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    Joined: Apr 2011
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    Orson Offline OP
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    I'm sure he would. They have corresponded via email and post. But the idea is to see the collection in the museum.

    Orson #119066 12/31/11 10:14 AM
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    It's hard to point you in the direction of specific resources since I don't know the specific field your child is interested in, but you still might consider organizing car washes, bake sales, auctions, etc., and approaching service groups and related professional organizations for sponsorships to help defray part of the cost, especially if your son pledges to do something for the community with the knowledge that he gains from going on the trip - maybe acting as a sort of local ambassador for the museum in question, making presentations about his trip and his subject of interest at meetings of the service or professional group and at local schools. People are much more likely to pony up money if they see that the benefit is not going to be limited to single individual.

    Orson #119067 12/31/11 10:16 AM
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    Originally Posted by Orson
    I'm sure he would. They have corresponded via email and post. But the idea is to see the collection in the museum.

    Video chat via webcam?

    Orson #119068 12/31/11 10:24 AM
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    Actually, you don't have to stay in hotels. You can camp in a tent for very cheap.

    When my youngest was a newborn, we had huge medical bills and very little income, so we figured out how to travel very cheap with a family of five. You could buy clearance and overstock equiment over the next few months a little at a time, save a few hundred dollars and make the trip a family trip in the summer.

    Here are some ideas:
    Family tent: under $200 http://www.backcountry.com/kelty-eden-4-tent-4-person-3-season
    Sleeping bags: Under $40 ea http://www.campmor.com/eureka-riner...=CI&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=45365
    Camp stove: around $50 http://www.amazon.com/Coleman-2-Burner-InstaStart-PerfectFlow-Propane/dp/tags-on-product/B0009PUQXW

    Those are the essentials. You can use a couple of large plastic storage containers to haul your own food, cooking utensils, and other necessities. Camping in national or state parks is very affordable, and you can explore historical sites along your drive. We visited 11 national parks - including an awesome night in Arches - in 2 weeks and never ate out once or paid more than $20 for a campsite. We bought groceries at local stores - money we would have had to spend at home, made sack lunches for days we had hikes planned, and had an excellent two week vacation for under $1000 - and that included our camping supplies.

    We are still using the Marmot tent, REI sleeping bags and Coleman camp stove 12 years later.

    If you really want this for your son, I'd recommend thinking outside the box. We can spend a lot of time and energy ruing what isn't available or what others can do that we can't, but it won't get us closer to dong what we wanted to do.

    And as to your question, no I wouldn't take my kid to Stonehenge just because he'd learned everything there was to know about it. My kids learned that we functioned as a family and that high IQ didn't give them precedence over other family members when it came to spending the family funds.

    Orson #119069 12/31/11 10:33 AM
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    I second what ABQMom said.

    You can get a tent secondhand on ebay or at a garage sale.

    Use blankets and sheets rather than sleeping bags. (I prefer them anyway.)

    Get an inverter for your car and use an electric skillet and microwave.

    And you can camp for free on most BLM land.

    Orson #119071 12/31/11 11:24 AM
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    I doubt that there are grants for gifted kids to visit a museum. Our local school has cut out PE, art, music, and they are looking at cutting science! (Our PTA through private donations has luckily stepped in to keep funding these programs). That wouldn't seem fair, frankly, to have one child benefit when so many worthy programs have been cut all over the country.

    Orson #119074 12/31/11 01:10 PM
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    But what is the interest/topic/field? And what state are you in and where is the site to visit...city and state?

    ...people can help so much more when they have details and not vague info.


    ...reading is pleasure, not just something teachers make you do in school.~B. Cleary
    Orson #119077 12/31/11 01:47 PM
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    I agree with what others have said. There are ways to go on trips without spending a fortune. I do it every summer with my three kids due to living so far from family thanks to the military. We aren't rich by any stretch of the imagination but I make it work and I save a little bit every month for it. We travel with a cooler in the back of the mini van with grocery store bought food for meals, some that I purchase slowly starting a few months before the trip ( box cereal, snacks, drink boxes etc). Since I travel alone with three smaller children I don't camp in a tent but we drive long distances each day and have minimal hotel stays.

