Our family is thrilled to be going on an adventure this year. What is the adventure? Just a minute. I want to share the background first.
We have two lovely daughters. I am a homeschool Mom and I absolutely love it! Yes, even on the dreary days in February, I love being with my kids. I love the extra time we have for training and instructing. I love the time we spend together reading, listening to audiobooks, playing games, and learning new things together. Together is my favorite place to be.
As my oldest is now a teenager and starting high school next year, I feel the years slipping by like water in my cupped hands. No matter how I try to hold on, it still pours forth. There is only so much time left to experience the things we want as a family unit.
When I was in school, I loathed history class. Always. Every year. I hated dates. I hated the boring past. Wars. Kings. I didn't see how it all applied to my life. But now, as I am relearning all of this and teaching it to my own daughters, it is fascinating. I LOVE HISTORY (Mr. Clark and Mr. McAllister would be so happy) !!
The United States is actually not very old and doesn't hold a lot of historical sites. Don't get me wrong, there are some wonderful places to visit in the US and some history to explore (and we love that as well)…. but other than the Native American history, it is really only about 300 years old.
Europe on the other hand....now there is some history! Oh, we read about so much of it in books, both fiction and non-fiction. What a blessing it would be to actually go there!
So we made a proposition to our kids. We asked if they wanted to go to Europe. I'm sure you can guess their enthusiastic answer. And then we told them if they desired to travel across the Atlantic, they should help save for this expensive trip. We want them to be a part of the process. We do not want to raise children that feel entitled to anything. We want them to see the value of saving and helping to provide for this adventure.
And do you know what? They loved this idea! They looked for ways to earn money. They donated birthday money, Christmas money, earned money and even money they found. It all went into the Europe fund. When we had a substantial amount of coins, we would take it to the bank and put it through the coin machine. It was fun to see how quickly their coins would add up.
When there was a sale last fall on tickets to London, we decided to go for it. The flights were very reasonable and we booked the tickets for this coming spring. The hardest part was keeping it a secret from the girls. This was to be their Christmas surprise. The best part of the surprise for them was to find out that Grandma is coming with us.
It turns out there is a vast amount of information to discover when going on such a grand adventure. Follow along as I share some of this helpful info and as we go exploring Europe. I plan to share pictures and tales from our journey across the big pond.
Have you been to Europe? Do you have any lessons learned to share? I'd love to hear from you.
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