The Educational Tourist Travel Guides for Kids – how they differ
The Educational Tourist Travel Guides are DIFFERENT than others.
Travel Guides are a critical part of understanding and maximizing the memories you make of any journey and destination. Read before you go to make the most of your trip! Kids aren’t just small adults! They have their own ideas and their brains work differently than those of adults. Kids need their own type of travel guide.
The Educational Tourist Travel Guides for KIDS – Written by experienced educator
The Educational Tourist has 15 years of experience teaching elementary school aged children. Her teaching experience was concentrated on breaking down the difficult process of writing and presenting it to kids in a way they could understand and recreate. Children who write assimilate information in a more thorough way than those who don’t write about experiences. Children who write remember more than children who don’t write. Using this information, The Educational Tourist Travel Guides for KIDS use scientific research in the design of activities.
In addition to 15 years experience teaching children, The Educational Tourist has a masters degree in psychology – studying children and how they think. She incorporates these skills into her travel guides for kids.
The Educational Tourist Travel Guides for KIDS – Explain
If you drop someone in a museum without any knowledge of what they are looking at you will have what looks like a zombie outbreak! Eyes roll back in heads, mouths open wide in yawns and worse…the whining and complaining begins. You can prevent the ‘zombie outbreak’ with information.
The most important thing you need in a guide book for anyone is explanation. Adult guide books explain but in terms well beyond a child and sometimes well beyond anyone that doesn’t have a degree in history!
The Educational Tourist books are written at a child’s level of thinking. The is really different than saying the guides are written at a child’s reading level. The Educational Tourist guide books for kids are not just translated from adult books. Instead, these books are written for children – using information chosen specifically to interest children. This information also builds on knowledge a child has learned in school already. Adding to information already learned creates layers of learning. This layering process is what ‘sticks’ in a child’s memory to be used again later.
The Educational Tourist Travel Guides for KIDS – The story behind the art
The section in my kids’ book, Travel Guide to Rome, on the Vatican explains, in a child’s terms, interesting and fascinating information on the Vatican.
This is the statue of Laocoon and his Sons. A traditional guidebook will tell you the year it was created, where it was found, what it is made of, and who is thought to have created it. That sounds boring to me and I’m an adult!
MY travel guide for kids will tell you the story of this statue. The story is what makes art interesting to children. The story behind this statue involves the Trojan horse.
During the Greek and Trojan war, when it looked like all was lost, the Greeks presented the Trojans with a giant wooden horse. Most were so happy to recieve such a grand and large gift! Laocoon, a priest, was very skeptical. He ran through the streets telling everyone that the gift was really a trick! The gods of the sea, who must have been on the Greek side of the war, sent sea snakes to eat Laocoon and his sons. Of course, we know the end of this story which is that the Laocoon was correct. The Trojan horse was a trick and was full of soldiers. Kids are glued to this statue while hearing this story.
This Laocoon and His Sons section in the book is followed by an activity page which reinforces the learning.
The Educational Tourist Travel Guides for KIDS – Not the ordinary
Most people walk right past the Swiss Guards and give them only a passing glance. Perhaps they comment on the colorful outfit and pass on the MYTH that Michelangelo designed them. Most visitors know Michelangelo designed them because they ‘heard it somewhere’.
Traditional guidebook will tell you that members of the Swiss guard are Swiss (No!! Really?) and that they protect the pope. I’m not making that up. I read that members of the Swiss guard are Swiss.
My travel guide for kids will tell you the Swiss Guard are the pope’s bodyguards. They also are the country’s professional soccer players. They all have to be at least 5’8″ – and only men for this job, no ladies allowed.
Along with other interesting information you’ll also find this fun activity – coloring the dress uniform using Roman numerals. Activities, along with age appropriate information, will help children retain the details of this fantastic trip.
Other fascinating information you won’t find in traditional travel guides for adults:
Even though Vatican City is the world’s smallest country, it is home to the world’s largest pharmacy.
The pope’s license plate is SCV1.
Vatican City has its own helipad and train station.
You’ll find out where the pope gets his veggies and where he gets his clothes.
And you’ll find lots of pictures to color and thought provoking questions to get the whole family talking.
*** If you are missing school for your once in a lifetime trip to Rome, be sure to show the teacher this book. It is full of educational activities that will keep young minds engaged. The world is a classroom.***
The Educational Tourist Travel Guide for KIDS – Art is amazing
Guide books for adults will point out art style and discussions of which year each pope had an influence.
My guidebook for children breaks this painting into smaller pieces so they can appreciate the story behind the art. At the heart of each The Educational Tourist product is education (hence the name! 😉 and here we discuss the artist, the choices he made, and the story behind the painting.
Some examples:
Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor and didn’t even want to paint this!
He painted his own face on the skin of St. Bartholomew. Why is St. Bartholomew just an empty skin? (spoiler alert!! He was flayed for being a christian. )
There was much arguing over whether or not the people in this painting should be nude. Michelangelo thought the body was God’s beautiful creation and should be shown naked. Much of the community disagreed with him. Because Michelangelo refused to do it himself, another painter had to be called in to paint ‘the pants’ on all the people with exception of one. Michelangelo covered up his greatest critic himself. He is in the bottom right hand of the painting – covered with a snake. Michelangelo had a sense of humor.
