Suggestions to Engage Kids Under the Age of 10 (Or Just Your Inner 10-Year-Old)

Even the savviest world travelers can get stumped when it comes to planning a family vacation. Here are some suggestions to kick-start your imagination.

1. Factory Tours
When it comes to education, nothing engages kids more than getting their hands dirty, and seeing big machines in action. Cities across North America offer a variety of factory tours from dairies to candy, cars to fish hatcheries. Both parent and kid learn about the products they use, the professions that create them and the fascinating science and technology in use. Plus, when it comes to candy and chocolate factory tours, the experience can also be delicious.

2. Legoland
Lego’s evolution from humble beginnings in a small Danish wood shop to the world’s most popular educational toy proves its genius. Combine simplicity, logic and creativity, and let a child’s imagination take it from there. There are four massive Lego theme parks worldwide, where millions of colorful little bricks have been used to create replicas of cities, celebrities, castles and more. Kids who visit will be entertained, inspired and shown how small pieces of imagination can yield big results.

3. New York City
What’s more exciting to a 10-year-old: the world’s biggest toyshop or walking amongst dinosaur bones at the American Museum of Natural History? FAO Schwartz and the Toys R Us near Times Square offer floors of safe and honest fun, although your credit card might get injured. The museums, including Manhattan’s Children’s Museum, will both dazzle and educate. Throw in the theatre, Central Park, or a visit up the Empire State Building and watch your kids grow just as enamoured by the Big Apple as the millions of adults who visit it each year.

4. African Safari
If budget isn’t a concern, your kids will never forget an encounter with animals in their natural realm. At the Kruger National Park, South Africa’s largest game reserve, 147 species of mammals roam the wild, including the Big Five. Kids can discover what they are in special programs like the one found at Khoka Moya Camp, designed to satisfy the overzealous curiosity of a 10-year-old. If a safari is out of range, a good zoo or aquarium will help create a lifelong respect and understanding of the creatures we share the planet with.

5. Sporting Events
The terrific appeal of major sporting events is the passion that runs through them and the incredible sense of community found when fans come together. Taking your kids to sporting events of any type—baseball, ice skating, football, athletic meets—is a great opportunity to educate them about competitiveness, even as you holler and scream in support of your team. A major sporting event, like the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver or the Superbowl will never be forgotten.

6. The Local Fair
Who doesn’t smell cotton candy and recall their youth? Local fairs and travelling circuses have enthralled kids for generations past and will for those to come. Color, lights, sounds—there’s enough stimulation before you add the sugar fix and watch them go crazy. The childhood appeal of fairs lasts for just a few, precious years (after that, teenagers decide that malls are more their thing). Give your kids something annual to look forward, as they grow tall enough for the rides and attached to the childhood memory.

7. Paris
Ten is a good age to expose your kids to a different language, a different culture and a different way of life. They’ll learn that the world is bigger than what they simply see around them, and that all cultures should be appreciated and respected. Too young for the Louvre perhaps, but the romance of Paris is captivating. Whether it’s Tokyo or Buenos Aires, Tel Aviv or Prague, having your kids interacting and learning about life abroad will not only broaden their minds, it will make them feel particularly special.

8. The Big Ones
The mother of all theme parks, throw your kids into the clutches of Disney, the teeth of Jaws at Universal Studios, the roller coaster frenzy of the Six Flags resorts and Cedar Point, the second oldest amusement park in North America located in Sandusky, Ohio. It’s not like you’ll have a choice, they will hear about it from a friend at school and the nagging will begin! The major theme parks might be multi-platform marketing machines, but it’s heaven for kids and their reactions will be priceless.

9. Volunteer
There’s another side to all this family fun, one that can have a profound effect on your kids. Volunteer for a day for organizations that serve the needy. Allow them to appreciate and respect what they have, and be generous to those who have not. Whether it’s reading to the aged, helping out the disabled, or helping out at the local community center, it’s never too early to introduce the importance of helping those around you, in whatever way you can. Kids give generously—they just need to be shown how.

10. Ancient Wonders
There’s only one bug you might be OK with your kid picking up, and that’s the travel bug. They breed in ancient sites, like the Pyramids of Egypt, the Lost City of Maccu Piccu, Jordan’s Petra, Chichen Itsa, or Cambodia’s Angkor Wat. Massive structures recalling a historical age can overwhelm a 10-year-old and create a lifelong passion for history and for travel. In our digital world, the worn stones of the past stoke a child’s curiosity and open new worlds of wonder.

Robin Esrock is a travel columnist and co-host of the OLN/National Geographic TV series Word Travels. You can read about his adventures to over 80 countries at his website: www.robinesrock.com