Eight Great Childhood Lessons From Traveling
Not Everyone Speaks English There are so many languages in the world and many people who speak more than one. Seeing that in action has been so much more impactful than just being told it. I love watching my son learn just enough words to order something, ask for what he needs or be polite in a new culture. Having been in several classrooms with children who were fully bi-lingual when he was only just beginning to pick up a second language has really created an impression on him for the effort that goes into learning a new language.
Geography As we travel from place to place there are maps on airplane screens on the back of the seat, in books, on my phone, simply asking my son a question about where we are going or where we came from warrants a tiny conversation, a glance at a map and a just-in-time learning opportunity.
Confidence building I remember the first time I watched my son walk down to the little shop where they sell snacks in our town in Nicaragua. I sat on the curb in front of our house as my eyes followed him. He was 8 years old and we’d been to this shop on the block a ton of times together. He’d learned some basic Spanish by then and knew his numbers pretty well. Wanting to go on his own seemed an age-appropriate step toward independence, so I said yes. He disappeared for a few minutes into the shop, then returned moments later with his prizes and filled with pride for what he’d accomplished alone. Today we’ve been to numerous foreign counties together and usually after a short adjustment period, time to learn the language, new currency, and neighborhood he offers to pick up things for us from nearby shops or stores.
Being the Outsider Being the kid who wants to play with a group of other children at the ball field or in the park has been the place that taught my son about compassion and empathy for outsiders. He knows how it feels to be on the outside, and look in, hoping to be included. He’s experienced being welcomed into a game and how that made him feel and often hope that that is what he remembers when the tables are turned.
Breaking Down Barriers In a lot of ways my kid is a pretty typical American kid eater. He loves his fries, burger, pasta and maybe peas and not a lot of other green vegetables. With little success had I ever gotten him to even try the food of another ethnic cuisine. But after we had spent two weeks on a remote island in the south pacific eating only traditional meals, then took a late night flight into Australia and landed at the home of an immigrant Vietnamese family and they offered him hot delicious noodle soup as his belly ached for some breakfast the next morning. You better believe that kid said, yes please, and gobbled it right up. Two weeks later when someone asked him what his favorite food was he’d eaten while traveling he referred back to that delicious soup given to him by a Vietnamese grandmother, a soup most similar to what I’d tried to get him to eat a million times before back in our home town.
Strangers are friends we haven’t meet yet I know it sounds cliche or like something internet meme worthy (that’s probably where I heard it first) but it’s so true, and it has been our experience so many times. People are good all over the world (with a few cranky and mean ones here and there too, sure). We once put a note in an online couch surfing group before landing in a new country for a week and numerous families opened their doors and homes to us for a stay. They didn’t ask for money in exchange, they simply asked for time shared, conversation among adults, play between children, for a few days and to share who we were and our lived experiences with each other.
We are all human, doing human things, to care for our families and get by. When I was a kid I used to go with my mother to clean church once every few months when it was her turn in the rotation and I’d watched the ladies vacuum the floors and dust the pews. While were were in Bali recently I watched women sweep the sticks and leaves from the alters each morning in front of their home and make fresh flower offerings to place on each station around their property. As we watch people in each new place we visit, they are all just going about their work, happy, sad, determined, living and loving and caring for their spaces and loved ones the best they can.
Calculated risks over fear, creates confidence This is a big one because my son gets to see me have questions and be unsure how to do something and then we live through figuring it out as we go from one new place to another. Today when we travel to Mexico my son absolutely loves swimming in the deep, natural swimming holes called cenotes. However, the first time he arrived at one he spent nearly 45 minutes just deciding whether he’d dip a single toe into the clear, fresh water where there were tiny fish swimming all around. But once he made the choice to get in at his own pace, he slowly, bit by bit..grew his confidence. So much so that by the end of our two hour swimming adventure he was energetically rope swinging into the cenote at every chance!