The Educational Tourist Travel Guides for KIDS – Tidbits that stick in your mind
Michelangelo’s La Pieta – Guide books for adults manage to make this marvelous piece of work just plain boring. What a shame!
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My guide book for children tells the very interesting story behind it. Sculpting was Michelangelo’s first love – not painting. He was very proud of his La Pieta so one day, when he overheard people giving credit for it to another artist he was furious! He chiseled “Michelangelo did this!” on Mary’s sash. It is the only work he ever signed.
The Educational Tourist Travel Guides for KIDS – The unusual
In the Vatican City chapter you’ll find information on:
St. Peter’s Basilica
The Baldacchino
Pope Urban VIII commissioned this and had bees from his own family crest put all over the baldacchino. I can’t help but wonder why his family crest details are so proudly displayed instead of symbols of God? This is a closer look at the base of the baldacchino.
Check out all of my travel guides for kids – you’ll find interesting and educational information on your destination and activities to go with them. Current titles for The Educational Tourist Travel Guides for KIDS include: Canada, Austin, New York, Galleria Borghese, Vatican City, Rome, Nassau, Prado, London, France, Spain and the Louvre.
Happy Travels!
Natalie, The Educational Tourist
I’m not a child, but I think I’d prefer to read the educational travel guides for kids instead of a traditional guidebook! How interesting to learn that the Swiss guards are actually the Pope’s bodyguards!
Well, thank you! These travel guides are tried and true and kids love them. What they understand they enjoy! Stop the whining! 🙂
Traveling with kids is definitely hard. You need to present the information to them in such a way that would awaken their curiosity!
These guidebooks for kids sound very informative and fun. Love the idea of including activities like closing the Swiss guards uniforms. Kids who travel will get more our of the experience by being engaged. These books do that. Very nice.
I’m also not a child, but I find it very interesting! Traditional guidebooks say all those things we tend to forget easily, you tell it creative and innovative way. Can’t wait to have kids of my own to tell them stories like this.
Creative guidebooks are my kind of thing, I’d probably be interested in this. Lol. And yes, I do agree with you about the writing thing. Even I need to write something to remember it and I don’t really need to see what I wrote, just the act of writing it down makes me remember it.
I love the idea of getting kids more involved in planning their travels. A suitable guidebook is the first step. It seems like a great resource to give parents ideas of what to do in destinations that are not traditionally “child friendly.”
I m an adult but I found it this quite interesting and useful.Traditional guidebooks say things more creatively. Thanks for sharing.
Sounds like a great resource for the kids! I do think it’s so important that they learn some of the history/background behind the places they visit. too often you see kids herded from place to place without a full appreciation of what they’re seeing!
Not a kid, but I definitely learned quite a bit here! So much interesting history to absorb. Good idea to know what you’re seeing so you can more truly appreciate it.
Thanks for stopping by! Learning makes the whole thing more fun!
I love the style how you write. Going to museums always was really boring for me when I was a kid and now I agree all the guides are written for history students haha
When I was a kid, I was just excited to enter a museum and did not really bother to make research. I will try to this with my nephews so that they will have a more meaningful visit to a museum next time.
These are awesome. I want to read them too! It’s a great way to keep kids interested and make it more memorable. Excellent
Although not a kid, still I feel the same zombie thing if I enter a museum and have no idea what I am looking at or what is the significance attached with each of the things out there. So, this seems to be really awesome. I would like to try out myself
I think this is quite interesting, whether you’re a child or not. Guidebooks tend to be so uninspired and unoriginal sometimes, but with this, it’s easier to remember and it offers a fresh perspective. 🙂 So cool and totally interesting!
I couldn’t agree more! Sometimes the information in guide books is so dry!! I think that is so sad because there is always something really cool and interesting to learn. How do they make it so dull!! LOL! Thanks for stopping by!
Some of my most interesting childhood memories are the things we saw when we stopped on road trips. I remember visiting all kinds of national parks and museums. They’re not the most ideal places for small children, but I’m glad my parents took me.
How wonderful to hear how much you enjoyed your family adventures. They make such lifelong memories! Thanks for sharing. That makes me smile.
The Louvre is one of our favourite places. We’d love to read the guidebook for the Louvre. It must be full of fun facts and activities.
What a great idea to write travel guides that speak to kids. Like you said, there’s a difference between having something written at a child’s reading level vs. having something written to speak to children at a level that interests and impact them. I don’t have many friends with kids but will definitely recommend it to the few I do have once their kids get a little older.
Thanks, Diana. They make great ‘cliff notes’ for adults, too. I find that I learn so much when trying to get to the very essence of a topic for children. You really have to sift through so much information to get there. There is LOTS of information out there -especially on the internet, but getting to the heart of the matter is easier said than done! I appreciate you stopping by and recommending me to your friends.