{"id":3320,"date":"2012-12-03T11:46:35","date_gmt":"2012-12-03T18:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/?p=3320"},"modified":"2012-12-14T10:10:05","modified_gmt":"2012-12-14T17:10:05","slug":"travel-gifts-for-children-in-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldwanderlusting.com\/?p=3320","title":{"rendered":"Give Your Children the Gift of Discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you give your children nothing else, give them a thirst for knowledge and adventure.\u00a0 Children who discover, dream, and dreaming, dare.\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Miles and Belle at Haystack Rock on the Oregon Coast<\/p><\/div>\n

I have four adorable children.\u00a0 And because I have four adorable children, I also have four enormous Christmas wishlists.\u00a0 Like I did when I was their age, each of them flipped through the Toys R Us Sunday ad, circling every other toy.\u00a0 Add it all up and I think if I bought them all, I\u2019d probably contribute meaningfully to China\u2019s GDP growth.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to get them all those toys. It\u2019s not because I don\u2019t love them.\u00a0 It\u2019s because I do love them. As much as I want them to have \u201cthings,\u201d I\u2019d rather they have experiences.<\/p>\n

I find old Christmas presents buried in the grass when I mow the lawn.\u00a0 I regularly throw away pieces from the 100+ piece sets that have a habit of getting spread all around the house (don\u2019t tell Nicole).\u00a0 I never buy name-brand batteries for the cheesy little remote control cars my kids have because they always break before they run out of power.<\/p>\n

The fact is – most children’s gifts don\u2019t last.<\/h2>\n

I suppose you could make the same argument about the experiences I provide for my kids.\u00a0 Maybe they won\u2019t appreciate the view from atop the monolith of El Penol<\/a>.\u00a0 Maybe they’ll be more enthralled by a fuzzy caterpillar while standing on the hollowed grounds of the Battle of Lexington. \u00a0Maybe they won\u2019t remember chasing hermit crabs through starfish alleys in the tidepools of Haystack Rock<\/a> when they\u2019re older.<\/p>\n

But the fact is that it will change who they are now.\u00a0 My kids will better appreciate their blessings, having been in the 350 sq foot home of our friends, a Colombian family of 6.\u00a0 I hope their imagination is fueled by hikes in Zions, Arches, and Canyonlands.\u00a0 I\u2019ll bet they see things a little differently, now that they\u2019ve stood in a grove of enormous redwood trees.<\/p>\n

If you give your children nothing else, give them a thirst for knowledge and adventure.\u00a0 Children who discover, dream, and dreaming, dare.\u00a0 <\/strong>Consider this, the man who dreamt, designed, and directed the construction of the Suez Canal, Ferdinand de Lesseps, grew up on the stories of his uncle Barthelemy.\u00a0 Barthelemy departed France at the age of 20 to sail around Cape Horn and on to California.\u00a0 Alone, he made his way from California to Kamchatka, then crossed Siberia on a dogsled. With that kind of bedtime story, it\u2019s no wonder de Lesseps never met a challenge he didn\u2019t believe he could conquer. (I\u2019m reading about this in David McCulloch’s\u00a0The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914<\/a>).\"\"<\/p>\n

I guess what I\u2019m saying is just don\u2019t be content to give traditional gifts to your children.\u00a0 We at www.WorldWanderlusting.com want to be a resource for you, so we\u2019re doing a giveaway that will make a perfect discovery-inspiring gift.\u00a0 We\u2019d like to send you big hardcover book by Lonely Planet, \u201cThe Travel Book \u2013 Cool stuff to know about every country in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n