Sosua, Dominican Republic
Last week I posted about Children as Your BEST Reason for Seeking Travel and Adventure, as well how Travel Supports Brain Development (for Adults and Children Alike).
In the next two posts I want to discuss building character by building confidence through travel.
The very nature of travel requires confidence building. Any adult who’s traveled realizes that. It causes you to get uncomfortable, deal with stress, meet new people, try and learn new things.
That’s why we love it so much (or hate it. Some people just hate it.) It makes us grow, it expands our minds, it rocks our world.
It becomes addicting. It’s your brain on mind-altering drugs. (The good kind.)
Believe it or not, these drugs are even good for your kids. It helps them build confidence through:
- Language
- Social Interaction
- Trying New Things (Part 2)
- Being Uncomfortable (Part 2)
Language
Children will naturally pick up language if you take them...anywhere.
They have that amazing capacity.
Just let them listen to - well, anyone - speak another dialect for any length of time and they’ll soon speak it themselves.
It’s that easy.
And this is a great thing. Why?
Well besides the obvious benefits of speaking a second language (communication with other ethnic groups, employable skills, etc.), it also helps your children to think differently.
Jessie Wise, in her book The Well-Trained Mind, states,
“The study of language shows a young child that his world, his language, his vocabulary and his way of expression are only one way of living and thinking in a big, tumultuous, complicated world.”
Exposing your children to new and different languages at an early age contributes to an expanded global understanding, sharper cognitive skills, a better understanding and use of their native language, a greater appreciation of cultures, and most importantly, the ability to make friends of other nationalities.
We’ve seen our own children’s self-confidence grow as their ability to make friends in multiple languages increase, as well as by the admiration they receive from native language speakers who are impressed with their ability to speak a second language.
And I know my own mind begins to comprehend better when I can analyze concepts from a two-language perspective.
These skills give your child (and yourself) the tools and confidence to analyze the world around you and to make wise judgments based on broad, rather than myopic, perceptions.
Social Interaction
Las Galeras, Dominican Republic
“What about socialization?”
As home schoolers from the beginning, we’ve heard that question, a lot.
What is socialization anyway? What is it supposed to mean?
One definitions says socialization is:
a continuing process whereby an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values, behavior, and social skills appropriate to his or her social position.
So it’s the process where a child learns who they are by deciphering what their social standing is compared to who’s cool, who’s not, who’s a jock, who’s a nerd, and what is acceptable behavior for their 'click'.
They learn how to fit in, how to be accepted by their peers, and how to conform to the social conditioning (norms, behaviors and values) of their friends.
Is that what you want for your child?
We think a better definition of socialization is:
a continuing process whereby an individual acquires a strong, positive personal identity and then observes and responds appropriately to the norms, values, behavior and social skills of diverse cultures, ethnicities, economic statuses or age groups.
Want your children to have the ability to empathize and care for a two year old?
What about the confidence and curiosity to speak to a 90 year old grandma (in another language)?
Dominican Republic orphanage
How about the capacity to serve or relate to a person afflicted by a deforming disease, in abject poverty or with a different skin color?
Or even the ability to interact appropriately with a person of affluence or someone who has differing beliefs?
Send them to public school where they will be surrounded by their peers for 8 hours a day.
Ha! Just kidding. You knew that was the wrong answer. (That’s more the recipe for socialization retardation).
But even if you do send your kids to public school, that’s more of a reason for you to temper the myopic influence of their peers with the expanded world view travel offers.
If I can paraphrase a quote by Mark Twain,
“Travel is fatal to social retardation. Broad, confident, diverse social relationships cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s life.”
Travel with your kids and you can’t help but run into all sorts of varied social situations, differing beliefs, economic statuses and ethnicities.
It creates the perfect laboratory of personal development.
Part 2 will discuss building confidence through Trying New Things and Being Uncomfortable
How has traveling made you or your family more confident?
Comments
Powered by New Facebook Comments
Amen! Absolutely agree.
Great points, Rachel. The “socialization” point was one of the main reasons we never sent our dc to school! And with 2 dc in their 20’s now we are thrilled with the results when we watch them converse with such a variety of people, and many of their friends are those that they share a like interest in (ie, running, art, music, etc) rather than same age. A real variety of ‘friends’. Some of their friends are 40 & 50’s!! where mentorship is a natural part of their friendships which helps develop healthier people, imo.
That is great Karen, thanks for sharing it.
Yes, I need to add my own experience. Although I was not able to start traveling significantly until I was 18, I always yearned to travel and experience different cultures, so as soon as I could I made that happen. I was a shy child, and a self-conscious one, growing up in a small mid-west town with a close, supportive, extended family. The family love and support I experienced gave me the confidence that I could do things when I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. I would say that traveling outside of my comfort zone gave me perspective; knowledge; confidence; and compassion. It also fed something inside of me that wanted to grow and expand, but couldn’t until I ventured out.
It was still many years before I was consciously and confidently applying my new understandings to my current life decisions: the pattern of thinking from my childhood holds strong sway. I’m also still inherently shy, but I have many tools to use now to overcome that instinct and I even surprise myself sometimes at how easily I now socialize in new situations. I daresay people who know me now would consider me out-going.
This is a difficult subject to address in a few short paragraphs. But I hold it so dear b/c my children’s lives are so different from my own childhood, and I hold strong to the belief that they will be better people because of our moving around (as a military family) and our newest venture into homeschooling which I know will give us the flexibility of time and opportunities to use travel and other real-world experiences as part of their life education.
I’m also going to steal that quote from you and Jessie to help explain our passion for language-learning and why we would “encourage our child to learn a language even if they may never get to use it”. (I did read TWTM and loved it.) One language can be a stepping stone to another, after all, and any language helps build a better understanding of our own.
Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing your story Jolyn.