Gather the kids and spend tonight in front of the computer…yes really!
There is an article headline I never thought I would write, but Google Earth made me do it! I am helpless to its power. This geographical tool from Google is flat-out remarkable. It is an amazing experience, to see the world in this manner, and should fascinate every child and his or her parent(s) for hours on end. With Google Earth, your family can easily zoom across the globe from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Mount Kilimanjaro or Toronto, Ontario to
Tokyo. What an amazing learning tool, to be able to see the world from an astronaut’s vantage point, and visualize the traveling distance between cities, countries, oceans and famous landmarks. Google Earth helps put the relatively small size of our world into perspective for young minds.
Even for me, a fairly seasoned traveler, globetrotting using Google Earth forces me to remember how tiny the world really is after all. It brings far away places closer with the push of a button and makes it a real experience – because you are able to see the terrain, the mountains of Chile or the seas surrounding Maldives. For those with the travel bug, like me, or those who wish to instill the thrill of adventure and far away lands into young minds, Google Earth is for you! Take a trip to Paris and zoom in on the River Seine. Imagine yourselves on a boat cruising past the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower – you can actually see these landmarks on the screen!
We do still make use of our oversized, hardback World Atlas when we want to show our girl the cities or routes we will take and the names of towns, regions and villages we will be passing by on the way (like taking the train from Paris to Avignon, for example, when we were getting ready to travel abroad). Google Earth serves as a perfect complement to those more traditionally flat geographical lessons – after you plot your course on paper; you can preview that actual route on the computer!
The basic version of Google Earth is totally free, as is the Showcase tool, allowing you to jump right to the most popular places, like the Eiffel Tower, book hotel rooms, view real time earthquake activity and much more!
So get comfy, enter your home starting point and your dream destination and va-voom – you’ll be on your way in a flash!
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