Children's minds are boundless pits of fantastical imaginations, abstract art, and childish make-believe. It's a good thing. Without those, one will live in black and white, just like in silent movies. Traveling will bring your kid's mind into another dimension of perspective. It opens your child's mind to possibilities of even the impossible, and that's why you should travel with your kids.
When the child is curious, they tend to use their brain and make an effort to ask and answer questions sometimes, beyond his/her grasp. Just like great travel books, traveling with your kids is an amazing way to keep your child's mind always wandering, questioning, and beaming with enthusiasm to learn and experience.
Want to spark your kid's curiosity and heighten their consciousness about the world around them? Pack those bags and take your kids to places designed just for inquisitive kids. Here are the best and most radical places you can bring your kids to.
Table of Contents
How to Spark Your Kids’ Curiosity Before Traveling
Radical Field Trips
Winterthur Museum Garden & Library
If you want to support your child's affection for playing make-believe and exploring dramatic imageries, every June, Winterthur Museum Garden, and Library host Enchanted Summer Day Festival is an event where dressing like a fairy, wearing sparkly wings, or putting on a pirate eye-patch is encouraged. This festival is a gold mine for kids who love face painting, crafting, or even maypole dancing.
If your kids are into comics, cars, castles, dreams, knights in shining armor, unicorns, etc, this place exudes activities and eye candies that will take your kids into the depth of their imagination. It is a place of inspiration and make-believe. It is a place where kids get to be their favorite characters in their favorite book. So, if you're looking for a destination for your kid and his mind to wander, book a ticket to Winterthur Museum Garden and Library this summer!
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
Does your kid love anything sparkly and daydreaming about her own fairyland? Every August, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens host a fairytale event where whimsical kids can make pixie dust and build their own fairy houses. Kids will have the freedom to explore and collect natural materials such as pine cones, sticks, and acorns and use them to build their dream fairy abode. During the event, they will get to join the parade with their colorful costumes, see a puppet show, learn some dance moves, indulge in crafts, and explore designer fairy houses. It's a place where kid's fantasy and reality meet.
Biltmore House in Asheville
Want your kids to see castles that look like they came straight from a fairytale book? Fairytale-like castles do not only exist in dreams or Europe. Castles are also found in North Carolina. It is perfectly framed in the picturesque astonishing landscape of Moultonborough. Biltmore House offers all sorts of kid-friendly fantastical activities. From scavenger hunt with I Spy to pony rides, your little ones will feel like they're a character in their favorite Disney movies. On top of that, a magnificent waterfall is just around the corner alluring every glimpse it earns.
Set Sail in the East Coast
Sailing is another trip you can indulge your kids. The feeling of floating on waving waters, the cloudy sky on top, the bright beaming sun, and the blowing wind will spark your kid's curiosity. With so many things to see, feel, hear, and smell, what could be more elevating than that? Kids will surely love to explore the vast waters in a machine that runs only with the aid of the wind and its sail. It will make them question how and why. They will learn to understand the value of free energy. They can also ride sailboats like pirates and dress up to characters they wish to be, in their wildest imaginations.
Disneyland Escapade
Of course! Disneyland is on the list! From meeting Disney princesses to riding adrenaline-rushing roller coaster rides will leave no hours for boredom. From California to Hong Kong, Disneyland is swarming the globe with one-of-a-kind kid entertainment. So let your little girl shake hands with Cinderella or eat an apple with Snow White. Let their fantasies turn to reality. Let your kids dive into the world of fantasy. Let them have a trip to Disneyland.
Universal Orlando Resort
Do your little ones love magic spells, brick walls, and weird languages? Universal Orlando Resort just launched The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. A recreation of Hogwarts castle and Flight of the Hippogriff coaster made for kid's heart-pumping and mind-bending visual and mental adventure. It is one place that will encourage your kids to look at the magical world from a different perspective.
Trips with Dinosaurs
Enter Jurassic Park
Dinosaur World is slowly penetrating the states of America just to bring gilt-edge kids entertainment. It has more than 150 life-size dinosaur casts and sculptures that children can play with. These life-size dinosaurs are strategically made for kids to touch because of course, kids love to touch things that catch their interest. Also, apart from the mesmerizing almost menacing giant dinosaurs to look at, Dinosaur World provides its little visitors with fun facts and titbits about the different species of the dinosaurs. After learning and exploring, you and your kids can enjoy downtime at the picnic area.
Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis
Does your child like to dig dirt, collect random treasures, and wear bucket hats? Let them experience Kid's Dig and start digging for actual dinosaur fossils at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. Your little paleontologist will be fascinated with the random finds he/she will get to dig along the way. There are a total of seven dinosaur species uncovered in the area while the towering skeleton of albertoceratops (plant-eating horn-faced dinosaur) lies at the center stage flaunting its beautiful striking facade while the other 30 full-size displays entertain little kids up close.
The Field Museum in Chicago
Never let your kid grow up without seeing Sue. Sue is by far the largest, best-preserved, and most complete T-Rex skeleton ever found. It stretches up to 42 feet and is over 67 million years old. Sue was named after the paleontologist who found her bones lying in the most incognito place on the globe. The Field Museum also has dino-related activities your kids would love to delve into. From interactive plays, dinosaur trivia games, and Sue's movie show, your kids will never want to leave the museum.
The Academy of Natural Sciences
Want your kid to be inspired by real paleontologists? Bring them to The Academy of Natural Sciences and let them tail a paleontologist all day. They will get to understand the profession and of course, learn about their favorite animal; dinosaurs. If so, book a trip on the third weekend of February. There's an event called Paleopalooza where children can go fossil hunting, dino touring, gaming, and crafting.
