Tips for Traveling with Small Children

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Relax this Travel Season and Make Traveling Easy with Little Passports

With summer running full speed and family trips being planned, Little Passports has decided to share some wonderful tips for traveling with your little ones. Are you dreading boarding that crammed flight or beginning that long 4 hour car ride? Worry mo more!! With a simple Little Passports' checklist featuring some amazing and helpful ideas, parents everywhere will soon be celebrating this once dreaded topic of discussion and maybe even looking forward to their next family vacation.

The help don't end there.......

Once you've made it to grandma's house or standing on that beachside balcony, Little Passports has made it 10x simpler to keep the kids entertained for hours, and possibly even days, with easy-to-do educational activities that are included within their subscriptions.

All you gotta do is simply sign up for a 3 or 6 month subscription (USA or World Edition) for just $13.95! Kids are sure to enjoy taking a break from the TV while they the opportunity to explore the world from the comfort of anywhere that they may be. (Home, Beach, Grandma's house, Camping site, ect.)

Keep the learning going throughout the Summer and no longer worry about the dreading Summer Brain that haunts the upcoming school year.

Don't lose your smarts, Gain some!!

Check out Little Passports today and be enjoy a fun an educational summer!!

Disclaimer: This blog accepts compensation in the form of products and/or monetary for selected posts which will be labeled as sponsored. No matter the compensation, I only write about items and/or services that I have personal experience with and believe my readers will enjoy and/or benefit from. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of others.

View Full Disclosure for further details.

This post may contain affiliate links.

Happy Birthday, Little Passports!! Celebrate with 15% off Subscriptions

15% Off New Subscriptions through 4/8

From Now through 4/8

Use Promo Code: HAPPY5

Don't forget about the Little Passports 15% Off Sale!

Quick Fact:

Little Passports was co-founded by two mothers who believe in raising children to be not only compassionate but knowledgeable as well, on world cultures and people. Pretty amazing, right?

Each month, the adventurous characters of Little Passports, Sam and Sofia, travel the globe on their magic scooter and share their experiences with your child. During their birthday sale, take advantage of receiving 15% off your total subscription package, your child will receive a personalized package in the mail, each month, including an adventure letter, souvenirs unique to the visited area, activities as well as access to their amazing Boarding Zone full of exciting activities and exciting games. (With this kind of deal, I feel like it's my birthday!)

Click on the links or banner below to sign up for your subscription today and receive your 15% off by using the coupon code: HAPPY5 from today through Tuesday, 4/8

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

Disclaimer: This blog accepts compensation in the form of products and/or monetary for selected posts which will be labeled as sponsored. No matter the compensation, I only write about items and/or services that I have personal experience with and believe my readers will enjoy and/or benefit from. All opinions are my own and may differ from those of others.

View Full Disclosure for further details.

Happy Chinese New Year, Little Passports!

Stella Ma, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Little Passports shares her family's annual Chinese New Year traditions!

"Happy Chinese New Year
And
Year of the Horse!

I grew up in a fairly traditional Cantonese-speaking family, and Chinese New Year has always been a very special holiday for me. As a young child, I knew Chinese New Year took place around the beginning of the year, but I didn’t fully grasp that the date was tied to the lunar calendar. I recall my mom pulling out a large Chinese calendar book and flipping through the pages to find the exact date.

Our excitement built as the day approached and preparations were made. We cleaned the house before the holiday because we didn’t want to risk “sweeping” out good luck after the New Year. By the same logic, we observed not washing our hair on New Year’s Day for fear that we might wash away good fortune.

Lots of planning went into getting ready for the traditional New Year's Eve family reunion dinner. I particularly enjoyed the shopping trips my mom and I took to Chinatown to purchase the special ingredients. The food we served was auspicious and symbolic, with the names of many of the dishes sounding like the Chinese pronunciations for “good fortune," "happiness" or "longevity.” Dishes and ingredients included chicken, roast pork, Chinese “hair” fungus, lettuce, dried oysters and fish. My favorite dish, which involved a labor-intensive mincing of many ingredients, was the dried oyster lettuce cups (with the Chinese name of the dish sounding like “good business”). I would stand next to my mom and watch her take great care as she prepared all the ingredients. When we got a food processor, I thought it would finally bring my mom some relief, but she still insisted on hand-chopping everything.

