Kids, Nature, and Travel

 Our son John Best.











                                     Our son Mike Best.

Nothing captures a child's imagination like putting them in touch with nature.  Our sons were home schooled for various reasons.  We live by the theory that everything should be a learning opportunity, and the whole world offers occasions for taking in knowledge.  With this in mind, we decided that we would take one summer and make it an epic adventure by seeing how many National Parks we could go to.  We picked up one of the "passports to your national parks" books and started out on a summer vacation (now keep in mind that our oldest was severe ADHD and hated spending long times in the car, so we had to be creative).  That summer we went to Arches National Park:

Yellowstone National Park: 

Carlsbad Caverns National Park (back when they still served the lunches in the cave):

And Redwoods National Forest, but I can't seem to find the pics for that part of the trip!  We had many other stops along the way, and this isn't the exact order we did it in (we actually started with Carlsbad and ended with Yellowstone).  By the time we were done our kids had been underground, they'd seen geysers, taken pictures of moose, been "extremely close" (way too close for comfort) to wild bison and wild bear, and had been at the helm on the open ocean going out to Channel Islands National Park(see the post Paradise Within 90 Minutes of Los Angeles? Am I Crazy?).  They had even had the opportunity to pet wild dolphins (not that we're recommending that!)!  

What's the point?  The point is that they grew up knowing and appreciating nature.  Our oldest now lives in Colorado.  He works long hours, but whenever he can he gets away to the mountains to appreciate nature.  

We live in a cyber world, that's a fact!  Kids today have to have some kind of knowledge of computers and smart devices just to get by, but they shouldn't loose touch with the natural world around them.  

Our boys are grown and out of the house now, but we do have the opportunity to have our grandson, Ruben every year (Mike's son).  Here he is just learning to drive a boat in Newport harbor when he was four.

  

He's seven now, and he's really into nature.  In fact, every time we see him we get an update on what new sea life they've found in Marianas Trench (if you don't know, that's the deepest part of the ocean - his favorite topic)!  This year, we're taking an epic adventure with him.  We will be seeing how many National Parks we can go to in the two weeks we have him.  I can't post on here which ones we are planning on going to, as they are a surprise for him, but we'll follow up with what we've done after the trip!!

In the meantime, if you are planning a family vacation with kids, keep it fun.  Plan car games.  See how many animals you can find along the way.  Remember to reward good behavior.  Bring lots of non-sugary snacks (the sugar brings on car sickness and antsy britches, LOL!) - for us goldfish crackers, apple slices with peanut butter (but let them pick their favorite apples and spread on the peanut butter), oranges, water, and orange juice were great!  There are also a lot of road games that are fun for the road.  We found one called "Rubberneckers" that we still have in our car to this day. Our kids just loved that game and it kept us all busy for hours.  I was surprised to find you can still buy it today.  Amazon has it at this link: http://www.amazon.com/Rubberneckers-Everyones-Favorite-Travel-Game/dp/0811822176/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457308431&sr=8-1&keywords=rubberneckers.  And when you plan a trip, take into account the age of your kids.  Just because you can go eight hours without stopping, doesn't mean they can.  Check the map and find a nice place to stop every couple of hours.  Even if it is just a 20 minute stop.  Treat it as a bathroom break/learning opportunity.  See what kind of nature is around and learn about it.  Don't ever be afraid to tell your kids, "I don't know."  Get out your smart phone and learn with them. Asking questions is the only way any of us learn and they will respect you more in the long run.  We have told our grandson "I don't know" a couple of times and had to look it up to find the answer.  This last year he announced to his parents that "GPa and Nana are the smartest people in the world."  While it was flattering, we realize the only reason he thinks that is because we take the time to find the answers for him. Give the kids a map.  Let them see where you are and where you are going.  They may not be able to navigate yet, but it will keep them busy and they can learn some skills!

Wishing you all, happy travels!

#travelingwithkids, #kidsandnature, #nationalparks, #travel, #travelwithyoungkids, #travelwithkids