Middle Schoolers and Europe

My son is 12- for those of you who have done Europe with middle school age children- were there any books that you found helpful and interesting to them. We will be in Spain and Italy.

Check out The Roman Mysteries series by Carol Lawrence, depending on the reading level of your son. These books are really fun, but if your son is an advanced reader, they might be a bit too elementary for him. Have fun!

Thanks epixx!:)

By middle school the kids can read the different travel guides- Fodor's, Lonely Planet, Rick Steve's etc. The cruiseline info is a good place to start.

There are also many videos on the internet.

Check out flickr.com for photos - put the name of the city / attraction in the search line. Great way to see non-commercial photos of an area.

Also Google Earth is a neat way to see what's there. You can even set it so it shows the location of restaurants, etc.

For that age, I like the "Top 10" books put out by DK. My daughter used them last year to pick out where she wanted to go when we went to Rome.

There are different versions of "Then & Now" type of books that are great for some of the ancient ruins you might come across. Helps to visually what the ruins looked like when they weren't so, uh, ruined.

For that age, I like the "Top 10" books put out by DK. My daughter used them last year to pick out where she wanted to go when we went to Rome.

 

There are different versions of "Then & Now" type of books that are great for some of the ancient ruins you might come across. Helps to visually what the ruins looked like when they weren't so, uh, ruined.

Second on the DK books. They usually have a nice history and time line section in them. I like the pictures and illustrations too.

You may look for Biographies of important historical figures that have to do with the places you'll be visiting. You could choose Historic Mediterranean figures who played an important part in the Punic wars as Spain and Italy figured prominently. Hamilcar Barca, Hannibal, and Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus. You could also look at books about some of the famous artist like Davinci, Michael Angelo, Titian, Bernini ect. You could even make a game of finding art from these masters.

Food it another way to catch the interest of middle schoolers. Get a regional Italian cookbook with lots of anecdotes and illustrations. That way he'll know what to look for when dining out.

My middle schoolers love Barcelona and Rome. They didn't want to visit any "boring museums", so we just visited the museums that these two cities really are... everything you'd find in a museum, they just didn't realize it.

My son is 12- for those of you who have done Europe with middle school age children- were there any books that you found helpful and interesting to them. We will be in Spain and Italy.

I was really successful going to Amazon - they have a search function where you can submit the general age of your child and then put in a search word - I found age appropriate books for most of the cities or countries we were going to.

Best,

Mia