Dinosaur State Park
In the Dinosaur State Park, five hundred dino tracks are enclosed so kids can see how gigantic dinosaurs are judging by the foot. The tracks are almost as old as the Earth and had witnessed countless nature's miracles, human evolutions, and global changes. These tracks were first seen back in 1966 and have been one of the most go-to field trips for dino-loving curious kids.
Trips for Superhero Fanatics
Super Museum in Metropolis, Illinois
Ever wondered if Superman's stomping ground exists? Of course, it does, in Metropolis. It's one place that offers a unique family tour where parents can also relive their 80s superman memories. Inside this charming modest town lies a huge statue of this iconic comic character.
Superman is their real-life hero and people in this town celebrate Superman every June. If your kid's favorite superhero character is Superman, no doubt that he must see and experience Superman Celebration where he can come in his favorite Superman costume and bring home a price or meet and greet his favorite comic-book artists.
National Museum of Play
If your little boy watches too many superhero movies, mimics superhero costumes, and always ready to save the day, let him leap through tall buildings at the National Museum of Play. The exhibit is spearheaded by The American Comic Book Heroes, superhero geeks that present beautifully the life of being a superhero through sketches, non-linear scripts, and colorful vivid images. If your little hero is more than two years old, he can enjoy learning how to lift heavy objects, hop from one platform to another, and balance on a steel beam on top of the life-like fake cityscape.
Trips for Animal Lovers
San Diego Zoo Safari Park
San Diego Zoo Safari Park is one of the eye-opening field trips you and your kids can enjoy and experience while learning about ancient animals and wildlife. When you're there, don't hesitate to hop on their Tram Safari tour and have a glimpse of zebras, rhinos, and other African local animals that now reside there. If you're lucky, you and your kids will get to see baby giraffes tendered by their mommy in the almost boundless-looking fields. On top of that, the magnificent exhibit of elephants and lions will keep your kids entertained all throughout the day. After, the tour will bring you to a shaded picnic stop where you can rest while your kids use up their energy playing.
Monterey Bay Aquarium in California
Spring and summer is always the best time to travel, especially in sunny California. If your kids love fishes and their glistening scales, Monterey Bay Aquarium offers travel experiences that match your child's interests. In this Aquarium, stingrays, sharks, moon jellies, and other extravagant sea creatures swim and put on a show every day without them knowing. Your child will get to learn more about their loved animals and curious kids with issues will feel comfort dipping their hands into the water where fantastic animals swim and live.
Trips for Love of Machinery
Hall of Fame Museum and The Children's Museum of Indianapolis
Race to Indy and get ready to feed your child's mind with the wondrous works of cars and their machines. Indianapolis is a gold mine for car lovers and enthusiasts. Kids would love to meet and greet famous race car drivers and get their autographs, see up-close pit lanes, or try lapping the track during the month of May.
Legoland California
Does your kid love Legos and cars? In Legoland, there's an electric car built from Lego. Kids can take a spin and feel like a real driver for a brief moment. Your car-lover kid will experience for the first time being the driver and not the passenger. Also, Volvo Driving School is within the vicinity where there have tracks for kids of different ages. Every driver who enrols will get a paper driver's license for bragging rights.
How to Spark Your Kids' Curiosity Before Traveling
Prepare Your Digital Travelling Apps
In this world, technology brings convenience to everything, figuratively. So, why not use it to your advantage when traveling with your family? Before you take the flight with your kids, it is important to get to know your destination first. Know the place's deviance, culture, or basic language. If you want trips that reflect your child's innermost interests, take note of places in your destination that offer just that. If you want to spark kids' curiosity for history, look for museums that are child-friendly. Using travel apps, you can curate trips that match curious kids.
There are several applications available online that will let you know more about the unique culture in Africa or the secrets of pasta in Italy. So, by pointing interesting attractions, from history to art, kids will be more engaged to go and will have countless questions to ask along the way.
Learn The Culture of Your Destination
Wherever you go, sometimes even to a place just a few miles away projects a diverse culture than your home. What more when traveling to another country? For you and your kids not to feel overwhelmed or get lost in an alien country, mentally prepare yourself for cultural diversity and shock by learning about their culture in advance. Additionally, having knowledge about the culture of your destination will help you identify which attraction to book and avoid.
It will help you plan a smooth-sailing family vacation while your kids indulge in a new culture, food, history, and art. If you're a family coming from a small town, let your kids see a large city filled with skyrocketing buildings, cars, parks, and culture far from your own hometown. Instilling issues and diverse views to kids will significantly increase their curiosity and make them feel more enthused to go.
Make Memories and Record Memories
No, we're not talking about selfies here and there. We are talking about giving your kids disposable cameras and let them take a snap at every interesting scene, object, or place that intrigues them. So, when they're back in their comfortable bedroom dreaming of your amazing family trip, they have pictures to look at and paste them on their walls. A reminder of how amazing it is to travel and go looking for travel experiences for themselves.
So, if you have been burnt out with work and your kids seem tired of doing the same things every day and seeing the same places, revamp their curiosity and bring them to places that foster that.
As a bonus, here are some tips to carry on only travel with kids. So pack your bags, get that pass, buy that ticket and download a map. Let your kids help you pinpoint your destinations and get ready to get cozy and relaxed on your eye-opening trips to spark your kids' curiosity.
Stay well, be well and stay social.
