Fun and Educational Family Travel Tips

The magic show at Wisconsin Dells also offers a number of educational opportunities.  Discussing the “magic” of slight of eye is particularly fun as you discuss the concept of persistence of vision.

In short, persistence of vision is about the fact that our eyes maintain images for a brief moment even after they are no longer there.  Remember those flip books you used to enjoy as a child?  You know, the ones that contained nothing but pictures and appeared to be in action when you flipped through the pages quickly  These books utilize the concept of persistence of vision.

 Before you go to the magic show at Wisconsion Dells on your family vacation, discuss this concept with your child.  Then, help your child make his or her own flip book.  It can be a great deal of fun for the entire family!

Share This

Before you take your family vacation to Wisconsin Dells and ride the Ducks, learn a little bit more about these interesting machines and discuss it with your child.  These military vehicles are more formally known as the DUKW and is a six wheel drive truck capable of riding on land and on water.  This characteristic is known as being amphibious.  You can introduce this word to your child and talk about animals that are amphibious as well, such as frogs and toads. 

These vehicles were originally created by GM to use during World War II and were used to carry troops and goods over water and land. Today, they are mostly used to give tours in various places around the country, including at Wisconsin Dells.  You can learn more about these vehicles by visiting Wikipedia.

Ask your child to create his or her own new vehicle that is unlike any you have every seen before - just like the inventors of the Ducks did so long ago!

You are also going to see several rock formations along the way during your tour.  This opens up a wonderful opportunity to talk about rock formations and how they are created.

Share This

Now, let’s talk about how you can make your time at Storybook Gardens in Wisconsin Dells more educational.

This site is definitely geared more toward the little ones, though older kids might also enjoy the experience of feeding the animals.  A great way to prepare for a visit to Storybook Gardens in Wisconsin Dells is to read a number of popular children’s books before going (hopefully, you are doing this anyway!).  Then, before you read the oversized storybook sitting next to the statues throughout the site, see if your child can guess which story they are from.

If your child is learning how to read, you can challenge your child to read the stories from the storybooks to the rest of the family.  Then, you can ask your child to come up with an alternate ending to the story other than the one you already know from the original story.

Since you will be encountering all sorts of animals at the Storybook Gardens, you might also want to do a bit of research about some of the animals beforehand.  See if your child can find out how long a giraffe’s tongue is - then experience it first hand when you feed the giraffes on your Wisconsin Dells family vacation!

Share This

I spent a good deal of time telling you about some of the attractions you will encounter when you visit Wisconsin Dells, but I have yet to tell you about ways to make this trip more educational.

Some of the sites are inherently educational, such as the Tommy Bartlett Exploratory.  Other sites may not seem so obvious when it comes to education - and, even those that are obvious, can be expanded upon further.

Let’s start with the Kalahari Resort.  That’s right, even a resort can present many different educational experiences. 

You can kick off the educational aspect of staying in a resort by doing a little math.  For example, you can tell your child how much it costs each night to stay at the Kalahari and ask him or her to determine what the final bill will be.  Don’t forget to add sales tax.  In addition, if you are charging expenses to your room, let your little accountant keep track.  Not only will this help hone math skills, it will also make your child feel like he or she is performing an important duty for the family.

The Kalahari also has an indoor and an outdoor waterpark. The water aspect opens up a whole bunch of different educational opportunities.  When you get back in the hotel room, for example, you can give your child a lump of clay and challenge him or her to find a way to make it float in the bathtub.  Your child will have a great time forming the clay into different shapes and trying to make it float in the water.  Next, challenge your child to put pennies on the clay and see how many pennies can be placed there before the clay sinks.  If you want to make it even more fun, tell your child that he or she can keep all of the pennies that the clay can hold before sinking.

Since there is an outdoor waterpark as well as an indoor waterpark, you can discuss the differences in temperature in the water.  When we were there, the water of the outdoor waterpark was quite cold since it is no in a climate controlled atmosphere.  This can lead to further discussions about oceans and the effects of outside temperature on the water temperature.

 With an elephant being the symbol of the Kalahari, you might also explore learning more about elephants.  What does an elephant have to do with the word “Kalahari” anyway?  Try to learn more about the Kalahari desert and the creatures that inhabit it before going to the Dells.  That way, your child will have a much greater appreciation of the decorations at the resort. 

Share This

The Tommy Bartlett Expository offers a number of fun attractions that will test your mind.  Making your family vacation an eductional experience is not difficult at all at this attraction, as you will explore a variety of different scientific concepts with the hands on activities the Exploratory provides.

When you visit the Tommy Bartlett Exploratory on  your family vacation, you will find that there is a kiosk outside.  I highly recommend stopping off at this kiosk before you visit any of the attractions in Wisconsin Dells.  Here, you can buy packages that will save you quite a bit on your Wisconsin Dells trip.  Even better, you can select the tickets you want and how many different attractions you want to add to your package.  Therefore, you are not tied down to attractions you may not really be interested in.

Many of the attractions at the Tommy Bartlette Exploratory actually seem like magic tricks as they trick your eye and your mind.  Others challenge you to perform certain tasks, such as remaining balanced on a tricky rolly-polly device or trying to put puzzles together and solve mysteries.

