Everyone loves being able to get away from home at least once a year, whether for an extraordinary summer vacation or a quick winter getaway. However, did you know that these trips away from home are actually making your children smarter? Yes, taking family vacations can make your kids smarter!
It’s true that traveling with your kids will make them smarter than they would be if you never allowed them to see any other destinations away from where you live! And of course, there is the question whether you should pull your kids out of school for a family vacation which is a topic for another discussion. But for now, we are advocating that family vacations are a great way to make your kids smarter, savvier, and kinder.
There are many reasons for this, but the main ones include the fact that your kids are being exposed to different cultures and traditions, while also learning and trying new things. All that is going to make your child change in ways that you never thought possible and it is all because you chose to take them to new places!
Here are 6 things that you will notice with your children when you begin to travel with them more often:
1. Ability to Make Better Decisions
It is always difficult for kids to make the right decisions, because they do not have the experience that it takes to always know the right choice. However, when you travel with your kids, they learn so much, especially when you involve them in many of the decisions that you make.
Simply asking your children what decision they would make about something that you are about to do together will allow them to begin making better decisions while traveling and at home. Your kids will learn to do their research beforehand and then will use their newfound knowledge to make the decision that is best for them and everyone else involved.
2. Ability to Communicate Better
As we get older, we learn more words and become better at communicating with others. However, children who travel more frequently seem to learn those words faster. While this may not seem like a huge thing with the English language, it is when you are traveling to foreign countries.
It is within those countries where you will find that your children can learn the language much faster than you can and you shouldn’t be surprised if they can converse with the locals better than you do. Obviously, the more that your kids speak with other people away from home, the better that they will be at speaking to everyone when they return home. This means that they will not be afraid to speak up in any environment that they are in.
3. Ability to Solve Problems Better
No vacation is ever perfect, so there is no point in expecting one to be! However, there is always going to be a better way to overcome all the issues that you encounter along the way. As you travel with your kids, they will become better at solving problems, whether they are helping you decide what you can do since a tour you were going on was cancelled or they are trying to decide what to do during the free time that you booked for everyone.
Your kids can then use these problem-solving skills when they return home, whether it is for something at school, at home, with friends, or something else. The best part is that you will be amazed at how they will take the worst-case scenarios and turn them into some of the best parts of their life without even thinking twice about what they are missing out on!
4. Ability to Be More Open Minded
As your children meet more and more people from around the world, they will become more open minded and more accepting of others.
This means that they will easily transfer that open mindedness back home to where they can use it to excel in so many different ways. Imagine watching your kid go up and talk or play with someone who looks or acts differently, when no one else will go up and speak to that person.
5. Ability to Learn More About Animals and Plants
Every part of this world is covered with animals and plants, but many areas have different species than others. Traveling will allow your kids to learn more about animals and plants that they are not familiar with, which may allow them to consider a future in biology, biodiversity, the environment, and much more in the future.
Since your kids may not have known that these options were possible before, you have opened a whole new world for them through travel.
6. Ability to Learn More About History
Yes, every child learns quite a bit of history when they are in the classroom in school, but when you travel, that same history seems to come to life in front of your eyes! Imagine watching your child explore the Pyramids of Giza or Pompeii or the Gettysburg Battlefield and learning more from a day or two there than they ever would in school.
Children seem to ask more questions and be more aware of what is taking place all around them when they are seeing a historical site in person instead of reading about it in a book. Plus, your child can return to school and share their newfound knowledge with their teacher and all their classmates!
These are just six of the ways that you will notice that your child is smarter from traveling and there are many other changes that you will notice after a few trips as well. I encourage you to embrace these changes and your child’s new knowledge and keep expanding it with even more trips in the future. And if you need to know how to travel easier with your kids, our Travel With Kids 101 will help you with all you ever need to know to travel better and smarter with your kids!
