"Learning deeply about a culture and the history of a place is difficult when you're traveling. One way that I've found that can circumvent this disparity between what you want when you travel, and what is actually possible to do, is a unique organization called Context Travel." Wandering Educators
Programs for Families
Children learn differently from adults. They ask different questions, notice different details, and connect with culture and art in altogether different ways than their parents.
Our FAMILY PROGRAM embraces these differences. Designed by a museum educator and guided by our many years’ experience working with families, the walks in this program draw on the latest approaches to on-site learning to craft amazing experiences for parents and their children. The emphasis is very much on the children themselves, and our objective is often to find ways to get them excited about art or archaeology or whatever material we’re dealing with. But we don’t forget about the parents and that this is a group experience. And, so, the activities and methods employed seek as well to get the whole family involved in a collective learning experience.
The docents in our Family Program are all trained in Visual Thinking Strategies and Inquiry-Based Learning. (See “resources” below for more information.) Many of them have taught children of all age ranges or are parents themselves, making them uniquely equipped to bring the city and its rich history to life for travelers of all ages.
Children ages 12 and below
While all kids are different, in general kids 12 and under are best suited for our specially-designed Family Walks, most of which feature some kind of activity such as a treasure hunt, game, or drawing activity, and which are designed to get them engaged and involved in the material. We currently offer this program in the following cities (click on a city name to be taken to that program):
Children over 12
Generally speaking kids over 12 are ready for a little more in-depth experience shaped, if possible, around their interests and what they may be learning in school (or home school). Most of our walks, if organized privately, can be shaped for children in this age range. The best place to start is to choose your city from our home page and click on WALKS in the submenu to see the master list divided by category. IMPORTANT: We need to know as much about your child and his/her learning style for these walks as possible in order to tailor them accordingly. There is a "special requests" field during the reservation process for exactly this purpose.
For more information about our Family Program send us an email and we'll be happy to point you in the right direction.
Resources
For more information about Visual Thinking Strategies visit VUE. For more information about Inquiry-Based Learning take a look at this great program produced by Channel Thirteen in Boston.
Take a look at what Cookie Magazine has to say about our programs.