How to Take Your Kids to Ireland--Preparing the Kids

Planning a trip to the Republic of Ireland with your family? Let our experiences traveling with two tween-agers help you see the country, meet locals, connect with history, and keep to a modest budget! For step-by-step guidelines on planning your trip, start with the Introduction.

Family Planning

No, not that kind. As with any kind of family adventure, things tend to go more smoothly and be more fun when the kids have buy-in and a sense of what to expect. Honestly, this is true for every family member! We found that preparing our kids in a number of ways really enriched our experience as a whole family.

I'll go into more details below, but here's a quick list of ways we found to include our kids in preparations:

1. Read about Irish history and culture
2. Highlight locations of interest on an over-sized map
3. Get kids' input on the itinerary
4. Make a to-scale timeline including Irish, world, and family history
5. Clean the house for a restful return--and earn souvenir money in the process
6. Go over expectations for spending, airport and museum etiquette, cultural sensitivity, food differences, and electronics usage

That's the list, and if you want to see how these played out for us, read on!

Exploration...from the living room.

While I--as the primary planner--had initial ideas of places I wanted to visit, I wanted our kids to weigh in as well. We checked out picture books about Ireland at the public library, read Irish folklore, and even learned a few words of Irish from a free online program. I read books about the potato famine and shared pieces of that history with the boys.

We watched the movie "The Secret of Kells," which is a fantasy-laced telling of the origins of one of Ireland's most famous books. (When we saw the book in real life during our trip, it wasn't just crumbling pages under glass. It had become cool.)

Meanwhile, I printed a huge map of the Republic of Ireland and taped it up in the hallway. Each family member had their own highlighter color assigned to them, and if they read about a place that sounded exciting to visit, they highlighted it on the map.

Influencing the itinerary.

After looking at a book about Vikings in Ireland, Z came running up to me. "There's this place I want to visit!" he said excitedly. "Vikings lived there! But I can't remember the name of it."

"Is it called Dublin?" I asked.

"Yeah!"

"Well guess what? We're going there!"

"REALLY? Wow!!!"

Suddenly, Dublin was a place Z bought into. After this interaction, I made sure our itinerary included a visit to Dublinia, an interactive museum about Dublin's Viking history, and it turned out to be a huge hit. There was also immediate buy-in for another museum visit when Z learned that the National Museum of Ireland housed real-life Viking jewelry and weapons. Winning!

Now all Z needs is a spear. Not gonna happen.

Creating context.

As I planned our trip, I imagined taking the kids to a tomb built 5,000 years ago and having them shrug and say, "Yeah, I guess that's old, no biggie." No! I wanted them to feel a sense of wonder and awe that the squiggles on the stones pre-dated writing systems.

But dates are slippery things, and it's easy to lump stuff into the broad category of "old." One day, I had an inspiration. Why not make a giant to-scale timeline? G was currently learning about ancient civilizations in school; we were listening to the Old Testament of the Bible; I was doing genealogy research for Jay's Irish ancestry.

So we ran butcher paper down both sides of our hallway and worked as a family to mark down significant events from all those categories. One inch equaled 25 years, so there was a HUGE visualization of time when the construction of Newgrange was on one side of the room and their great-great-great-great grandfather emigrating from Ireland was on the other.

The above piece of the timeline above shows that the birth of one of Jay's very ancient ancestors was only 15 years before Patrick came to Ireland, which was basically halfway between Constantine and Muhammad.

Here, we see the Book of Kells being worked on while gunpowder was being invented, 200 years (8 inches!) before Lief Ericsson settled in Canada.

Full disclosure: This project was not grumbling-free. I'd like to say that all three other members of my family were completely delighted with the whole process, but that wouldn't be quite accurate. However, there were definite "wow" realizations when we were done, and we referred back to the visuals here time and again as we visited sites associated with this history. Don't give up on including the whole family, even if you hear whines of, "This feels like homework!" It's totally worth it.

"Why do we have to clean the house if we're not even going to be home?"

I used to ask my mom that same question. But after weeks of being gone, there's nothing like coming home to a place of order. In all the last-minute chaos preparations of leaving on a trip, it can be really hard to also clean. But hey, the boys earned souvenir money wiping down cabinets and door jambs, and I could focus on getting the last of the laundry put away.

Cleaning is better in jammies.

Expectations.

Even in everyday life, I sometimes have to grab one of the kids' elbows and hiss, "The grocery store is not a playground!" (Please tell me I'm not the only one.) Different locations require different behaviors, and it's only fair to our kids to explain these things ahead of time.

It can be helpful to give them a little briefing before entering a new situation. Is this a place they can touch exhibits? Can they run ahead or do they need to stay right next to us? Is it dangerous if they cross the stone barrier? (Jay and I almost had heart attacks when one of the boys defiantly waltzed onto unprotected trails on the Cliffs of Moher.)

And there are other things it's helpful to address ahead of time, too. What if they don't see grilled cheese on the restaurant menu? What happens if they find a toy in a gift shop they *reeeeeeally* want, but they don't have enough money? Does driving time = electronics time, or are there set limits?

Of course, adjustments can always be made as you go, but discussing these things ahead of time is all part of preparation.

What about you?

When you travel with your kids, how do you include them and get them ready? Please share your insights in the comments!

Find more information in these posts about restaurants and food, car time, and places to visit.