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15 places kids should see by age 15
I want to acknowledge that I stole this from EmmieB. What do you think of this list? Are the right landmarks on it? Does it matter whether children see certain landmarks by a certain age or in their home country only?
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/03/24/15.places.before.15/
By the time I was 15 I had been in most states and in several different countries. I had seen the Vatican, the Coliseum, the Matterhorn, the Eiffel Tower and where Luther tacked the 95 Theses on the church door. But I have still only have been to 2 on this list: Niagara Falls and Redwood Forest. I've been to MA, PA, the Dakotas and AZ, just not to those sites. Hopefully we will do the Freedom Trail and Ellis Is when we go on our cruise this summer. I definitely think the glaciers in AK should be on the list. While I want to see most of the places on the list (I've been to Disneyland so I don't think I need to see Disney World) I don't feel denied that I haven't been to them. And I teach U.S. history. I think it's important to see the world to understand history but I think it is about more than seeing specific landmarks from a list. It's more about experiencing a variety of people and places, including in your homeland. WDYT?
Re: 15 places kids should see by age 15
I don't totally agree with their list but I think it's important for kids to travel and see the world beyond their little community.
I think it's a lot more about the travel than really WHERE you go. I have TONS of memories from our 13 state 3 week drive to St. Louis and back when I was in 6th grade and we didn't see many landmarks.
Travel's mighty expensive though and not possible for all families (especially the stuff on the opposite coast or not near a major airport)
(BTW-your link is broken)
Unless it was within driving distance and had a KOA campground nearby, there would be no way my parents could have afforded to take us.
I do however think that people of all ages benefit from travelling the world. You learn so much about the human race (and yourself).
Weird does this work? http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/03/24/15.places.before.15/
Very strange it's the same link and for some reason won't work in my post.
Rori, yeah I was thinking that a lot of families wouldn't be able to do opposite coast travel, too. Or even just get off work long enough to do shorter travel. I don't think parents should be made to feel like they're inadequate because they can't take their kids to an arbitrary list of places. It's usually not the landmarks that make the biggest impression or teach the most anyway. We took the train as well as drove really long distances a lot of times. And we went without a lot of other things in order to travel. We were not wealthy but people always seemed to think so just because we went abroad. But I'm not saying we were poor either.
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Agreed. Travel is important and useful, but also a luxury that many families cannot afford. It's too bad.
I commented about this list on FB so I'll just briefly say that I don't agree with all their choices either but I like the emphasis on historical sites (though I almost choked when I saw they recommended Fenway Park over not only other more worthy stadiums [waiting for Sox fans to come hit me
] but several other, more important sites in the U.S.)
Waiting for me?
I didn't read the list but hopefully Yankee Stadium didn't make the cut.
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I did seven of these before age 15 (maybe 16 or 17 or 18). This list is totally East Coast biased by the way, because most of our trips were driving trips (though we did spend five days taking Amtrak from NY to the Grand Canyon).
A lot of them are meh. Fenway Park? I went there as a kid and the only reason I even remember it is because my dad was a huge Red Sox fan. It was lost on me.
I will agree with the Freedom Trail in Boston though. I went there in seventh grade (which is when you study U.S. history in NY) and I loved every second of it. It was amazing to me to see Paul Revere's house and the spot where the battle of Bunker Hill happened, where the tea party happened and see Old Ironsides. It really connected you with history in a way that I don't think kids who grow up outside the northeast get. It was so alive, you know?
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Yes you!!
Seriously though, I think both Fenway and Yankees Stadium are worthwhile trips for any baseball lover. But if you don't love baseball...? I don't think you'd get much out of it. And to have any baseball stadium on the list but leave off some other major historical sites and natural wonders that exist in this country totally baffles me.
Also baffled by Disney. I went to Disneyland when I was 12 and thought it was pretty lame. Maybe there's something wrong with me. I don't particularly like anything Disney today and my kids will be just fine tyvm without going to anything Disney.
Oh and I agree with passanie that it's pretty East Coast biased, but then a lot of U.S. history happened on that coast...
For those who haven't been to Disney World and have only been to Disneyland, you really can hardly compare. Disneyland is smaller than the Magic Kingdom at DisneyWorld...then you have Epcot Center and the Safari park...there's definitely a TON more.
I was actually surprised how much on that list was from the West.
LOL...I'm 32 and have only "really" been to three on that list. Sure, I'd love to see more....I've been to a few more of the locations, just haven't seen the monument per se, HA.
As a kid there was NO WAY I could have seen all of those places. Opposite coast travel just didn't happen in my family. My parents enjoyed driving vacations...or renting a house on the beach or in Tahoe for a week. Ask me about random small towns in CA or where to hang out in Aptos/Capitola and I'm game.
I've visited 7 of those places, 6 of them during my childhood. Actually, maybe 7 places during my childhood, 8 total. I'll have to double check with my parents. We lived in Ohio until I was 6, so I visited most of the places before I was 6. That's why I don't remember too well.
A lot of the remaining places are on my list of places to travel to, but my husband and I decided to wait to visit them until we have kids. Most of these are the historical east coast based places.
I would be surprised if most children saw all these places before 15. A lot of Americans would consider themselves lucky to see most of these places in their lifetime.
Also wanted to agree with the others that there is a big difference between Disney World and Disneyland.
I was very well traveled as a kid (and I was super lucky considering I had a single parent) and I had visited 10 by 15 (or at least by 17)...and I can think of others that I've visited that were not identical but served the same purpose, like Mt. Vernon instead of Monticello (which I may have been to and don't remember) and Plimoth Plantation instead of Williamsburg, and even Old Town San Diego and most of the missions instead of Independence Hall, and Meramec Caverns and the petrified forest instead of the Crater's of the moon (which I may have been to and just don't remember)
A ballpark though? Eh. I get that it's our national pastime and all but, eh.
This is why we're starting the "important" travel at 7 or 8....with North Pole, AK. :-)
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we're waiting because I want him to remember it.
But I agree- kids can be obnoxious at any age.