Six traveling games to have fun and learn with children at home
There is still a long way to go before going back to school, and who knows how long before being able to cross borders again. But don't panic: the most traveled families can still have fun discovering the world with the best series and movies, with books that will make them fly and with games that will start the fun, learning and imagination.
Aldana Chiodi knows a lot about this type of entertainment: she and her partner have been traveling the world for more than ten years, the last six together with her son. When they are not exploring new continents, whose adventures she recounts on her blog Magia en el Camino, she likes to offer the little one games related to the trips they have made, or those they will make.
"Since Tahiel was born, we knew that the best way to educate him was to continue traveling, in order to 'give him wings to fly and roots to know how to return'. We are convinced that you can travel with children at any age, and that all destinations, with few exceptions, are for them. You just have to know how to adapt, respect their needs and make creative proposals for them to get hooked", he tells us.
"This is one of the reasons why, since Tahiel is a little older, I prepare a notebook for him with activities and challenges about each destination we visit. And this is also one of the reasons why the idea of Travel Playing, a section of the web with 'cute objects to travel while playing and play while traveling'".
Now, from Spain, where they moved from Argentina about 25 days before the state of alarm was decreed "with the idea of changing 'bases' for a while", in the words of Chiodi, the geographer and journalist gives us some ideas for continue traveling from home with the little ones . Of course, patience!: "We already know: sometimes, we prepare an activity with all our energy and then they don't like it, or it wasn't the time to propose it to them. It can happen. Don't let your guard down!", suggests Chiodi .
One of the family's proposals consists of preparing typical meals from various parts of the world
1. TRAVEL TO ONE COUNTRY PER WEEK
"First, we have to put together a passport ", tells this mother. "And, if they dare, also a cardboard suitcase". To make the first one, just fold an A4 in half, have the little ones fill in their data and let our imagination run wild: draw themselves themselves, put a photo, color the cover... To create the suitcase , whose objective is to save the work that is being done on each country, it is enough to use tape and cardboard. It can be decorated with "images of icons of tourist places or with passport stamps that children invent," according to the expert.
"Then, we have to look at a world map and choose the countries we want to visit . They can put together an itinerary of those they are going to visit in a month. Ideally, it should be used to practice what the continents are and the names of some countries. We choose one country per continent to start."
"The activities you do next are going to depend a lot on the age of the children . If they are younger, they will have to look for previous material and, for example, print pages so that they can paint the flag, the most characteristic animals, the tourist places, etc."
If they are older, the traveling mom suggests that they investigate in books or on the internet its symbols, its language, its characteristic animals, its typical food and folklore ... With the resulting information, a diary can be made in the form of drawings or text. "As they go through the countries, they have to invent the stamps of each country to stamp on the passport," says Chiodi. "This is the one we do the most, because I take the opportunity for Tahiel to practice writing," the mother also tells us.
2. PLAY WITH THE ILLUSTRATED MAPS
Those beautiful illustrated maps that seem to be for children, but we love to buy them for ourselves. are the main ingredient of this idea, which can be played with in several ways (if you don't have any on hand, by the way, in They Draw & Travel you can find several online).
Chiodi proposes us to observe the animals of the area, see where they are located and talk about their characteristics, investigating if necessary. Also, looking at a continent and looking for its tourist icons and important characters, identifying them with the country to which they belong, looking for information, drawing them... "If you have any photo of you in that place they can show it to you. They love that!", adds the geographer. ⠀
3.KEEP DIARIES OF PAST TRAVELS
Since we can't go out, how about remembering the good times and putting together one of those photo albums for which there never seems to be time? Chiodi likes to decorate them, along with his son, with maps, tickets, funny anecdotes, drawings, stickers... These are the images that inspire him to do it, and here are some of his ideas to make it.
4. INVENTING COUNTRIES OR CITIES
"After having virtually toured several countries, we can suggest to the children that they choose the best and the not so best of each one, and that they think about what their ideal country would be like," explains the expert. "They can think a name, a flag, the name of their cities and towns , what would the means of transportation be like, what would the activities people do be like, the music they listen to, etc.
The project can also be carried out with cities, creating a collage or drawing with our ideal city, or making a model with materials such as plasticine. "Tahiel had a lot of fun when we put together the 'ideal' city out of recycled cardboard," recalls Chiodi.
5. MAKE HOUSE A CITY
The family proposes us to imagine that the house is a city and play exploration games through it. For example, looking for objects that start with a particular letter, or following a 'treasure map'. "They can even dress up as explorers or travelers!" says the mother.
6. BUILD A MUSEUM AT HOME
"For this activity, we based ourselves on Hervé Tullet's proposal to create a museum at home with his techniques, but it can be done with any type of museum," explains Chiodi, who tells us that this is one of Tahiel's favorite activities. .
The proposal is carried out by taking an online tour of a museum (El Prado, for example, has a channel in which works of art are explained to the little ones).
"Then, they can choose a room or an exhibition of a particular artist, and put together their own works with the children , as if they were those artists. For example, in the Miró style, in the Picasso style, in the Leonardo Da Vinci style, etc," continues Chiodi.
To finish, we can choose a sector of the house and exhibit the works , and even record a tour of the small exhibition, with the artist explaining his creation.
6. TRAVEL THROUGH FLAVORS
If your little ones like to enjoy food, you can look for the typical food of some place (perhaps the one you chose to 'travel' at the beginning?) and prepare it all together. Of course, Chiodi gives us two pieces of advice before anything else: "First, it is good that check what you have and then, think of a recipe option." In addition, faced with a possible disaster in the kitchen, he suggests: "Relax, everything will be cleaned up later!".
"Another option is for them to prepare something typical of their own country and find the story of that food . Where do the ingredients come from, who in the family prepared it, what variants are there, where in the country is it eaten most often, what outside influences does it have, etc.," concludes the traveler.