Last weekend our family took a mini vacation to Sesame Place for their Furry Christmas celebration on July 25th. From the DC metro area, the drive to Langhorne, PA is about 3 hours. It took us 4 hours with traffic. Before we had kids, hubby and I went on a lot of road trips. They were definitely bonding experiences for us.
Before we headed out on our first family road trip, I had to make sure Sophia had enough things to keep her occupied. Our 20 minute drives running errands downtown is full of, “Are we almost there?” and “I’m sooooo bored!” I knew I couldn’t take 3-4 hours of that.
The easy thing to do would be to pack our portable DVD player. I’ve taken it on plane rides because I’m worried the kids will bother other passengers. However I’d rather teach her how to entertain herself instead of just watching a movie.
I put Sophia in charge of packing her bag. She was so excited about our trip to Sesame Place, I knew she wanted to help pack. I might have suggested a few items in her bag. Here’s what we brought:
Leapfrog Leapster Explorer. Sophia received the Explorer for her birthday last fall. The Explorer is the next level hand held learning game system from Leapfrog, following the Leapster 2 (which we also have). When she plays with either of the handhelds, I don’t feel guilty with her screen time on them because she’s learning math, science, reading and much more. I picked up a new game a few months ago when they were on sale at the toy store. I was saving it for an occassion just like this.
Summer Bridge Workbook and Activity Cards. Sophia starts kindergarten in a month and I didn’t want her to forget everything she learned in preschool. I also wanted her to practice her writing skills since it’s the one thing she doesn’t like to do. The Summer Bridge K-1 grade workbook has a page a day format. Each page is a mix of activities, from writing letters, math, and even exercise instructions.
Sophia’s favorite subject, science, is barely represented in the workbook, but the Summer Bridge Activity Cards cover a wider variety of subjects. The cards offer jokes, riddles, and puzzles as well as age appropriate brain teasers such as What is the only bird that can fly backwards? (Answer: a hummingbird) The cards are fun to read as a family. Even I learned something new! These cards make fighting the summer slump fun for both parent and child.
Mini art kit. I take no credit for this one. Sophia packed her crayons, sketchpad, pencil, tape and scissors. I love that she can create such inventive drawings and crafts with these simple supplies. For a more detailed instructions on a , read my post at The Parenting Connection.
Packing headphones was genius on my part. She plugged them into her Leapster Explorer while she played. That meant hubby and I were able to listen to the radio, as in grown up music. I enjoy Steve Songs but only in small increments.
Flip & Click Memory Match and Flip & Click Hangman activity books. I didn’t pack these books in her travel bag, but rather kept them in my bag. It’s always good to have something new to pull out of my magic parenting hat when everything else fails. The Flip & Click activity books are so clever. For the Memory Match, each sheet has perforated squares with pictures on the back. Kids can memory play solo or with another person and keep score with the tally grid at the bottom of the page.
Sophia especially loved the Hangman book. The concept is the same, except the perforated squares were labeled with the alphabet. Above the letters was an outline of a hangman. Each time she flipped over a letter she would see either numbers or a thumbs down. The number(s) corresponded with the blanks at the bottom of the page. She was actually excited about writing her letters (score!).
Of course we can’t forget books. I admit, I get lazy in the summer. With no set schedule and hot summer days, it’s easy to fall into the tv rut. Every week we visit our local library without fail. Sophia has her favorite books and though they made her bag heavy, I didn’t discourage her.
JetBlue’s Soar With Reading pack. JetBlue sent us a travel backpack filled with a Magic Treehouse book, a Soar with Reading activity book and a PBS Kids Steve Songs CD. Though we were driving instead of flying, the backpack had a great mix of activities for traveling kids. We popped in the Steve Songs CD (the we saw him perform a couple of weeks ago at Wolf Trap’s Theatre in the Woods) during our drive up. Read more below to win your on Soar With Reading gift pack!
This summer JetBlue is giving away their activity kids to all child passengers to promote summer reading and Soar With Reading. You can visit SoarwithReading.com and download a free reading activity kit, create a summer reading list and log their children’s reading minutes, among other activities. For every reader who registers on Soar With Reading, JetBlue will make a book donation to a child through First Book, up to 10,000 books.
While you’re there, enter and nominate your favorite library for its chance to receive a $10,000 collection of Random House Children’s Books, and you will be entered for a chance to WIN a JetBlue Getaways family vacation to Atlantis, Paradise Island, Bahamas!
Want to win your own JetBlue Soar With Reading Gift Pack with a travel backpack, a Magic Treehouse book, an activity book, and a PBS Kids Steve Songs CD?
Do any of the following and leave a comment letting me you’ve done each one:
- Visit Soar With Reading’s reading list and tell me what book your child would enjoy reading
- Register at Soar With Reading so JetBlue will donate a book to First Book (3 entries, leave 3 separate comments)
- Share this contest on Twitter or Facebook (leave a comment with link to your tweet)
Congrats to Amy of A Little Nosh who won the giveaway!
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