Incorporating History into your Vacation or Staycation – Guest Post by Craig Rapinchuk
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Incorporating History into your Vacation or Staycation – Guest Post by Craig Rapinchuk
In an ever changing society where high stakes testing is so important we begin to leave vital information on the back burner because we can’t afford to purchase, spend time on, or even teach adequately the subjects that are deemed unimportant. Well one very important area is history; today I am going to suggest reasons and ways to make history come alive for your child.
            First, consider your next family vacation and where you will be traveling, instead of going somewhere and just enjoying the local tourist traps; consider the historical background of the area you are traveling to. Spend a day, or make a special trip to a particular historical site and spend the time researching so you can tell your child about this part of our history in America or wherever you have traveled.
            Second, if you don’t get the opportunity to travel consider local shops, stores, or even areas of interest where you can explain some important historical things that have happened. For instance my family and I always enjoy going to nature trails, and we saw one on the side of the road we decided to visit. While there we realized it was part of the trail that Henando De Soto traveled while exploring Florida where we live. Then I realized studying this map, there is a trail/park in our town which we have been to thousands of times with our kids.
            Last, consider a historic building, store, or even area in your own town. I know where we are in Florida there is so much rich history to our town, I don’t even think those born here have a clue as to what there is to find.
           No matter what the time or day, consider cherishing the history of our world with your children because no one else will care about it. It is our job as parents to enrich our children in areas that are just not found important in our schools. It has always been the parents’ job to oversee their child’s education, but we have come accustomed to allowing this to be the job for everyone else these past few decades. Take charge of your child’s education, if you don’t someone else might not. It would be better to have to many people trying to help them out than no one at all.
Great tips and advice!
Kids only spend a fraction of their waking hours in a classroom, so we try and take advantage of every opportunity we can to keep them active and engaged and learning at home (and on vacation), too.
We’re fortunate to live in a very history-rich city (Philadelphia) but anywhere we go has lots of history to explore. And that’s part of the fun for us as adults, too… learning (or re-learning) it ourselves!
great post! It’s one thing I loved and now miss about the East Coast – there was always so much history right there. Our family vacations included Gettysburg, Boston, DC.
Living in the west, it’s a bit harder, and you have to dig deeper to find the hirtorical adventures for a vacation. But still worth it!
I would LOVE to head over to the East coast because there is SO much to do & see!! Although we are planning on going out to Oregon in 2 years & I can’t wait to check out some of the historical things there!