Fun and Educational Family Travel Tips

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.

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When  you visit Gatlinburg, you might decide to stop at the Guiness World Records Museum where you can compare yourself to the record holders.  Here, my husband and boys fit themselves inside the belt of the world’s fattest man.

Here, the two oldest boys compare themselves to the world’s tallest man and the world’s shortest woman.

 Two of my boys try their talents on this large piano and make beautiful music (ok, maybe it wasn’t THAT beautiful) at Ripley’s Museum.

Here, my oldest son ponders what has happened to his head at Ripley’s Museum.

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Since I have been doing all of this talking about some of the places I visited in the Great Smoky Mountains, I thought I should start sharing some photos of the sites I have been discussing.  I’ll start off with the Ripley’s Aquarium in Gatlinburg.

Here is one of my son (age 7 at the time) inside of the “aquarium” exhibit.  This one never fails to put a smile on my face:

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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.

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When you visit the Smoky Mountains, a trip to the Ripley’s Aquarium is an absolute must.  Your children are certain to be thrilled with the many close encounters they will experience.  In addition, there are several great photo opportunities that will provide you with photos that will bring a smile to your face years after your trip - particularly the “aquariums” that allow your children to feel what it is like to be a fish.

When your child jumps into the “aquarium” and pretends to be a fish, this is a great opportunity to test his or her fish knowledge.  Ask your child what else he would need if he were really a fish.  Then, ask him to describe to you what the life of a fish would be like.  Based on this discussion, you can then challenge your child to come up with a non-rhyming poem created from the word “Fish.”  To create this poem, simply have your child think of four lines to the poem, with the first line starting with an F, the second starting with an I, the third starting with an S, and the last line starting with an H.  The poem can be as silly or serious as you like.  For example:

Funny swimming creatures

In and out they weave

Stop and be sure to watch them

How beautiful they are

If your child seems to enjoy this activity, challenge him or her to create similar poems based on the names of the other creatures you encounter during your visit.  Then, have your child put them together in a book and illustrate the poems - what a great momento of your trip that would be!

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Gatlinburg, Tennesse is perhaps the biggest “tourist draw” in the Great Smoky Mountains area.  If you are looking to explore interesting museums and activities, this is the place to go.  During a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains, it is definitely worthwhile to pop into Gatlinburg for a day.  Or, you might find that it is better to spend a couple of partial days in Gatlinburg, as the trip to Gatlinburg from Townsend is gorgeous and also offers places to pull off, to hike trails, and to see some magnificent natural sites.

It is my belief that the best family vacations involve spending some time getting closer to nature as well as exploring fun and interesting attractions.  Gatlinburg provides the opportunity to see some really cool museums.  Perhaps or favorite site to see in Gatlinburg is Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies.  Here, you get the opportunity to go through a tunnel that surrounds you with an aquarium filled with sharks and other sea life.  There are also plenty of cute photo opportunities that are a must for any family travel experience.

Gatlinburg is also home to one of the Ripley’s Believe It or Not museums.  My experience as both a teacher and a mother of four boys has shown that kids are enthralled with the sites of this museum.  Similarly, the Guinness World of Records Museum is worth a visit, unless time and money is short.  In that case, this is a stop that can be saved for another visit.

Gatlinburg also offers a number of fun mini-golf courses that can be quite an adventure.  My oldest boys (then ages 4 and 6) had their first mini-golf experience at the Hillybill Golf course.   After that, they were hooked and begged us to go mini-golfing every time we passed a course.

Gatlinburg is also home to a number of unique shopping experiences.  I am personally not much of a shopper and my husband absolutely despises it, so I have not spent much time in the stores.  I do know, however, tha there are many people who come to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge just for the shopping opportunities. 

 Gatlinburg is considered a walking community.  This means you will need to find a place to park, which can be costly and difficult to find, if you plan to visit any of the shops.  Since there are large crowds and a high amount of traffic, this isn’t necessarily the best scenario for a family vacation - particularly if your kids are still quite young.  Be sure to bring a stroller or wagon if you plan to walk the stretch.  Driving through the town can also be quite frustrating as it can take quite a bit of time to go just a short distance.  So, go to Gatlinburg with these things in mind and be prepared to spend a good portion of your day trying to get through and past other tourists.

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