Some of the best opportunities to learn happen when you're going somewhere.
A road trip can bring geography to life. A plane ride can spark questions about distance and destinations. A trip to the beach can lead to conversations about ocean life. Even waiting at an airport or doctor's office can become a few minutes to draw, practice or discover something new.
With a little preparation, learning can travel right along with you.
Let the Destination Inspire What You Bring
Before a trip, think about where you're going and what your child might see along the way.
Heading across the country? Bring a USA map and let children follow the journey.
Going to the beach? Pack an Ocean Life placemat.
Visiting a national park or spending time outdoors? Bring along animals, weather, rocks or another subject that connects to what you may encounter.
Travel gives children the chance to connect something they've seen on a page or placemat with a real place, animal or experience.
And suddenly, what they were learning isn't abstract anymore.
Let Kids Choose, Too
Not everything you bring needs to match the destination.
Let children choose something from their learning library simply because it interests them.
Maybe you're heading to the mountains and your child chooses the Solar System. That's perfectly fine.
Giving children some ownership over what they bring can make them more interested in actually using it.
Try:
"We're each choosing two things for the trip. What would you like to bring?"
Their choices might surprise you.
Turn the Journey Into Part of the Learning
You don't have to wait until you arrive.
On a road trip, use a map to follow where you're going. Find states you're driving through, look for rivers or cities along the route, or estimate how far you've traveled.
On a flight, find your starting point and destination. Talk about what states, countries or bodies of water might be below you.
Even a simple question can make the journey more interesting:
- Where are we now?
- What will we pass next?
- How far have we traveled?
- What do you think we'll see when we get there?
Pack Something for the Waiting
Travel usually involves waiting.
Airports. Restaurants. Hotel lobbies. Train stations. Long car rides. Delays you didn't plan for.
A Tot Talk placemat or Mini Workbook can turn some of that downtime into a chance to explore or practice without automatically reaching for a screen.
Children can work on letters, numbers, money, time, geography or grammar in a Mini Workbook, or choose a placemat and explore a subject that interests them.
It doesn't need to fill the entire wait.
Sometimes ten interesting minutes are enough.
Try a Travel Challenge
Create quick challenges based on where you are or what you brought.
With a USA map:
How many states can you name?
Can you find where we started and where we're going?
With an animal placemat:
Which of these animals might live where we're visiting?
With a Numbers & Shapes Mini Workbook:
Can you finish one page before our plane boards?
Or make up a challenge together.
The point isn't to complete as much as possible. It's to make a little bit of waiting time more interesting.
Look for Learning in the World Around You
Some of the best travel learning doesn't require an activity at all.
Notice the landscape changing outside the window.
Look at license plates and find the states on a map.
Read signs together.
Count something you see along the way.
Talk about unfamiliar foods.
Look for animals, landmarks, mountains, rivers or buildings you've learned about before.
When children recognize something in the real world that they've already encountered through learning, that connection can be exciting:
"I know that!"
Bring the Experience Home
Learning from a trip doesn't have to end when the suitcase is unpacked.
Pull out the map again and trace where you went.
Find an animal you saw.
Talk about the weather you experienced.
Look up something your child asked about that you couldn't answer at the time.
Or let them tell someone else what they learned.
Revisiting an experience afterward can lead to new questions — and sometimes a whole new interest.
Keep Your Travel Learning Kit Simple
You don't need to pack an entire learning library.
Choose a few favorites.
Tot Talk placemats are thin, reusable and washable, making them easy to bring along and use again throughout a trip. Tot Talk Mini Workbooks are just 5" × 7", so they're an easy size to tuck into a backpack, tote or travel bag.
Add washable or dry-erase markers for the placemats, and you're ready for a lot of different learning moments without carrying very much.
The goal isn't to turn vacation into school.
It's simply to make curiosity easy to take with you.
Pack a few favorites. Follow the journey. Notice what's around you. And let the adventure become part of the learning.