It’s time for a round-up for you. It’s been a good time over on the Messy Summer Reading Club. You can catch up over here on how “stories” show up in our reading lives.
Hello, dear readers!
It’s vacation season for some, but for most parents, it’s time to take a trip with kids. These are distinct experiences. Traveling with kids can be a lot. It can be a memorable, fun, and exciting family adventure. It can also suck. Let’s be honest, it’s a lot of different things. Today, we have some resources for those who choose to take their chances with the wild world of traveling with kids.
There are no true secrets or magical formulas to traveling with kids. BUT you can attempt to prepare and then hope for the best. Below are some good articles with ideas to get you started.
Here are some helpful ideas on traveling with kids from The Workspace for Children.
This one is from a while back, by Dr. Cara Goodwin, PhD, of Parenting Translator, and has some gems. This is also where I learned about WikkiStix (see below).
And here are some parenting hacks from ScaryMommy from real parents who travel.
Don’t forget that there are book recs over in our Messy Summer Reading Club comments section, but here are some books that feel like vacation (I hope) and are on my summer reading list at least.
The Parisian Heist* by Jo Piazza (Comes out July 14th). Paris! Art Heist! Jo Piazza! This is definitely a vacation book for me.
Here are two that involve boats and, therefore, default to summer vibes to me. Katherine Center’s The Shippers* and American Fantasy* by Emma Straub.
And I personally like some mystery in the mix, The Ending Writes Itself* by Evelyn Clarke(a collaboration between V.E Schwab and Cat Clarke).
Wikki Stix are my go-to travel toy. At this point, my kids start talking about them before trips because they know they are coming. They stay novel and fun because we only get them for trips. They are interesting to the whole age range of my kids, ages 4-11 (and that can be a challenge to find). And they work in planes, trains, and automobiles.
For road trips, we love some good old trivia. There are many trivia podcasts, but we listen to these two:
We also enjoy audiobooks as a family during the summer. There are many different audiobook tastes in our family, so there is a voting process that involves hearing a book summary and listening to a sample of the narrator's voice. But the process is part of the buildup to going on a trip, so it’s all fun.
Traveling is always an opportunity for getting an X on your life bingo card. Yes, you might see a wonder of the world, or you may get to spend the night unexpectedly in a random place when you miss your connecting flight, and then your husband is buying underwear in a random Target one night (this happened to us over spring break). Life bingo isn’t all about the “happy” memories, but about what is memorable.
Deep breath, it will be okay.
Dear readers, may your travels be smooth.
Stay cool,
Kathryn
P.S. Next week we are back in the reading club.
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