All posts by Gina Kingsley

Destinations

Where do you want to go?

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Write a report on this paper or notebook paper about:

  1. what country (or city) you would like to visit?IMG_5842
  2. or what country you are interested in?
  3. include famous monuments, historic places, natural wonders, etc.
  4. build an itinerary and/or route of what you’ll do there
  5. look up map symbols, capitals, languages, highlights, religions
  6. add the name of any books you used to study your country

or post comments also that can be shared on this page!

 

Destinations

Keeping kids occupied while waiting

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Waiting, waiting, waiting…..sometimes you stand in lines waiting for connections. Sometimes you sit in airports and rail stations, etc….waiting for connections. You might be wondering, “how do we keep the kids occupied while waiting or traveling long routes?”


playing cards in the airport
playing cards in the airport

stock a good backpack

  • things we packed in our backpacks and carryons, etc were:
  • books
  • electronic gamesIMG_1483
  • batteries
  • playing cards
  • headphones (extras since they get lost)
  • personal DVD players
  • Rubik’s cube
  • snacks
  • hacky sacks
  • inexpensive camera
  • journal

tell exciting, suspenseful stories: My husband and I told imaginative stories to our toddler boys while waiting in a 2 hour line at an airport in Mexico during a 20-member family trip. We had the only little kids at that time and there was a jam-packed tiny airport full of college travelers.

Save your most exciting stories for times like this! :We were sweating it out and each holding a toddler in our arms while we kept this story going. Thank goodness it worked! toddler/preschooler leashes these are controversial for some parents and spectators but I appreciated my “leash” or “tether”. I’ve never lost a kid! 🙂

get caught up on summer remediation skillsIMG_1485: this will be the least “popular” idea with your kids but sometimes it’s easier to corral them and get this done while traveling rather than at home when they are distracted by playdates, swimming, camps, art classes, etc…

musical instruments: my oldest son is the most musical of our kids so he often brought a ukulele along to many of our trips. In the picture above, you can see he also played an Irish pipe on this particular car trip within Ireland. The ukulele was small enough to fit in his carryon or he attached it to the outside straps. IMG_6316

Harmonicas are super easy to pack. He bought a little drum in Morocco but it didn’t last the trip because it broke. In the picture to the left, he’s playing a sitar (not a ukulele), but you can see at any age, he liked incorporating musical instruments on our trips!

Destinations

Traveling has its challenges

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Traveling is not always glamorous, comfortable and luxurious. It’s definitely not always easy. BUT IT’S SO WORTH IT! And the challenging moments you share as a family strengthen your family bond and teach your children tremendous skills:

  • resting up in the port of Igoumenitsa until the rental car agency opens
    resting up in the port of Igoumenitsa until the rental car agency opens
  • patience
  • people skills
  • curiosity
  • negotiation
  • critical thinking
  • and much more!

Our overnight ferry boat ride from Bari, Italy to Greece arrived in the wee hours of the morning. The glitch with that is that the rental car agency didn’t open until 9:00 a.m. YIKES! We hung out in the port station until the agency opened. (6:30 am.- 9 am!) The boys, being the troopers they are, played with a massage chair and I caught some shut eye since I didn’t sleep well on the ferry boat. IMG_5153

We had rented a family cabin on the ferry that had 4 bunk beds and the boys slept fine…but not MOM! I didn’t know my husband took this photo above but it’s funny to see now.

waiting for the next train
waiting for the next train

There’s a lot of waiting around sometimes for transportation connections. There will be glitches with flights, rooms, transportation, etc….but the good far outweighs the bad and there’s always something delightful around each corner. One disappointment we experienced was when our tour guide in Rome told us that we would not be visiting the Sistine Chapel because its was a Sunday (and it was closed).

We did not know ahead of time that it would not be open for viewing on a Sunday. This was truly upsetting to me as a mom because I wanted my sons to see that so badly as it was a trip highlight for me as a child. But, you also have to teach your kids to roll with it…..so I had to be aware that my sons were observing my behavior and reactions to this bad news, too.