When you visit the Tommy Bartlett Exploratory, be sure to spend time with your kids at each exhibit so they will get the most fun and educational value the exhibit has to offer.

Share This

When on vacation, you are at an even greater risk than usual of having your credit card information lifted from a thief.  This is particular true when on a family vacation since you will be so distracted by the kids.  With all of their excitement and your concern about keeping an eye on them, it is easy to accidentally misplace your card, to have it stolen, or to simply drop it.   So, in this installment, I am going to focus more on educating YOU while on vacation rather than educating your kids.

First of all, never leave your credit card in your hotel room.  It is unfortunate, but cleaning service personnel have been known to steal credit cards or just credit card information when left in the room.  If you do need to leave your card behind, be sure it is kept in the safe if your room has one.

Next, make sure to copy down your credit information before you head out on vacation and keep it seperate from your actual credit card.  This includes the account number and the toll free customer service number.  This way, if your card is misplaced or if you lose it, you can call the credit card company right away and close the account. 

Since there is the possiblity that your card will be lost or stolen, you should also bring along an extra credit card just in case.  I am embarrassed to admit that I have lost cards on two different vacations, one when I went to Shenandoah National Park and one time when I went to Wisconsin Dells.  The fact that I had a back up card was a lifesaver when it came to enjoying the rest of the vacation.

Finally, if you are going out of the country, be sure to contact your credit card company ahead of time.  With all of their anit-fraud software, your unusual spending in a foreign land may set off some alarms.  So, to prevent hassles while on vacation (which is even more of a problem when you have antsy children waiting to move on to the next activity), call the 800 number ahead of time and have a great vacation!

Share This

As I had mentioned in a previous post, one web site that I recommend visiting for more educational family travel ideas is Home & Abroad.  This site provides some great information on some of the most popular travel destinations and also offers some fun and educational activity suggestions for specific locations.  I know they are great because I have written several of the articles for the site!

I am not just tooting my own horn, though, Home and Abroad employs a number of different city experts and activity writers in order to create a comprehensive site filled with travel ideas and tips.  It even includes a travel planner that allows you to create your own itinerary, which you can create based on a specific theme if you like. 

I definitely recommend checking this site out.  I know from experience that the folks running the site are good people and they have a true interest in helping families enjoy a better vacation experience.

Share This

After a visit to the Smoky Mountains, your child should have a great appreciation for nature.  That makes this the perfect time to discuss what you can do as a family in order to help protect nature. 

If you haven’t done so already, use this as an opportunity to discuss the importance of recycling.  Talk about deforestation and how animals are going extinct as their habitats are destroyed in order to make new goods that could have been made with recycled goods.  Ask your child to come up with a plan for the family for improving your recycling habits.  Not only does this help get your child thinking in a more worldly manner, it also gives him or her some ownership into the project.  By giving your child ownership, he or she will be more likely to follow through with the plan.

You can extend this concept further by asking your child to develop a plan that could be used by your entire neighborhood or community.  Who knows, you might be able to start an initiative that will get a whole group of people working toward better protecting the environment!

Share This

While visiting the Great Smoky Mountains on a family vacation, you should definitely take an hour or two out of your visit to play miniature golf at one of the many minoi-golf courses in the area.  Many of them are quite creative and can be quite an experience.  You can also make this fun experience educational in a number of easy ways.

One of the simplest ways to  make your mini-golf adventure educational is to allow one of your children to keep track of the scores.  Or, have each of your children keep track of their own scores while you keep track of the scores on your master scorecard.  Then, when the game is over, have your children figure out the differences between the scores.

For younger children, you can still have fun with math.  For instance, each hole will have a par.  After your child finally sinks his or her ball, ask your child to figure out how much below or over par the score was.  You can also introduce golf terms such as birdie (one under par), eagle (2 under par), bogey (one over par), double bogey (two over par), and so on.

Children get excited about learning new words, particularly when they hear their parents using them.  So, after each hole, ask your child if he scored a bogey or a birdie.  They will have a great time reprting back to you!

Share This

When you visit the Great Smoky Mountains, a visit to Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum may not be on the top of your list.  But, I guarantee, if you have children between the ages of 8 and 13, they will really want to make a stop at this museum of sorts.

 While at Ripley Believe It or Not Museum, you will see a number of strange and unusual sites.  To extend this visit further and to make it a bit more educational, encourage your child to pretend he or she is a newspaper reporter.  Then, tell your child to gather as much information as possible about a person or event that is on display at the museum.  Remind your child that a good reporter covers 6 questions:

• Who?
• What?
• When?
• Where?
• Why?
• How?

Your child’s job as a junior reporter will be to try to answer these questions based on the information at the display.  When you get back to the hotel room, have your child make a newspaper and write one or more stories to be included in the paper. 

If you have a laptop with you and your child is computer-savvy, let him or her create the newspaper template on the computer.  Otherwise, a hand drawn newspaper will be just fine.  Tell your child to include a header like in a real newspaper.  If your hotel gives you a free paper in the morning, let your child take a look at the front page in order to see how a real newspaper should look.

When your child is done with the paper, ask him or her to read it back to as if he or she is a news anchor reporting the story on the news.

Share This