Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Is it time for a vacation ? A road trip to somewhere fun? Hotels, Grandma’s or maybe a beach house? Either way packing is never fun but it can be easier with this great travel sized craft supply box. This travel craft box is small but holds all he fun you need and can be packed easily into a suitcase or into your car this summer. I packed a similar one for my week in Washington DC, it was just me and three kids for most of the day , no tv , no car so these basics were our life savers!

1. Gather your materials. You will need:

• A container. I like this medium sized ziplock container. It’s cheap, it’s just the right size and if something happens to it, like it gets left at the Holiday Inn, no biggie.



• Next I have an old stained but thick place mat. The benefit of using a cloth one is that the fabric absorbs paint, markers etc.. and it’s less messy as long as you don’t care if it gets rather colorful.



• Next add markers and crayons. I just put in the colors my son always uses, space is at a premium so this pip squeak markers are perfect!
• Paint- water colors are great , throw in an extra brush. Use the plastic cups in your hotel room for the water container.
• Add Play-doh and some popsicle sticks for making sculptures, and cutting the Play-doh.
• Scissors and glue. You will want scissors that are sharp enough for an adult to use but small enough for a kid.
• If there is extra room – glitter glue, stickers or pipe cleaners are great options.
• For the paper I added a handful of construction paper colors and lots of plain white paper .
• Put them in a file folder and this fits great in the front zipper of suitcases or even your carry-on.  Or in a car in the pockets behind the driver or passenger seats.

Now you can take your craft supplies with you for those moments of downtime no matter where adventure takes you this summer.

Pack it !

I grew up in a family that not only loves to travel but made it their business, my son has been on many planes, and loves to play airport . This wasn’t a mama planned activity but  I figured many of you will be packing suitcases over the holidays and this activity can help prepare  for the trip ahead.  Do not fret about having the exact items they will be packing, you aren’t training them, just getting them used to the idea of packing, choosing things to take and the idea of travel.

1. Gather your materials. You will need a piece of construction paper, some plain labels, markers, a catalog or magazine, scissors and glue stick.
2. Start by folding your paper in half and drawing a suitcase ( totally fine if yours is a little wonky- as long as your child can recognize it , you are fine! ).Cut out.
3. Together with your child decide on the different places you should go, write the places on the labels with a dark color. I used large labels so I wrote multiple place names on each.
4. Have your child color the labels with markers.
5. Cut into smaller labels if needed.
6. Add them to the outside of your suitcase.
7. Rip out some ages with items your child would like to pack, have them cut out the items if they can. My son cut at one page while I cut out more items for him choose from. He is able to cut but not navigate around objects yet, so we shared the task.
8. Decide which to pack. Of course my son needs lots of PJs .
9. Add your glue
10. Add your pictures into the inside of your suitcase.
11. Let dry OPEN, if you close it it will glue together.

Books

Rooster’s Off to See the World by Eric Carle was reviewed by my son tonight as ” That’s a really nice book mama.” When I asked him what he liked he said ” The rooster was lonley, I only like trips with you and daddy too.” See Rooster has a grand plan to see the world, only he didn’t really plan it at all. Along the way friends join him but when night falls and they are cold and have no place to stay they all head home, and so does Rooster. I love that my son explained why Rooster went home and that he felt the same way not wanting to venture out to see the world alone… yet. Great book for kids learning to add and subtrack as well, as each page adds animals, then after the night falls each subtracts.

Cars: Rushing! Honking! Zooming! by Patricia Hubbell has a fun retro look and is a whimsical look at all sorts of cars , places they go and who drives them.  Like her book Trucks the drivers in this book aren’t always conventional, or human. My son thinks it’s hilarious that zebras, ducks and other animals are driving cars alongside humans. I love the rhyming text that never feels forced and zooms along with the illustrations.

I Love Planes!by Philemon Sturges ia all about things that fly. This is a great book for young toddlers , the text is limited but effective.  The colors are bright and cheery and even though he usually reads longer more complex books my son still enjoyed this book, and learned about Blimps for the first time.