I’m starting a new series of posts I’m calling “Traveling Tuesdays.” Our family traveling experiences have taken our children to places some adults can only dream of and in the process has helped them develop a sense of the world, not just their home community. My five year old has been to 27 different countries on 4 different continents and been on 3 cruise ships, countless trains and over 100 airplanes. And while she has only visited 4 states, I hope to increase that number in the next few years.
The thing I miss the most about living in Dublin is being able to travel. Seeing new things and having new experiences and appreciating it all through my children’s eyes is something I will never get tired of. Each person experiences things differently but I have found my children provide the purest view of things. While I tend to put my previous experiences and expectations on what I see, they can see things I don’t and have taught me to look at my world differently.
I hope that our experiences can be helpful to other parents who are planning trips with their own small children. I hope our travels can act as inspiration for parents to see not every vacation with small children has to involve Disney World, the Zoo or Children’s Museums. Children live up to the expectations we give them and can enjoy even the most grown-up attractions and museums if they are presented in a child appropriate way. We have visited many places where we did not do a single attraction geared towards children and our children still had a great time, learning about another culture and seeing things most children their age don’t even know exist.
So, starting next Tuesday I will be sharing one place we’ve visited. I’ll describe the places we went, the things we saw and the experiences we had. I’ll share tips for general traveling as well as for that specific place. I’ve added a new menu where I will index all the places we’ve been with links to each post as I complete them. Our experiences are in no way comprehensive so if you have anything to add about a place, please share your experiences in the comments of each post.
We live in a beautiful, wide world. Why not share it with our children? Check out our adventures in “Oh The Places We’ve been!”
