This giveaway is over:
3 nights stay at Casa del Rey in Hobe Sound Beach, and a chance to meet Jen-value -$450
2 nights stay for a family of 4 plus Breakfast at Sun Tower Hotel Suites in Fort Lauterdale – value $500.
Geo Matters Maps & Geography Bundle TBA ~$150.
Wonder Maps from Bright Ideas Press – value $49.95.
Apple Core one year subscription- value $55.
Words With Wings One Year Subscription from Word Traveling – value $59.
Car Cache -value $20.
Traveling at all was new to me. My family took a total of two family vacations that I remember. But Dan’s family took several trips every year, so when we got married I quickly adopted his family’s ideas and we became a traveling family.
BC – or “before children” – Dan and I had wanderlust and traveled every opportunity we had – often just to visit relatives, or camp for a weekend. Drives in the country were one of our favorite pastimes. We even camped on our honeymoon, but that’s a story for another time.
We delighted in our first born Emily, and most sacrifices seemed easy to make, but I remember our first vacation after she was born. It was not a pretty picture.
My husband’s idea of a vacation at that time was wilderness camping, taking only what you can carry on your back. This just wasn’t going to happen with a two-month-old, so he pared his expectations way back. We would go to a neighboring state, stay in a motel, and do a few things each day between her naps. For him this was the ultimate sacrifice and certainly should have satisfied our newborn daughter – right?
Wrong! Way wrong! We quickly found out that our new little daughter didn’t enjoy riding in a car. In fact she began screaming – yes, screaming – after about five minutes and would continue until we stopped the car, at which point she would fall asleep from exhaustion.
For two days we struggled through this scenario again and again. It was July, 90 degrees and humid and our car didn’t have air conditioning which made everything more difficult. Weary and frustrated, we headed home after the second day of our week-long vacation.
Yes, traveling with children certainly becomes more complicated than two adults traveling alone, but we were determined to continue.
We took seriously the verse in Psalm 127:3-5 which says, “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.”, so we set out to find ways to travel with our children and make it a fun and educational process.
Fast forward a few years, quickly add two more children and travel has been a big part of our homeschool efforts, not only from places
we’ve gone or visited, but from spending time together as a family – oftentimes in smaller areas than we are used to, like the back seat of a rental car.
Our vacation verse is Philippians 2:4 “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
We start discussing our vacation weeks before during our family times. We usually do some reading about what we are going to see and do. And we talk often about “looking to the interests of others” just to get them thinking in practical ways about those terms. I would practice during the day too by asking one of them to give up their right so someone else could do something or have something they wanted. These are things we normally do, but during vacations this is an area that seems to cause trouble so we work harder on it.
Before we left the van to do something Dan would often line the three of them up in the sliding door of our van, ask them to give him their hands, and look into his eyes. Then he would explain to them what we were going to do and what we expected them to do. We called it training in times of non-conflict. Of course there was always the occasional meltdown, but more often if they knew what was expected of them they would work hard to obey and we all had a lot more fun.
We are definitely a traveling family. We all love car trips, even Emily who stopped crying in cars when she was two years old – yes, she cried every time she was in a car until she was two. Guess she’s gotten it all out of her system and she enjoys traveling now. We usually drive about 4,000 miles during our September trip and have seen much of the United States this way. We live in Minnesota and one year we went to Colorado by way of Kentucky. We called it creative geography.
One summer we visited all the historical sites in our own state. We usually made it a day trip since many were close to where we lived. Most were free and we studied Minnesota history in a very fun way. It doesn’t have to be expensive. We often camped and found many ways to entertain ourselves that were either free or didn’t cost much. Audio books make the miles fly by.
It’s definitely worth the effort to train your children to travel well. It takes time and determination, but we’ve made so many great memories.
Find out what our blogging friends have to say about the Travel Effect!
5-1 Jen at Word Traveling shares Come Celebrate the Travel Effect with Us.
5-1 Amy at Homeschool Blogging shares about Traveling to Conventions.
5-2 Stacey at I’m A Lazy Mom shares My Newest Lazy Mom Travel Essentials.
5-3 Jen at Word Traveling (that’s me!) shares NTTW Kickoff! Infographic & Video Contest Announcement
5-4 Amy at Homeschool Encouragement shares Free Travel Printables for Kids!
5-5 Katie at Paradise Praises shares Large Family Travel Tips
5-6 Jen at Conservamom shares the Dave Ramsey School of Traveling with Your Family.
5-6 Jen at Conservamom shares the Dave Ramsey School of Traveling with Your Family.
5-7 Jenilee at Our Goodwin Journey shares Tips for Surviving Well in Small Spaces
5-8 Jen on Ultimate Homeschool Radio Network shares Travel Brings Online Friendships to Life.
5-9 Suzette from Godly Rose shares Disney on a Dime.
5-10 Marcy from Ben and Me shares 10 Tips for Saving Money on Vacation.
5-12 Kendra from Homeschooling IRL shares Traveling With Kids Is Worth All the Effort!
5-13 Wendy on Word Traveling shares The Great Escape to Italy: Planning Our Getaway.
5-15 Trisha at Intoxicated on Life shares 4 Passes to Access Over 3,300 Educational Family Adventures
5-15 Jen at Florida Parent Education Association shares Making Memories at Your Homeschool Convention.
5-17 Tonya shares Practical Ways to Save Money on Your Next Road Trip
5-20 Susie (age 6) shares Flying as an Unaccompanied Minor.
5-21 Leslie shares Getting Outdoors While Traveling with Kids.
5-23 Phyllis shares Do You Travel With Children?
5-26 Jen shares on Treasuring Lifes Blessings The Ins and Outs of Cruising.
5-28 Kathy shares Boredom Busters For Road Trips
Finding Joy in the Journey,
Phyllis
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Phyllis Sather
Proclaiming God’s Faithfulness at:
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© 2014 Phyllis Sather
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