Why Travel Is Great For Children

Our family has been traveling with our boys since they were as young as 3. There is no reason why children shouldn’t enjoy the benefits of traveling as much as you do. In fact, there are many reasons why travel is great for children and let me explain why.

I have taught children for almost 13 years and I’ve seen time and time again how thrilled they are when they come back from a trip. They are talking all about what they did, what they saw, what they touched, who they saw, who they wish to become, what they wish to become, etc. Their minds are being formed based on their experiences.

1. Open-Mindedness

Unfortunately, we sometimes see people not understand another person’s view. If we don’t put ourselves in another person’s shoes, it’s hard to comprehend what they must be experiencing. It’s good to have children experience another culture because they can see how similar or how different they are. They can compare and contrast and make informative decisions.

It’s good for them to know that the world doesn’t revolve around just them. It will keep them humble and appreciate the world we live in.

2. Food Awareness

If you have a picky eater, welcome to the club! Our youngest is a picky eater, even at his current age of 16. Now, I’m not going to say that traveling with children while they’re very young won’t make them a picky eater (my experience). However, there is a greater chance that their palates will get accustomed to different foods if they taste them on a consistent basis while they are young. I firmly believe this. If you have children, I would love to hear what is the strangest or most exotic food your child has ever tasted and liked?

3. Compassion

Compassion sometimes doesn’t come naturally for some people. That can stem from a lot of different reasons. However, I believe that compassion is best learned from watching others go through circumstances or living in circumstances that are different than our own. Empathy is closely related to my first point of being open-minded. For example, our boys have had the opportunity to go on mission trips every year of their high school life. Their eyes have been opened to different lifestyles and have given them a greater appreciation of what they have. And at times where they’ve seen that other’s have much more than them, they still appreciate what they have and see that hard work pays off and keeps them humble. It puts everything into perspective.

4. Self-Confidence

With so many tragedies nowadays, I think this one is important. Kids face so much stress these days that they lack confidence. They are always comparing themselves to other peers. It’s great for them to see that everyone is different and not everyone has to have that top award, that A+, that achievement to be successful. Success can be measured in different ways. I personally believe success is doing better than yesterday. It’s an improvement from what you did before or how you did it before and believing that you can do better. It’s trusting in your own abilities. When children travel, they can see this first hand.

5. Family Closeness

Our family has so many great memories from all of our travels. There is nothing that can ever take that away. I’ve told my husband that if I had to take something out of our house in an emergency, it would first be ourselves, of course, our pets, then our photos. I absolutely love our custom photo albums! Traveling with our boys has kept our family close and we are always excited about our next destination. We always make sure to keep our boys in mind by letting them choose activities and filling them in with our travel plans.

6. Real World Learning

Virtues

We all know that patience is a virtue. But what are all the virtues? These are a few: courage, self-control, generosity, respect, and friendliness. All of these can be learned while traveling. In fact, for some of these virtues, you will be forced to learn them whether you want to or not. Take patience, for instance. We spend A LOT of time waiting. Waiting in traffic, waiting in lines, and waiting on the phone to name a few. Traveling will do this to you. And when you wait, you must have self-control. Respect comes in when dealing with everyone especially elders. Courage when experiencing something new, like snorkeling or scuba diving. Generosity when tipping. These are all virtues that children can learn from parents while teaching them during traveling.

Academics

Think about the core subjects in school: Language, Math, History, Geography, Science, Spelling, and Foreign Language. All of these are hands-on experiences that travel provides. What a great way to learn as you go & do in real time! There are many ways a child learns and some learn best one way than another. But no matter which of the five senses they learn best with, travel provides ALL of these. That is why sometimes you see families with young children be able to travel all the time. They are experiencing all of these while still getting the education from book form. It’s really the best of both worlds (pun intended)!

As you can see, there are many benefits to why travel is great for children. They learn to be open-minded, aware of different tastes, compassionate, have self-confidence, bring family relationships closer, and real-world learning. Don’t be afraid or think that your children will be a burden if you take them on vacation. It’s ok to take a solo or couples vacations. In fact, I highly recommend them! However, take the time to introduce your children into the many benefits of traveling.