expectations. As it says in the GeoVisions documentation, “Keep an open mind and involve yourself as much as possible in the host culture and in the life of the family. You are embarking on a wonderful cultural voyage!”

Briefcase to Backpack - Travel Advice for Career Breaks or Sabbaticals