Covid-19 is here and has touched just about every area of life for almost every citizen of earth. Obviously, what people are facing health-wise is on the forefront of everyone’s minds. We want to see people healthy and to hear stories of the suffering going on around the world is truly heartbreaking.
The virus has hurt people in other ways too. Honestly for us, traveling helps us mentally and emotionally. Being out in nature, meeting people around the world, and enjoying the community of travel is a really powerful thing. It helps us live a balanced family life. Travel is good for the soul. It also helps Silas learn. He has learned so much about life, science, and history through our travels.
This virus has shut most of that down. We have had to cancel a couple of plans already and probably will have more to come. It is kind of (not kind of, this is crazy weird stuff we are living through) weird because schools are closed. Usually when school is closed we are burning the road up or hopping on a plane. This time though, we are at the house. This is a small thing compared to the big things that are going on around us.
We wanted to put together a quick list of things we are going to do in order to continue traveling while we are stuck at home and school is out. The hope is that Silas can continue to learn and we can continue to “travel” from home and learn more about the world. Most of these are geared towards kids, but adults can have a good time with them too!
Make a Passport Book
A couple of summers ago we took our love for travel and turned it into a daily learning activity at home. Each week of the summer we picked a country to “travel” to. We started our project by making a passport book to document our travels. This could be any sort of notebook or some papers you staple together. Let your kids decorate and design it anyway they want! Here is how the project went down –
- First, I would let Silas choose any country he wanted to travel to and we would get to researching. Think of any books you might already have at home that might include some info on the country, check out some books online and gather the best info you can! Spend some time reading and researching together.
- Create a page or pages in your passport book with facts and information you have learned. Animal facts are always fun, populations, flag, fun facts, etc.
- Cook a meal or snack that is traditional from that country
- Listen to traditional music from your country – youtube is great for finding music and we love to just let it be the soundtrack in our home that week.
- Do something crafty…for example we made paper giant hissing cockroaches when we traveled to Madagascar!
- Decorate for a fun holiday or tradition the Country celebrates
- Watch a movie that reminds us of the country.
- Learn some different phrases in the language – there are a lot of great apps for that!
Honestly, just be creative and find ways to incorporate fun moments into your day. At the end of your week (or whatever time you deem) we always stamped our passport book with the date so we would remember when we visited.
Become a Junior Ranger
The Junior Ranger Program is one of the coolest things the National Parks Service offers. It is a great way to engage kids in learning about the parks. Many of the parks have the Junior Ranger booklets online that you can download, mail in, and receive a Junior Ranger badge.
We like to have the Junior Ranger books before we get to the parks for a couple of reasons. One, the books give Silas something besides video games to do in the car. Two, if the book is done before we get there we have more time to explore (oftentimes the book helps us explore!). Three, it is good to have a good overview of the park before we get there. Four, it saves the park money if you print it yourself. This summer we have a trip planned to Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Craters of the Moon, and Glacier. We are still hoping to be able to go, but we will see. The Grand Teton and Glacier books are both available online. A great way for Silas to learn about these places and become a Junior Ranger at these parks before we actually get there.
Not all of the parks have the Junior Ranger book online. You can check on the individual park sites to see if you can download the Junior Ranger books. Just click on the Learn About The Park tab and then on Kids & Youth.
Take a Virtual Tour
There are so many awesome agencies out there that are offering virtual tours to check out. What a great way to get that travel from home experience in! The National Park Service is one of those. Right now there are a ton of videos up that give overviews of whole parks, like Yosemite, Everglades, Acadia and more! It’s kind of hard to find on their website : Click on Menu – Photos & Multi-Media – Multi-Media Search. This will take you to a page with tons of links to explore!
In addition, there are a bunch of museums, zoos and aquariums offering virtual tours, here is a great list of museums from Travel & Leisure with links for each museum! The National Museum of Natural History also has a great website and virtual tour you can view as well!
Aquariums like the Monterey Bay Aquarium have live video cams as well as zoos like the San Diego Zoo! You can even watch a live African Safari, check out Wild Earth- SafariLive for times, they stream everyday!
Finally, since you know we love NC State Parks around here, make sure you check out NC 360 for tours of state parks like Hanging Rock plus National Parks like the Wright Brothers Memorial and Historical Landmarks!
Learn About Your Town
Even though we may be socially distanced and spending more time in our homes we think it’s still really important to get some fresh air, sunshine and go for a walk as a family together. Taking a walk to you downtown, around the neighborhood or on a open trail is something we need to continue to do together. There is nothing like it. Hopefully we will be able to continue enjoying the outdoors together during this different time. Maybe you could do some research about your town together, find out it’s history and landmarks. This is a great step to begin planning an in-town trip for the future! There is always a time to go the adventure way together and planning a future travel trip from home is always fun!
Find a Good Blogger/Vlogger
We love the travel community and finding new bloggers and vloggers to follow! There are so many great ones out there and they keep us inspired and curious about new places. A cool way to stay connected is to join in on the conversations on their blogs and social media. Let a favorite content creator know you love what they are doing and send them some encouragement. You will no doubt be encouraged too in the process! Here are some of our favorites to check out:
- Adam the Woo (he does a lot of driving across the country and Disney park stuff!)
- Justin Scarred (he has some great content on Route 66 and Disney too!)
- Kara & Nate (they are some of the greats and just finished and epic journey to visit 100 countries)
- Flying the Nest (Love their beautiful travel content all around the world)
- SUV RVing (this guy camps in his SUV at National and State Parks, BLM Land, and climbs mountains bare handed)
- Traveling Robert (so many great road trips and info)
We hope that some of these ideas help as you find new ways to ” travel” from home during this time. We are hoping we can continue to be curious, learn and grow together. Maybe these ideas sparked new ideas for you. We would love to know how you are bringing travel home too. Share with us! Let’s all stay safe and well and continue to go the adventure way!
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