Travel Education x Career Education | 5 Travel Goods to Discuss Future Dreams with Your Children
Even when you ask, "What is your dream for the future?", children often find it hard to answer.
The "extraordinary" nature of travel is the perfect time for a child's interests, strengths, and weaknesses to naturally emerge.
As a career consultant, I have noticed while helping people with their career paths that many of the triggers for talking about the future at home come from "casual conversation." In this article, I will introduce five items that combine travel education and career education to turn family trips into a little time for self-discovery.
Why conversations during trips foster a "future perspective"
Even if children find it difficult to answer abstract questions ("What do you want to be in the future?"), they react strongly to concrete experiences right in front of them (seeing a train conductor, finding a country they didn't know on a map). Travel is a treasure trove of this "concrete stimulation." Travel education is the effort to not leave this stimulation alone, but to turn it into a cycle of "experience -> awareness -> verbalization" through simple prompts and goods.
5 Recommended Items
• Globe/World Map Puzzle: Draws out "I want to go here too" during trips, visualizing the breadth of their perspective and the direction of their curiosity
• Career Encyclopedia for Children: Allows you to look up jobs you see while traveling (station staff, pilots, hotel staff, etc.) on the spot
• Travel Journal/Sticker Book: The habit of writing down "what was fun" that day becomes practice for putting experiences into their own words
• Children's Carry-on Case: The experience of managing their own luggage becomes practice for small independence and self-management
• Goshuin (Shrine Seal) Book/Stamp Book: Visualizing achievements becomes a foundational experience for forming motivation
KUMON Japan Map Puzzle
https://a.r10.to/hYRQZN
You can also use the blank map!
Since my son in the upper grades has started to understand the positional relationship of the prefectures, he has become able to think about whether it is faster to travel by Shinkansen or by airplane.
"See Your Future! Japan's Salary & Career Encyclopedia Special"
Salary BANK x Study Sapuri Shinro (Author)
https://a.r10.to/hgrJUZ
You can also see various vehicles from the airport observation deck.
What kind of person drives a chemical fire truck?
Where are the people doing maintenance? You can see jobs, workplaces, and when they come into play!
At Shinkansen stations and airports, there are times when benches are never empty and you can't sit down for a long time.
Adults must be careful to prevent tipping over when letting them sit on a carry-on, but it's a relief to be able to let them sit down for the time being.
Once they reach the middle grades of elementary school, it seems possible to have them carry a carry-on that meets carry-on size requirements.
There are stamps at local roadside stations and service areas!
I used to just stamp them randomly on nearby pamphlets, but
it might be good to prepare one book for memories and reflection.