{"id":110,"date":"2009-03-24T13:56:26","date_gmt":"2009-03-24T18:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/a-little-effort-makes-family-vacation-fun-and-educational\/"},"modified":"2016-12-17T12:43:16","modified_gmt":"2016-12-17T18:43:16","slug":"a-little-effort-makes-family-vacation-fun-and-educational","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orbitz.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/a-little-effort-makes-family-vacation-fun-and-educational\/","title":{"rendered":"A little effort makes family vacation fun and educational"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Family<\/a> By John George<\/em><\/p>\n

Last summer, my wife and son took a family vacation<\/a><\/strong> to London. The trip was a 10th anniversary celebration for Jenny and me, and it mirrored our honeymoon.  Back in the '90s, we took a cruise<\/a><\/strong> to Britain aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2. What a super trip as newlyweds!<\/p>\n

This time, we reversed the trip by booking flights<\/a><\/strong> to London, and sailing home on the Cunard\u2019s new Queen Mary 2<\/a><\/strong>.  And of course, the bigger difference was that we brought our 9-year old son along!  As the old saying goes, \u201c\u2026and baby makes three.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trip was a significant undertaking for us, both in terms of time and funds. We wanted to do something to help our son to appreciate the trip and, we hoped, to gain a better understanding of the place, people and culture of Britain.<\/p>\n

We considered enrolling him in a summer school class on some aspect of British history, or even looking for a teacher or tutor to give him some lessons. These ideas didn\u2019t pan out for us. One of Zeke\u2019s aunts had the idea of a research paper, and that\u2019s what we settled on. His challenge was to choose an aspect of British history or culture, read up on it, and compose a short essay.<\/p>\n

\"Family<\/a> He took to the challenge well, and immediately decided he wanted to write about Churchill and the Battle of Britain. Interestingly, if he were doing the assignment now, I\u2019m sure he would select something to do with pop music. So do the interests of pre-teens shift with time\u2026.<\/p>\n

He checked out a number of books, videos and Web sites, and composed a two-page paper on the valiant efforts of the RAF in repelling the German air raids in 1940.  Surprisingly for us, there was little grumbling about this \u201cschool-like\u201d assignment. Of course, the payoff was a really cool family vacation!<\/p>\n

The payoff for Mom and Dad came on our second day in London, when we happened by the monument to the RAF along the Thames, near Westminister Bridge. Zeke immediately recognized it and pointed out to us with pridethe famous quote from Winston Churchill:  \u201cNever in the field of human conflict\u2026\u201d Later, when we visited the Imperial War Museum, the depictions of the air war in Europe were all the more interesting for him as well.<\/p>\n

Related Orbitz resources:
<\/strong><\/p>\n