Last year, Rainer Jenss traveled around the world with his wife and two sons, and blogged about his experience here on Intelligent Travel. This year, he's back with a new column that focuses on traveling with kids.
Lots of parents, myself included, are concerned about what affects all the electronics--and the digital age in general-- are having on our children. Even though I've had success limiting their time playing video games, my sons seem to have discovered a newfound interest in computers, and it probably won't be long until their curiosity with cell phones turns into full-blown obsession.
There is a new technology, however, that I fully encourage my boys to use as often as their little hearts desire: a digital camera. Fortunately, this didn't require a whole lot of coercing when we traveled around the world last year. In fact, they were so into shooting that when Tyler accidentally broke his camera about halfway through the trip, we may as well have gone home if we didn't get him a new one right then and there.
So for your next trip together as a family, go ahead and try to leave all the kids' electronic devices at home (unless, of course, you have a long flight or car ride on the itinerary, in which case you may want to reconsider), but make sure they pack the digital camera. And if they don't have one, you may seriously want to think about heading to an electronics store. Even if you already own one yourself, I wouldn't recommend sharing it with your child/children, since 1) they won't be nearly as engaged if they have to keep asking you for it, and 2) one of you is going to be upset that they missed "the shot" while the other blissfully fired away at the whales that breached out of the water just 100 feet from your boat.
There is a new technology, however, that I fully encourage my boys to use as often as their little hearts desire: a digital camera. Fortunately, this didn't require a whole lot of coercing when we traveled around the world last year. In fact, they were so into shooting that when Tyler accidentally broke his camera about halfway through the trip, we may as well have gone home if we didn't get him a new one right then and there.
So for your next trip together as a family, go ahead and try to leave all the kids' electronic devices at home (unless, of course, you have a long flight or car ride on the itinerary, in which case you may want to reconsider), but make sure they pack the digital camera. And if they don't have one, you may seriously want to think about heading to an electronics store. Even if you already own one yourself, I wouldn't recommend sharing it with your child/children, since 1) they won't be nearly as engaged if they have to keep asking you for it, and 2) one of you is going to be upset that they missed "the shot" while the other blissfully fired away at the whales that breached out of the water just 100 feet from your boat.
Continue reading Give Your Kids a Camera.











About This Blog