World Travel As A Classroom

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30630, 22 December 1964, Page 2

World Travel As A Classroom

A trip around the world has been a series of practical geography lessons for four American children.

They have come with their mother to live in Christchurch for 18 months while their father, Major M. B. Lynch, serves with the United States Marine Corps in the Antarctic.

“This is a good way for the children to learn their geography,” said Mrs Lynch, yesterday. “I took them around on geography lessons in all the ports we called at.” They were in England and Ireland before coming to Australia and New Zealand. Lisa, who is eight, summed up the family’s impressions of the trip in verse:

Ireland was green, London was big, Pompeii was old, Aden was hot, Ceylon was beautiful, New Zealand was cold.

“My husband and 1 majored in geology at college and I am going to do a few field trips while I am here to see what New Zealand is made of,” said Mrs Lynch. Wherever Mrs Lynch lives she likes to take the children, car, and sleeping bags and see the country. “We have had a good deal of experience in moving to new places and making new friends,” said Mrs Lynch. “Although we leave friends behind we are always making new ones and running into old friends in different places.” This is the first time the

Lynch family has lived outside the United States, but Tim, who is nine, w’as born in Florida, Christopher, who is 11, and Lisa were born in California, and Becky, who is three, was born in Virginia. The long days and the hot weather for the Christmas period and easier school lessons are the biggest changes the Lynches have found in New Zealand. Shopping for Mrs Lynch is different, too. “It is a most enjoyable experience to go into the little shops here,” she said.- “They have a more personal touch than our shops in the States. “In our supermarkets you can buy everything at once, but here it is fun to go to the dairy, the butcher, the grocer and the fruit shop.”