How travel benefits children: Helping children learn and understand culture, diversity and varying lifestyles

Providing your kids with the opportunities to travel offer more advantages than you may expect. Travel allows children to embrace cultural diversity while exploring foreign destinations. These experiences enable them to develop an open-mindedness to new ideas and philosophies and become more intellectually advanced. Children who develop an awareness of cultural differences and are able to develop a positive viewpoint regarding diversity usually maintain happy and productive lives. Learning about various cultures also improves a child’s empathy towards others.

Every Moment Presents a Teaching Experience
Infants, toddlers and children are always examining their environments and learning from their communities. Every experience that they have, from their creative play activities to school and family trips, helps to shape their opinions of other people and society itself. According to Christopher Metzler, Ph.D., “external messages play an enormous role in how kids view others. According to Metzler, parents can introduce their kids to cultural diversity through a variety of creative activities, such as visiting multi-cultural websites, attending cultural events, sampling ethnic food and reading books that provides information of other ethnic cultures.

Each cultural learning experience also encourages children to become global citizens in society. As indicated by Ciao Bambino, interacting with different people and their environments help to shape positive thinking and habits in children. Activities that involve learning and helping others enable each child to magnify their appreciation of the world.

Unique Learning Experiences
Traveling allows children to learn much more than schools can potentially offer. Traveling abroad particularly helps improve positive character development and individual identity as children are able to immerse themselves in other cultures, unlike their familiar surroundings. Some people believe that traveling to different countries provide a unique rite of passage for American children. Additionally, traveling to less developed countries and experiencing the inherent problems that inhabitants of these countries go through allow American children to appreciate the luxuries that they are given from birth through adulthood. These travel experiences also gives children the chance to approach the natural world and different sceneries with a more balanced outlook.

Travel Improves Academic Performance in School
Family trips have been shown to improve academic performance in many children. Studies show a link between high grades in school and children who partake in educational travel excursions. According to a survey by The Wagner Group, people who traveled during their youth were more likely to successfully complete high school and go on to obtain college degrees. The survey also revealed that these respondents achieved 12 percent greater annual incomes than those who never traveled during their youth years.

Motivation for High Educational Achievement
Children who engage in travel experiences are more likely to pursue their highest potential for educational achievement upon entering adulthood. According to the SYTA-Explorica Survey, three-quarters of respondents who were interviewed attribute their childhood travel as having a strong impact on their education and careers. The opportunity to embrace various cultures can have a positive impact on a child’s educational and career choices. Every travel excursion provides an educational experience for children. It helps them become more well-rounded during their childhood growth and developmental stages. As they mature and embrace adulthood, they understand the importance of pursuing careers and placing themselves in positions to further their educational pursuits.

Lifelong Love of Travel
Parents who want to impart a lifelong love of travel for their children should make time to plan educational travel experiences. This gives children an opportunity to become accustomed to the concept of visiting foreign destinations, so that they will appreciate the benefits as they grow into adulthood. Statistics show that adults who traveled for vacation or school purposes before age 18 continue to have a passion to pursue the practice. Those who traveled abroad are more well-versed of different cultural experiences and open-minded to continue their explorations of cultures around the world. In addition to maintaining a passion for travel, they are open-minded to looking for unique ways to explore the world. Tourist companies in many countries welcome new visitors by creating fun exploration activities. For instance, Japan is beautiful country with authentic architecture and awe-inspiring natural landscapes. This is why all-embracing guided tours are very popular among tourists visiting the country.

Vincent Stokes is an outdoor enthusiast and an experienced world traveler. In addition to freelance writing, Vincent works to promote pride in homegrown travel destinations. You can also connect with Vincent on G+ or twitter (@TravelingGlobal).