Socially Distanced Vacation

Yesterday, I had planned to prepare some YouTube short videos for the kids to watch about the Taj Mahal in India. But, my son picked an especially interesting dream destination for a family vacation. He picked Mars.

So, here is the list of 8 short and fascinating YouTube videos we picked for our travel adventure.

Every school day, we sit down together and watch 3 short YouTube videos (4 minutes long tops). I give the kids a list of 8 pre-screened and entertaining videos and then they choose their 3 favorite. We started doing this because we missed out on our family vacation to Maine. I figured we may not be able to leave the house during social distancing but we can experience traveling the world via the computer with YouTube. So far, we have looked at Orlando, the Pyramids, Tokyo, and now…..Mars.

Here is the list you can use too for your family. I really like these videos. They are fascinating, especially the NASA 2020 video. So cool.

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Family Vacation during Social Distancing

This is day 3 of our family game, pick your dream travel destination. We are social distancing and can’t travel but we can view the entire world through YouTube videos. Today, my daughter who loves Japanese anime with all her heart, picked Tokyo. I pre-screened 8 really short (about 3-4 minutes) and truly fascinating travel videos about Tokyo and Kyoto. Then the kids sit down at the computer and pick three to watch. It is their choice what to watch but I got a feeling they will be interested in the anime videos today of the Akihabara District. These videos are great and really make me want to see Japan!

Yesterday, we picked the pyramids of Egypt and I shared the videos list. The kids picked the teen scaling the great pyramid video, the video about the gods/goddesses of Egypt, and a video of the mummification process from the Getty Museum.

This has been quite fun and informative for me. I hope the kids enjoy it too. I get to pick the destination for tomorrow. It’s a secret for the kids but I am picking the Taj Mahal in India.

You can use these videos too for your children during social distancing. I will try to post for a while on each school day our list of videos and our destination choice. Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Family Vacation Cont’d

So yesterday, we picked a list of YouTube videos to watch about Orlando, Florida. Since we are staying in the house for social distancing and missed our family vacation this year to Maine, we started a game of picking our favorite travel destinations in the world. Each day, I find a short list of six or seven 4 minute long videos about a place the kids would love to see if they could. Yesterday, we watched videos about Disneyworld and Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.

Today, Drew picked the pyramids of Egypt. Here are the short and interesting videos I found for the kids to watch. There are 8 videos on the list and the kids just pick three of their choice each time.

Family Vacation

Due to social distancing, we had to skip our family vacation to Maine. The kids started back to school online yesterday and along with that, I found some travel videos for them to watch.

We make a game out of this.

Ella and Drew pick one travel destination in the entire world and I find the videos beforehand. Each school day, I pick 6-8 really short YouTube videos that I pre-screen for entertainment and value. I filter them to make sure they are about 4 minutes or less long. I hand the kids a list of 6-8 videos and tell them that they only need to pick 3 of their own choice. Then, Ella and Drew sit down for 10-15 minutes a day and just watch 3 of the videos together to learn about that place.

Yesterday, they had chosen Orlando, Florida. Listed below are the 6 videos I found and the kids picked three of these videos to watch. They picked the Disney and Universal Studios ride videos, of course.

I have found with teenagers that it is much better to give them choices so that’s why I pick 6 and let them choose 3 only. And I limit this whole thing to about 10-15 minutes tops. I learned from the military a long time ago the acronym “KISS.” This means keep it short and sweet or as they say in the military with PowerPoint presentations, “Keep it Short, Stupid.” No one likes to sit through more than 15-20 minutes of video.

I’ll admit, my kids grumbled quite a bit at first but seemed to actually like the videos once they saw them. This was our “family vacation” experience Monday. Drew picked the Pyramids of Egypt for Tuesday.