Bring The World To Your Children With Little Passports!
Summer vacation is finally here! For us, that means fun trips to the beach and visiting with relatives. But if your family is like ours, your travel plans don’t typically take up the entire summer. You’ll have those days or weeks of down time that you fill up with barbeques, afternoons at the pool, and playing outside until the sun goes down. At least, that’s what a perfect summer looks like in my mind. The reality is probably something more like this: constantly telling the kids to turn off the TV and go outside (because you can’t handle yet another episode of Pokémon on Netflix), playing referee so that they don’t kill each other over a Wii remote, or hiding in the corner with a bottle of wine because you just want to be alone. For 5 minutes. Please.
To save my sanity and give my little angels something fun to do when I hear “Mom, I’m bored!”, I ordered a subscription from Little Passports.
Little Passports is a great way to explore the world right from home. Geared for ages 5-12, their fun, educational activities keep young minds engaged. They have 2 monthly subscription options: the USA Edition and the World Edition. Since the USA Edition is geared more towards my kids’ ages (targeted for children ages 7-12 years old, whereas the World Edition is for a slightly younger audience of 5-10 years), I chose that option and we eagerly checked the mail every day until our package arrived.
When the big day finally came, my daughter and I tore open the box to reveal the following contents:
We were greeted with a letter from Sam and Sophia, two adventure seeking kids who love to explore the world and share their travel journal of fun activities that they find along the way. In addition to the journal, they include a field guide so you can keep everything together as you explore! Each month they send 2 new states to learn about, with puzzles, games, recipes to try, and even science experiments!
My daughter pretty much hoarded the subscription from the beginning. Side note: 2 kids could probably share (which was my original intention), but I think a subscription is best suited to one child unless your kids get along really, REALLY well. Right away she made me hang up the map so she could go on a scavenger hunt from her field guide, and took pictures of our hometown using the disposable camera provided (watching her trying to figure out a film camera was the funniest thing ever!).
She has loved every activity so far, and has been able to do most of them on her own. She’s learning a lot about the history of Maine and the wildlife found there. She practiced tying sailing knots. She even made a 3 dimensional paper lobster! It’s great to see her having fun and learning too. Of course there are a few projects that you can do with your child, like making a recipe for lobster sandwiches or building a whirlpool out of soda bottles. It’s fun to be able to enjoy some of the journey together! There’s a good balance of independent activities with a sprinkling of fun family interaction.
Little Passports has been perfect for rainy days, rides in the car, and moments where mom just needs some peace and quiet. It has been an awesome filler activity on those wonderful, long summer days and I’m sure it will be just as useful on cozy winter nights. Sam and Sophia have been a huge hit in this house, and Little Passports has us looking forward to the mailman again!
To learn more about the adventures your child can have with Little Passports, go to www.littlepassports.com. Choose the perfect subscription for your family, and watch your kids travel with world with Sam and Sophia!
A huge thank you to Little Passports for sending us the USA Edition to try!