The “formula” for travel planning with your children can be outlined like this: 
1. Consider your childrens’ personalities and incorporate those characteristics into the itinerary. Are they athletic? scouts? artistic?
2. Have them each choose a country, state or city they are interested in. You can pick a region of a continent and connect the dots from there.
3. Have your children research their specific country by checking out books.
4. Meet together at the dining room table (or kitchen table) and work together daily to keep everyone on track. Leave the materials together in one place for accessibility. Build a bibliography from their favorite books.
5. Make quizzes for your children to take from their books’ information.
6. Each child is the docent for their specific country or city so when you tour those countries, treat that child as an actual “docent’ by letting them explain monuments, architecture, cuisine, historic facts, etc
7. When you arrive to that country, state, or city, let the child/docent who studied that particular country or destination be the first to “step” onto the soil as a a celebratory arrival. You may enter that country or destination by airplane (so let them be the first off the plane), by ferry boat, bus, rental car, etc.
Activities depending on personalities: hiking, rafting, skiing, whale watching, zip lining, camping, art museums…
*The suggested reading books I’ve included on most countries’ posts are for children and/or parents to read. Some parents have told me that reading a children’s book on a country gives gave them a simple “bird’s eye view” into what could otherwise be a complicated or complex history in adult versions.
© Gina Kingsley. This lesson plan and others are copyrighted in the book A Magic Carpet Ride.
Lessons and stories can be found in the book A Magic Carpet Ride by GIna Michalopulos Kingsley. Click on link below to read what the book is about.
I am loving this blog already. I love the idea for our future family travels to have our kiddos be the leaders and guide us. The boys crave discovery and adventure and what a great way to give them the chance to help us discover something new as a family.
Also the idea of reading children’s books on different countries as adults is genius! What a quick and easy way for us as parents to get back in the mindset of a particular country!
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