We always started New Year’s Day with a special vegetarian meal. Because my dad left early in the morning for work, I would go to bed excited, knowing that my mom would wake us all up around 5 am so we could share the meal as a family. In the morning, we would wish my parents a happy new year and good health for the coming year in Cantonese and then we would eat a piece of candy to ensure sweetness for the new year. My mom would give us lycee (red envelopes) filled with lucky money. After breakfast, we would dress in something red to symbolize good luck and head off to school.

The weeks following involved visits to my relatives where we would bring and exchange bags filled oranges, sweets and other treats. It was a multi-week rotating house party! When I moved out and got married, I appreciated the annual tradition of coming together as a family to celebrate even more. Every year, I call my parents on the morning of the new year to wish them a happy new year. It’s tradition that only married couples give out red envelopes, so I find myself always scrambling to get them prepared and feeling extra lucky if I managed to get brand new bills from the bank. (I no longer observe the “no washing hair” tradition, and my mom looks the other way.)

As a mom myself now to two young boys, I cherish sharing and passing along the traditions. On New Year’s morning, I give my sons each a piece of candy with their red envelopes. Being given candy for breakfast makes them feel like they have the best mom ever! They also love going to Chinatown and watching the lion dancing, and we’ve had many ad hoc lion dance performances at home using makeshift drums and lion costumes fashioned out of blankets.

Gung Hay Fat Choy (as we would say in Cantonese, or in Mandarin, Xin Nian Kuai Le) to the Little Passports community!"

--Stella

Sam and Sofia are ready to learn more about these new traditions! Which one would you like to try?

Bring Little Passports into your home in 2014 andteach your kids about all of the fascinating cultures around the world!

Learn more at Little Passports!

School Fundraising with Little Passports!

Mix things up with Little Passports Fundraising at your child's school!

Plan an educational fundraiser at your child's school

Are you a PTA member (or similar parent/teacher group) at your child's school? Have an upcoming fundraiser to plan but don't want the same copy-cat catalog?

Surprise everyone... Shake things up a bit this year and give Little Passports Fundraising a try. Partner with a wonderful award-winning product thats not only educational but a favorite for kids as well as parents! Discover the world in your own home and be amazed! Little Passports offer multiple monthly shipment options in USA & World Edition. Kids of all ages are sure to have tons of fun & get the opportunity to learn amazing facts, play games and get creative with educational art projects! Learning through play, a parents' best friend!!

How things works: You'll receive flyer(s) to help spread the word about your school's fundraiser to all! Friends, family and neighbors shop at Little Passports and your child's school will receive 15% of profits!

For more information visit: the Little Passports Fundraising page

Learning on the Go - Roads Trip with Kids

While on a road trip with kids, it can be hard to keep everyone occupied. Kids get bored easily and while coloring books and crayons are fun, they run out of interest with them pretty quickly. Try out a couple of the ideas below on your next road trip and see what works for your family!!

When you stop at a gas station or rest stop, grab a map.

• Hopefully you keep a couple pens or markers laying around the car /in your purse, or you can use a crayon.
• Draw a line through the road or area that you've driven through and keep track of where your going and where you've been.
• If you stop at a store, look for small stickers, even yard-sale dots, you can add them to the map as well.

You can also collect tiny rocks or pebbles and use them for Math Problems.

• For Example - Pick up a few pebbles at a rest stop or use pennies, etc. - Mom hands the child 4 pebbles, Dad hands the child 3 pebbles. How many pebbles does the child have now?
• If you have paper or a notebook, have the kid(s) write down the math problem as it's happening to help them figure it out.
• The written problem for the above Math Problem is 4+3=7

If your driving through a state that's different than your home state, Play the Tag Game!

