The world is your classroom, and in choosing your destination, you ultimately choose your subject matter. Follow these steps to ensure your child/children get the most out of your educational RV vacation.
1) Research—Before choosing your location, you will want to do your research. This helps determine the topics that will be covered on your trip. For example, when visiting the Grand Canyon, it would be wise to do your research to find out which tours would be the most fascinating, worthwhile and interesting for your kids in terms of learning about its geology. This may include taking the mule ride down to the bottom of the canyon and seeing the rock formations up close.
2) Bring a Camera—Not only will you want to have pictures to remember your educational RV trip, you can also use those same pictures when referring to specific places or things later. For example, you may want to refer back to specific flora or fauna you found particularly enlightening, or a plaque that your child may not have had a chance to read while you were there.
3) Bring Informational Material—Whether you checked out a book at the library on volcanoes before visiting Mount Rainier or happened to read about fossils in National Geographic magazine before heading to Death Valley, background information will be helpful in enlightening your young passengers.
4) Have Fun—Don’t get too caught up in the “educational” part of the journey. Enjoy yourself, your kids and your surroundings. Experience the magic that each new place holds and appreciate all that happened up to the moment you were able to enjoy it on that very day.
All RV trips can be educational RV trips. Whether you are looking for it or not, each new place will teach you the things that make it unique. So do the best thing you can with your kids while they are still young and teach them along the way!