I’ve often advised parents who ask how to travel with kids to include children in the planning of any family vacation. Last week I met a parent who, from the time their older son was in the second grade, actually made him the family trip planner. And every family with children can learn from his story.

For 16-year-old Quinn Jacobs of Rochester, Minn., it started with a placemat decorated with the portraits of presidents. He was in the second grade, and he liked to study that placemat at meals along with another one featuring classical composers. But it was the presidential placemat that started him thinking about visiting the birth states of presidents. He was helped along by his subscription to Which Way USA, published by the children's magazine Highlights. Which Way USA is a booklet with games and puzzles that regularly feature a single state with a large map of that state and its attractions; the map helps young readers solve the puzzles.

“If there was something I was interested in,” recalls Quinn, “I’d show Mom and Dad, and they’d look it up to see if it was affordable.”

The first two places Quinn and his parents visited were the neighboring states of Iowa (“Herbert Hoover,” notes Quinn) and South Dakota (“Mt. Rushmore”).

Quinn and Colin Jacobs at Mt. Rushmore in 2004.

“Since then, he’s sort of taken over planning our trips,” says his mother, Jane Jacobs, who works at the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center. “He’ll bounce ideas off of us—‘We should go see this, we should go see that’—and then he’ll go off and to the research.”

Most recently, the family visited the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Ill., during Lincoln’s bicentennial. Before visiting, Quinn did his research and discovered a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home nearby, the Dana-Thomas House. Jane Jacobs and her husband probably would never have known of the Wright-designed home if Quinn hadn’t done pre-trip research.

In 2003, the family visited the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum and the National Frontier Trails Museum, both in Independence, Mo., as well as the Pony Express National Museum in St. Joseph—another destination Quinn’s mom said she wouldn’t have know about on her own.

Also in 2004, the boys visited the Harry S.
Truman Museum in Missouri.

I’ve always thought parents made two big mistakes when traveling with kids. The first is not making children part of the planning process. Talk with your kids, and explain the purpose of the trip. Is this a vacation, or do Mom or Dad have to do some work along the way? Mistake number two is doing too much in a day. That’s especially true when young kids who tire easily are involved.

The guys take a ride at the Pony Express Museum in St. Joseph, Mo.

Obviously, the Jacobs family don’t have to fret over Quinn’s involvement in trip planning, and his younger brother, 12-year-old Colin, is now a consultant as well.

“His interests are more sports-related,” Quinn says.

“He’ll check out to see if there’s a team playing or something,” says Colin’s mother. “For example, he found a college baseball team in Springfield—the Sliders—and we found out they were playing at home.” Only the weather kept the Jacobs from catching a game.

The Jacobs family (from left: John, Colin, Jane and Quinn) visited
Abraham Lincoln's home this year in Springfield, Ill.

I asked Quinn where in the world he’d love to visit if cost and time were not factors.

“Japan,” he answered. “Along with Which Way USA, Highlights had a magazine on a country, and Japan was the first one I got.”

I have little doubt Quinn Jacobs will someday find himself standing in downtown Tokyo. And when he gets there, he’ll know exactly what he wants to see.