• To Play the Tag Game you'll need a piece of paper and something to write with. Then simply keep an eye on the tags of passing cars. If you find a car from your home town then you can put a tally mark on your paper. You can play it many other ways as well.
• For Example - Write the Current State that your driving through at the top of the paper.
• Keep an eye on the passing car tags and when you see one from a different state than the current one, write it down and add a tally. 
• See how many different State car tags pass through each state that you pass through!
• Don't forget that your car has a tag that may be different than the current state that your driving through so that counts as a tally too!!
• If you have crayons or markers - Try using a matching marker to the color of the cars. Doing this will let you see what color cars are popular in the states that the tags/cars are from.

Picture It -- Your driving through Tennessee and see a Blue Car/Truck with a tag from North Carolina and a red car/truck from Georgia and a Black car from New York and another Car/truck from NC, a Red one. -- Your paper could look something like this:

Tennessee

North Carolina
I I 

Georgia
I

New York
I 

You can also use the Road Signs as learning boards!

• Ask the kids to read the road signs out loud.
• See how many of them they sound out correctly!

Playing I-Spy is always a fun way to incorporate colors into a road trip trivia game!

• While sitting in traffic or in the store parking lot while your waiting on dad to get directions to your next stop: Start the game like:
• "I spy with my little eye... Something Blue" The answer could be: The sky, a car, paint on the store, a road sign, or anything else you may be able to see from your car.
• Once the kid(s) figure out what you spy, the one who is right - Gets to spy next.
• I Spy is also a great game to play in a plane, a train or even a bus!

Make a Field Journal before you start your trip.

• Have on for each child that will need occupied. (0-4 will need other ways to keep occupied like small toys)
• Use a pre-made Notebook and come up with questions that you would like answered while on your trip. Do you know what states or cities that you will be traveling to or through?
• You can also Make-Your-Own Notebook -  Use lined paper as the center and 2 solid colored pieces for the front and back. Staple it together or punching 3 holes and tie the sheets together with string.
• Use Questions Like -- What is the State Bird, State Flower, State Capitol, etc.
• Mark off a few pages for Post Cards, Maps, Photos and other small State Finds.
• You can even collect food labels from products that are only sold in that city or state.

Always collect the information while on your trip and collect little items and such. Including Post Cards, Take photos, Food Labels, Maps and such

Your Field Journal may look a bit like:

North Carolina

State Bird - 
State Tree - Dogwood
State Capitol - Raleigh
State Song - 

Tape or Glue Collected Maps and Postcards as well as pictures that you take throughout your trip, on the extra pages!

I hope your next family road trip is 10x more fun when you start including some of these awesome little car games!!

Safe Travels!!

Traveling the 50 States with Little Passports - Our Review

#Sponsored By Little Passports

Disclaimer: I received the product(s) mentioned below complimentary from the sponsor in return for my honest thoughts and opinions. All opinions are all my own and may differ from your own. Even though some sort of compensation may have been received, I only write about products that I have personally used and/or believe my readers will enjoy or benefit from. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

You may remember from a week or so ago mentioned in my previous Little Passports - World Edition Review, that I was receiving the USA Edition soon, in honor of the #BackToSchoolBlogParty. I am very happy to say - We have received the USA package and are having tons of fun playing with everything that came in the folder! I noticed right from the beginning that the USA edition was quiet different from the World Edition. First off - The 1st Month of the World Edition comes in a small suitcase while the USA Edition comes in a Heavy Duty Plastic Folder! Inside the folder was where all the wonderful goodies were found: a Map of the USA, State Field Journal, Disposable Camera, USA Scratch Book, and a Letter from Sofia and Sam. In the letter, Sofia tells us that they are going to travel to 2 states each month and will be sending us their State Field Journals, Stickers as well pop-out Puzzles for each state! I was very happy to inform my daughters that we will also be receiving the next 2 months (September and October) of the Little Passports - USA Edition, so they will get to enjoy the gifts from 4 states that Sofia and Sam visit! In the Field Journal, the first few pages are made to fill out while your waiting on your next month! There is a Photo Scavenger Hunt.... The reason why we received a camera, where the girls get to take photos of their hometown to add to their journal.

