1.Perseverance!
Perseverance is defined as steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties,obstacles, or discouragement.
This is a character trait that I think is lost in today’s child. Hardly anyone is taught how stick with something until you succeed! When you travel as a family there will be MANY situations where you must keep going when you want to give up. The perfect illustration comes to my when it came to anchoring our boat. When we started we had NEVER dropped an anchor before! However, anchoring is something that must be done. All throughout traveling we would ask families for advice on certain things and one of the first pieces of advice was, “…learn to anchor good!” If you think about it, it’s true. If you can’t drop your anchor properly, you will end up across the bay because…..the water moves! (This actually happened to us) So we set out to learn to anchor good. We read books and practiced many times. It is not as easy as it sounds. Your anchor actually has to grab the sand and hold. This was a huge lesson for us all. But we had to get it right! Out of the 3 ½ years of sailing we probably dropped our anchor times several hundred times..no exaggeration! It seems to me that sticking to something until it is mastered is a lost skill. I think that is because we were living in a way that our life was depending on it. Through this, and many other examples, the character lesson of perseverance was developed!
2.Problem Solving!
Problem Solving is defined as the thought process involved in solving a problem!
Do you have a kid that likes things laid out and wants clear steps in following through with a task? Or maybe this describes you or your spouse? Well family travel will grow you in this area. When you travel MOST of the time many circumstances are new and sometimes beyond your control. Our family completed 1 ocean crossing. We sailed across the Atlantic Ocean leaving from The Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa and made landfall on the Island of Dominica in the Caribbean Islands. The crossing took 18 days and was a major accomplishment for our large family that came from Arizona..(yes, Arizona…no ocean around!) Anyway, our auto-pilot broke 5 days out. Which meant that someone HAD to be steering 24-7. The autopilot is just like cruise control on your car and if you plan to do any overnight sailing. I would suggest having one. So after it broke Erik, Levi and Maggie took turns manually sailing for 7 days. We did have a spare but realized that the gears were totally incompatible. BUMMER! Time to problem solve! They took turns taking the new machine apart and filing off wrong pieces and soldering new pieces together and with the help of JB weld got it working. We all had many problem solving discussions until we found a solution.
3. Gratefulness!
DO I EVEN NEED TO DEFINE THIS?
Maybe it is because we live in America, the land of the PLENTY. That I can’t stress this enough. It doesn’t matter where we come from, we all want our kids and even ourselves to constantly be grateful for the things we have. Whether its material, health, relationships. This is the character lesson we want to stick with us no matter our situation. Gratefulness keeps us looking at the bright side and reminds of we can always find something positive! Our family sailed up the Gambia river 150 miles where the water turned to fresh and we saw crocodiles and hippos in the wild! But the coolest part of that country was stopping along the small villages along the river and seeing how other people in the world live every day! We had already been to many other 3rd world countries but this was the most dramatic. We gave away more stuff to random people in that country just simply because we saw the need and in that we all learned gratefulness for what we have!
4. Confidence!
Confidence is defined as belief in one’s ability to succeed.
WOW this one is HUGE too! There is something that happens to you when you experience NEW things. I think we let “the fear of the unknown” control us so much and without knowing it teach our kids this. If we experience new things the next new things becomes less hard. Do you know what I mean? Since accomplishing this crazy adventure I am hearing my kids say this like..”Wouldn’t be fun to bike across China?” Sounds crazy to most people but not mine! This is because they have experienced something most kids and people and kids have not. SOmeday our kids will grow up and go out on their own, don’t you want them to have confidence to try new things and succeed? I think that is every parents hope! Family travel will do this. Situations like talking to strangers, trying new foods, making new friends, being the minority will open their world and give them confidence.
5. Teamwork!
Teamwork is what someone looking at your family should see! Working together!
We have always used the “buddy-system” because we have a big family. But this helps your child also see past himself and remember he is part of a team. This is THE most important character lesson that we all must learn. Guess what? Someday your child will work and probably with other people and he/she must be good and “teamwork”. They may also get married and have a family. This will ALSO require being good at “teamwork”. The perfect illustration comes to mind for me when we were traveling off the coast of Sicily on an Island called Vulcano. We decided to hike this huge volcano as a family. IT WAS HOT and we had a 2 year old! So right from the start I was exhausted. We headed up the first curve and immediately all the girls and me with the baby on my back fell behind. Levi and Erik were practically running ahead. I was just about to give up and tell the boys to go ahead when I saw that they were stopped and talking to themselves. They then ran back, Levi grabbed Miles off my back and Erik grabbed Zoe, the next youngest on his back and they slowed their pace to ours. Don’t get me wrong, it was still hot, and I was still wanting to give up, but we stopped for water breaks and encouraged each other ALL the way! When we got to the top it was a 360* breath taking view! We actually climbed that volcano as as team, and got to experience it together!
Family travel builds so much character that I could literally write a book about it and had NO IDEA that this was a benefit before we started!
