travel with children Archives ⋆ documama

Aaron Schlein launched the inspirational family travel podcast Dramatic Travels earlier this year as a resource for family travel, a way to ignite curiosity, and to open people’s minds to the power of travel. In each episode Aaron talks travel with passionate and experienced travelers who are sharing the world, and that love of adventure, with their kids.

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Both my husband and I love to travel, so when we had kids we were determined to continue to do so. Our fist child had traveled to Turkey, France, England, South Korea, and Hawaii by the time she was two. We made it back to Turkey with two kids, and then came children number three and four. With the cost and the accessories that come with four kids ages six and under, our travel as a family came to a halt. My husband and I continued to travel, but were lucky enough to be able to leave the kids with my in-laws at home when we did. Still determined to bring them up as global citizens, we would bring back tokens from abroad and always search for children’s books to read to them that incorporated other cultures in the stories. I was thrilled when Sataya House Publications asked me if I’d like to review their children’s series “I See the Sun in …” , which is a series of bilingual picture books that takes children around the world to sample different cultures along the way. These are exactly the types of books that I love to share with my children. Author, Dedie King, was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal, and has spent much time in all of the countries she writes about. Each of the “I See The Sun In…” books are written in English and translated by a native speaker of the language of the country she is writing about. I love having the written language of the country we are reading about along side the English words to show the kids examples of different languages in writing. The books have won awards and have been well received by parents, teachers and children alike. The series is currently available in the titles “I See the Sun in…: Nepal, China, Afghanistan, Russia, and Mexico, with more countries in the works. When I read the books with my younger kids I loved the questions that they brought up, and the interest in these other cultures that I could see it spark in them. In the past couple of years we’ve begun to take the kids with us again when we go abroad. We did a family trip to Canada, the older two came to France with us last spring, and we took a family trip to Alaska this summer. It has only recently become easy to travel with them again without needing all of the car seats, boosters, diaper bags, bottles, portable high chairs, and clothing changes, plus they can pull their own luggage, which is huge. Now that it is easier, we look forward to exposing them to foreign cultures through travel, and in the mean time these books can help us pave the way to understanding the beautiful diversity that makes up our world around us.