How to satisfy child's curiosity for the word on a budget

[Bummler]

My son is 6 and has always showed an interest in other countries and cultures but he is starting to get more interested and aware of travel opportunities and is wanting to go and visit just about every place he hears of.

He has only been abroad twice and we can only afford an abroad holiday once every three years or so. Does anyone have any ideas of how I can satisfy his interest in other countries without actually visiting them?

We are trying to get books from the library but are struggling to find things suitable for his age.

He is interested in all kinds of things about other countries. Will ask me if I know any words in their languages, what do they eat on Christmas day, what kind of landscape and animals they have. He often asks me to look at the world map with him and he will point to random countries and ask me to tell him all I know about them.

Dave Stewart of Eurhythmics fame told a story about his mother broadening his horizons by spreading white bed sheets over the furniture and opening all the windows in their house in the North East before tuning in to David Attenborough visiting the North Pole. Certainly did no harm to his creativity.

What about an old school children’s encyclopaedia?
then he can look up all the countries/places and make a poster/picture etc of the info?

I came to say this!

Obviously not the best from an environmental angle, but it's not like you'd be doing it every day.

DS and I went to Prague for the day (on a Saturday) back in October. Flights were £16 total - £4 each, each way. Travel the other side was £5 total for the day to get into the city/unlimited public transport. We did a free walking tour, explored by foot, tried out all the trams and trains, found playgrounds, chatted to people. Paid about £10 in total for food whilst there, and £2 for a couple of souvenirs. So less than £35 for two of us in a new country, about 10 hours of exploring. No faffing about with hotels, and everyone in the centre was so lovely and spoke English too.

DS still raves about it now, more than he ever did a 'proper' holiday.

If it is in budget you could sponsor a child and write and receive letters?

Did you even read the OP??

We are trying to get books from the library but are struggling to find things suitable for his age

How about seeking out a reasonable priced restaurant that is reviewed as serving authentic food?

Might be a couple of times a year but maybe tie in a library trip, you could do geography, find a book wrote by an author from the country, pick one tourist area to view on Google maps and maybe a little Duolingo of the language?

Why do you want to restrict his screen time when he's would be doing interesting/learning & not just watching tripe??

he could use google translate to learn some words, phrases and write them out.

Yes this! Not all screen time is bad it's not like he's wanting to watch mindless you tube channels or cartoons he's actively wanting to learn and we have such resources at our fingertips now! Travel journals would be great. Even TV shows like Race Across The World can show the different cultures and working practices.

You could take him to a zoo and a botanic garden like Kew or the Eden project where you can visit greenhouses (and experience the climate!) of other countries.
Kew is great - the Princess of Wales Conservatory is wonderful (though our daughter was about 6 when we took her and I think she had a touch of heatstroke after!)

We used to pick a country for a month or couple of weeks or so, go to the library, research, read all the about traditions and culture, landmarks etc, do craft, cook recipes, listen to the language and learn how to say hello, etc, etc.

I appreciate I don't know your budget and you've said overseas holidays are about every 3 years, but (assuming you're in the UK) could you visit other UK countries / look for super cheap deals for the Eurostar / ferries and take short trips to France / anywhere else on a ferry route? If you sign up for mailing lists / use club card type schemes you could potentially plan some affordable short trips... hostels can be very cheap too if you get a double / family room, or use a premier inn type budget hotel?

If you haven't tried already, it's worth trying books from the library that are well beyond his age range. I remember checking out adult books at an early age, not understanding all of it, but finding them far more interesting than the age-appropriate ones.

Second hand VR
Get them on Facebook marketplace/groupon etc. I bought one for £20. It is amazing for 7 year old. He looks at other counties, space etc

roughly whereabouts in the country are you? People may be able to suggest museums or other attractions near you there. There are some hidden gems. I discovered Durham Oriental Museum recently and it is amazing.

Restaurants, particularly fun ones like hotpot restaurants and Japanese bbq. If you're in the south east do a day trip to pas-de-Calais. It's a short drive to montreuil where there is a fantastic market every Saturday morning. In school holidays you can do a rail or road trip taking in different European cities over a few days e g. Lille, Ghent, Amsterdam etc that are all about 2 hours from each other, and often have excellent family friendly campsites

I’ve just seen an advert for “what on earth” magazine. There’s an offer with the rhs
www.what on earth.co.uk/rhs

You can do a lot of free virtual tours on the web

Was going to mention Race Across the World also.

https://www.unicef.org.uk/paddingtons-postcards/?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD6VRsh9R-dPaj_08dcIGTpJC7aw2&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIitC3i-mGigMVtJpQBh32UAmqEAAYASAAEgKTDvD_BwE

This may be good fun as well.

I would relax the screen time rules slightly especially if it's for educational purposes. There's quite a few snack subscriptions out there for either biscuits or other treats that give you a different country per month which could be an option if traditional recipes aren't working out. I've got a biscuit subscription and it's fantastic it comes with a booklet about the country too and a couple of puzzles in.

Depending on your holiday budget, weekends, especially out of season, can be quite cost effective. You can also get quite far on the Eurostar and then high speed trains in Europe. My kids also liked the experience of the train stations (and trains).

So many brilliant suggestions!

He would probably love the Yoto Earth Explorers audiobooks: https://uk.yotoplay.com/products/earth-explorers-uk

I think Yoto players are brilliant and well worth getting (especially atm with the Black Friday sale) but you can still listen to the content via the app, even if you don't have a player.

Postcrossing.

Also there are some Ladybird Audio Adventures he might like; there's Australia, North America, Cities Around the World, Natural Wonders of the World. I think they're on Audible, or you might be able to borrow them from the library, or just buy the audio files on Amazon/Apple etc.

Do you have Netflix or Prime Video? They have travel documentaries.