Love it or hate it- the fact is that at some point you are going to travel with your kids. Be it to see your parents a few hours away, or a jump across the pond- we’re going to travel with them and the very idea can strike anxiety into mothers everywhere. To be honest, I haven’t flown anywhere for two years. I just cannot imagine dealing with the airport and a kid (or three) in tow!
Can you imagine having three kids (7, 10 & 13) and taking them out of school for a year to travel the world? Would you even consider it? The details..the planning…it’s overwhelming to even think about to this mom of three. What about the safety of your family? You’re not exactly going three states over to hang out in the Grand Canyon. The author of this book goes into some downright dangerous territory with his entire family!
His website states: “In May of 2007 our family of five took a one year trip around the world. The upcoming book “Pins On A Map, A Family’s Yearlong Journey Around The World” details that adventure.
Pins On A Map A Family’s Yearlong Journey Around The World was written by David Boesch. What a fun read! I had several questions before I started this book- first, was HOW? Were these people rich? How could they afford such a trip for five of them? What about their bills and all of the other questions a logically motivated mom might ask. Secondly, I asked WHY? Why would they do this when their kids were still in school? How did the school feel about this? Why not treat themselves once they had an empty nest to this excursion?
After reading the book I had to ask myself even more questions…would I do what they did to pay for it? Wouldn’t they be ‘bored’ once home? Lastly, I asked myself how did they adjust once they were home? Were the kids humbled by what they had seen and experienced- or was it just some time off of school to them?
As a former teacher, I had to wonder what these kids thought about the whole thing. Were they learning? I liked how throughout the book the author will interject a snippet of what one of the kids has to say about an experience. For example- each child will write an entry on a place or experience. This is one of Cami’s:
“…today we went on a hike at Cappadocia. Cappadocia is a place where people dig to make houses. thay carve the houses in this rock 60 million years ago. it was cool because of the shapes of the rock. the hike was hard to get up and down the hill. thare was a little skinny tunnel that mom and Tommy went in. thay thought it was cool. We had lots of fun at Cappadocia.”
What an experience! I think that what these children were able to take from this trip will stick with them throughout their entire lives- and hopefully instill a love of travel as well as learning. I hope also that visiting some of these countries gives them a new respect for their own- and that they will grow into adults who pass that message to people they encounter throughout their lives.
Mr. Boesch takes you around the world with several humorous anecdotes and truly unbelievable adventures in his book. It might have you seriously thinking about what kind of travel you and your family are capable of together, and gives me a little bit of comfort thinking about our own adventure (hopefully) moving to Germany next year. This is a great book to read with your family.
You can purchase this book straight from the website here for $16.95 and for a limited time it has free shipping!
Thank you Mr. Boesch for providing me a copy of this book to review. This review is my opinion and my opinion only. I am not compensated for reading any materials or encouraged in any way to post a review I do not 100% truly agree with.
