Create a Passport With Your Children to Virtually “travel” Around the World
As an avid traveler, it is very difficult for me to be stuck at home right now without any real place to go or travel plans in the near future. However, I am an adult who understands why we do not travel; my son, he just wants to “go” – somewhere and somewhere. Children who love to travel or are used to going outside and looking at the world can find it difficult to adjust to our current practice of sitting at home. How do you keep their wanderlust going by keeping them busy and entertaining at home?
One option to consider is asking kids to make their own (imitation) passports at home, as Reddit user u / jconsos did , and then use them as a gateway to explore other places and cultures, at least virtually.
While we don’t use our real passports, making one at home is a creative way to help kids learn about the world, cut down on screen use, and just kill a few hours of having a good time.
Create passport
You are about to create a homemade brochure from whatever materials you have in your home: heavy paper, printer paper, cardstock, etc. Put a few pages inside so you can “visit” more than one country. Don’t feel like folding and gluing the booklet? Take a blank diary or notebook you have and use it.
What can be added inside the passport book? To get started, you can ask your child to “rubber-stamp” the pages by adding the names of the countries they might want to visit. They might want to go a little deeper by adding fun facts about the countries they want to visit. How much you need to help them gather this information and even write it, of course, will depend on their age.
Use your passport
Ask your children where they would like to go and plan a virtual trip together. You can take a variety of virtual tours, from museums and attractions to virtual car travel . You can also explore and plan your future trip itinerary. Maybe you want to visit Cairo, or your kids have always wanted to dive deep with big fish. In the future, there will be time to plan a real trip, but for now, just enjoy the imaginary world of travel.
If you are planning to “visit” another country, you can also learn some basic words and expressions of foreign languages and practice them with each other.
Set scene
Depending on the region of the world you have chosen to travel, you can play music that is native to that region. Also, a great way to get to know the place is to eat the dishes that are usually served there. And look, you might not be able to make an authentic Italian pizza with ingredients stored in the pantry, but you can bring it closer to garlic toast and marinara sauce topped with melted cheese and your kids will love it.
And there is no need to be satisfied with what has already been achieved. Maybe you could make LEGO Buddhist temples or use ice cream sticks to create your own version of Buckingham Palace. Obviously, it really will depend on your child’s age, so you can get involved as much as they want (or can).
Involve family / friends
Share your travels on Zoom or FaceTime by inviting other family members or friends of your child. Show your passport, tell them about this new country you are in and what food is like; Play local music for them. The fun part is sharing.