    I have to disagree that spending family time on a vacation like Disney is frivoulous however! Family time does not always have to be 100% educational. Kids, smart or not, are still kids and fun is good! Some people will always have more than others, thats just life and you can't worry about what other parents are providing...its not worth it!

    I don't know how far said museum is from you guys, but it is doable if you really think outside the "man its expensive, we'll never be able to do it and no one is available to help" box. It may not be a trip you can take tomorrow, but it doesn't have to be 10 years from now with a little inventiveness.



    Orson #119082 12/31/11 06:26 PM
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    Sort of afraid to jump in here, as I did go to Egypt because DD, when 5 asked to go. She was 6 when we went this past April.

    As someone who has travelled cheap, you can do it. And I have driven 1300 miles in a day. Not with small children but if they really want to see this...

    I am willing to do what works to make things happen for DD. And I know what you mean about having the hands-on experience. DD's weekly science class at the museum of natural history uses the exhibit. Next semester is astrophysics and they have the planetarium, the Rose space center. It is a whole different feel from just reading about it or watching Brian Greene.

    Use your American Express to pay for everything and get the points. Tell your friends you will do a babysitting sleepover for cash. Though I do not know how much money that actually makes in your state.

    Good luck. I think you just have to make it happen. But getting an underwriter is not so easy.

    Ren

    Orson #119094 01/01/12 06:11 AM
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    Originally Posted by Orson
    I'll put it to you this way. If you child was an expert on Stonehenge, would you take him to see it? There's only one. He's read all the books, he's seen all the documentaries, he's created artwork, dioramas, written essays. The only thing he hasn't done is see Stonehenge. No local US university will have Stonehenge. No local US university will even likely have people studying Stonehenge. Now luckily my son isn't interested in Stonehenge, because that's in a different country and would cost even more to visit. But the situation is the same. I totally understand saying, "Sorry, you can't visit Stonehenge. Maybe in twenty years when you've earned your own money..." That's just reality. But I still think it's a shame.
    I'm afraid this analogy doesn't really help me to see your point of view. No, I wouldn't necessarily take my son to see Stonehenge if he were expert on it (even though I'm already in the UK!). If it were possible to arrange for a family holiday to be in the area so that we could visit it and do so at reasonable cost, then sure, I'd consider it, but I'm not getting the "it has to be this and nothing else" aspect. He'd be interested in it from some point of view - prehistoric history, perhaps, or astronomy, or geology - and whatever the aspect of interest was, there'd be a choice of ways to support it. I don't understand what this interest can possibly be that can only be supported by spending $2,500 - and you're choosing not to explain. My child is expert in several things, several of which could be well supported by trips costing that kind of amount (for example, he'd love to visit Yellowstone), but I don't understand the fixation and therefore it's difficult to regard your inability to spend that amount as a thing to sympathise greatly with - I agree with whoever it was who said that even if there were a grant that would support this kind of thing, I'd probably disapprove, and feel that there were better ways of spending that money.

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    I disagree that most parents would not take their child on an expensive trip. 90% of my friends have taken their kids to Disney--more than once--and that's absolutely frivolous.
    Really? 90% of your friends have taken their kids to Disney more than once?

    In my experience, expensive trips (whatever "expensive" means to the family in question) are usually family holidays, i.e. chosen for the benefit of the family as a whole and saved up for all year (or longer). I type this from a ski resort; skiing is my family's indulgence in that respect. I couldn't spend the same kind of money again in a year, and I couldn't justify doing it for the benefit of only one family member. That's what I meant when I said I wouldn't; not that I wouldn't spend that money, but that "he's expert on this thing" wouldn't be a sufficient reason to do it.

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    Living in Britain (as I did for a while), it can be hard to comprehend how far apart things are in the US. The distance between Scotland and England is similar to the distance between, say, Lubbock and Austin--and those are both in the same state! It's only a six or seven hour drive. If someone in the US wants to travel from, let's say, Austin to Seattle, it's at least a two-day drive (maybe longer with little children in the car). And you have to stay in hotels along the way, stop to eat, stay in a hotel when you reach your destination. You can't just turn around and drive home the next day, or hop on a train like you can in GB. The train here costs as much as an airplane, but takes as long as a drive.
    Sure, but I don't see the relevance of this paragraph. I don't think I said anything to suggest that I didn't understand the large distances that exist in the US.


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