Getting Your Kids Involved

One of the most important things you can do for your child is get them comfortable with using technology to tell a story.  Learning today’s tools will help them immensely with their communication skills.  If you are taking your kids out of school to extend a vacation over a school break, they could do a journal or other project using technology.  Support your kids in artistic endeavors and create opportunities for them to be innovative.  Plan ahead to have appropriate supplies (e.g. charcoal for making rubbings, watercolors and paper for painting a picture, a Facebook page to upload their photos). Prevent your kids from experiencing their trip through a view finder but join them in developing skills and a tangible souvenir.  Refer to the Education section to see hat they may be studying in school for their grade level.

  • Travel Photography

    There are so many tips for travel photography written by experts in the field that your head will spin reading them all.  I was hoping to edit down to a few tips to share with beginners but it’s too complicated.  Adults or children shooting? Digital or phone?  Novice or hobbyist?  I found one super valuable site linked below that I felt if you and your child could discuss, understand, internalize and try, you would come home with some shots that were more interesting than you would have otherwise.  Encourage your child to take photos.  Buy them a camera or have them use a phone.  It’s a worthwhile creative exercise that pays dividends!

    Ten Rules of Photo Composition and Why They Work

  • Travel Videos

    Encourage your child to make a video of their trip.  Upload it to YouTube and send us the link!  I am a huge fan of GoPro.  My 14 year old opened the box, assembled it and began shooting without any parental involvement.  Totally intuitive and absolutely fantastic results!  I cannot improve upon these online videos for tips for being successful so here’s some links to watch!

    How To Make A Travel Video

    Filmmaker Tips

     How to Get Good Audio

     

  • Travel Journals

    A travel journal is easy to start.  You get a notebook and a pen and there you go.  You write ferociously the first few days then the entries get shorter and then days get skipped and if your trip is long enough, it may be neglected altogether by the end.  How sad.  My travel journals are such a pleasure to read years later and I’m flooded by wonderful memories and seem fresh again even after decades.  I hope you or your child start a journal and here’s some ways to make writing in it a pleasurable part of your journey.

    Here’s some tips how to succeed at writing an interesting journal.
    — Start your journal before you go. Write how excited you are in anticipation of your adventure.
    — Tell your self this isn’t homework.
    — Lighten up .. write when you want and as much as you want, a little or a lot.
    — Do begin every entry with the day of the week and the date.
    — Don’t write a list of what you did that day.
    — Take an experience that really impacted you and write in depth about that.
    — Try to be very descriptive and use all your senses if appropriate.
    — If you fear writers’ block, set out to write a “favorites” journal … favorite place, best meal, most wonderful spot, best sunset, favorite person, most embarrassing moment, you get the idea!
    — Try to write about these things when they are fresh instead of putting it off.
    — You can decide on a family journal where everyone records their impressions in the same book!
    — Add photos, memoribilia, receipts, drawings are really great!
    — Write at a different time every day ..not just before bed. Maybe in a cafe, on the train, or at the hotel.

    Try these ideas and you’ll enjoy your trip many time over!