Inspiring Children to Travel
Inspiring children to travel builds creative minds that strive to learn. The things we take for granted as a part of everyday life can easily spark an interest in seeing the wonders our tiny planet has to offer. Bed time stories about giants and wizards, fairies and gnomes are a glorious trip to a land of fantasy and imagination.
True stories about history can be just as exciting. Tales of wonderful places that hold the secrets to great battles, huge castles and almost mystical artists will plant a seed in a child that will grow to a desire to experience all that life has to offer. We outgrow the fantasy lands and thoughts of rescuing princesses high in the castle keep, but standing on the field where the battle of 1066 was fought, breathing the fog that misted the druid robes around Stonehenge or gazing up at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo.
This became apparent when I asked my youngest son what he wanted to do for his birthday.
“I want to go see Lisa.” The soon to be seven year old asked nonchalantly.
I have to admit I was at a loss. I couldn’t think of anyone we knew named Lisa. Visiting someone that I could not recall seemed an odd request for a birthday present.
“Who is Lisa? Is she your girlfriend back in the States?” I asked teasingly.
“No silly, Lisa in Paris.” He said with confidence.
Lisa…Lisa…Who the heck was Lisa? He acted like I should have easily known to whom he was referring. I was clueless.
“Well not just the picture. I wanna see the other stuff too.” He followed up with what sounded like a backup plan.
Suddenly it hit me. An odd request to be sure, but one that I was going to make sure happened. Since birth I had told him stories of great works of art in museums around the world. I told him of the almost mythical inventions Leonardo da Vinci had created and how painted the Mona Lisa which hung in the Louvre museum in Paris.
We were living in Malta at the time so putting an impromptu four day trip to Paris was not out of the question. I saw the wonder in his eyes that must have been in mine on my first trip to the Louvre. Surrounded by living history, experiencing the magic of bed time stories we wandered the halls absorbing all we could.
Since then I have been blessed with a little girl. She is 18 months old and already becoming a global citizen. She learns our native English along with Russian and Italian to connect her with far off lands that bed time stories are made of.
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