They also have questions where the answers can be found on their map! This is a real learning experience and the package couldn't of came at a better time. Learning Geography at their young ages of 6 and 7 is interesting to them and knowing that my daughters are not only having fun but learning as well, puts a HUGE smile on my face and makes me worry a little less about them heading to school in just a couple weeks. I'm going to have 2 smart little girls and I can't wait to see the teachers faces when they hear what all these little girls know about the USA! We even created a game that used the maps, field journals, Sproutkin books (from an upcoming review) their Word Wall Words (from their last school year), hop on one foot while saying the ABC's among many other little activities. Having the big maps and fun Summer Learning game! Loran and Jade can't wait until we receive September's package from Sofia and Sam! They are full of questions! "I wonder what states Sam and Sofia will visit!", "What will the stickers have on them?" "Will we get a puzzle like Sofia said in the letter?" Their little brains are working overtime trying to guess the answers to all of their questions. No to mention all the fun they had with the USA Scratch Book! We're overjoyed with Little Passports! This is by far the coolest subscription program that I've been a part of!

Little Passports gets an A+ from The Dancing Diva's and FaerieMommy aka Autumn from My Kind Of Introduction. We'll be doing a video review within the next couple weeks! And don't miss out on the awesome giveaway as well!!!

To learn more about Little Passports visit them on the Little Passports website!

You can find them on Twitter as well!

(Jade and Loran decided that I needed a name too since they are The Dancing Diva's and their brother wants to be MJ the Rockstar) :)

Omni Summer Passport Sweepstakes

Sponsored by Omni Hotels & Resorts 

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I know right!? I bet London and Rome caught your eye right off bat! MINE TOO!!! I dream of visiting places like that but it's a rare chance that I'll ever be able to visit. But you can visit by entering the Omni Hotel's Summer Sweepstakes! You never know... Maybe you'll be the one who wins! Wouldn't that be simply wonderful?

Doing some Tuesday Thinking

It's been raining alot for the past day or so and I'm crossing my fingers that it doesn't rain on July 4th! We have plans to go out of town to visit my fiances family and our kids are going to spend a couple nights with the grandparents. I would hate for it to be raining and ruin our firework plans. But if it rains  in Asheville, that don't mean that it will rain in Lenior/Hudson NC as well. Even though Hudson is only an hour or 2 away, weather can do some crazy things so we may be safe.... I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Last Year for the fourth, my family went to Downtown Asheville and watched the firework show "One The Green". They had live music from local bands along with kids activites, even a blow up slide!! We all had alot of fun!!!
(Read all about our 4th of July in Downtown Asheville -- I wrote up a post about our fun!)

The girls were wanting to go downtown again this year but once they found out that we had plans to go see their Mawmaw, Granny and Grand-Paw... They were as happy as can be!! I've been hearing about this trip for weeks now and it's being brought up more often now that the days are slipping away! We're heading down to Hudson, NC around 10am on Thursday morning, since Alan has to work all day on Wednesday. It's going to be a busy day since we will be driving down, Hanging out with family, Watching Fireworks, and then driving home all in the same day! The kids will only be in the car for the trip down but I'm a bit worried that they will get homesick and want to come early. This will be their first long distance trip away from home without myself or their daddy staying with them. It's not just my girls that'll be staying with Alan's mom and step-dad, Mj will be staying too. He's the oldest but he don't come over to our house as much as we would like so sometimes we have a few bad days, it's mostly nights but mornings can be touch at times as well. At the moment, Jade, Loran and Mj are all excited about spending a couple nights with family so I hope they have a wonderful time and not cry for home bad enough that the trip had to be made early.

(The video below is the first video I've uploaded directly to my blog, Let me know if something is wrong or it won't work for you)
Below is a short video from Last Year

A small part of the Fireworks Show in Downtown Asheville
The 4th of July 2012

How are you planning on spending your 4th of July this year?