Your children may travel a lot to see relatives. The long hours in
a car or plane can be boring. However, this holiday season there are
many gifts you can get them to help pass the time or to learn about
travel. Keep reading to find out details on what are some great gifts!
Maps
are useful and portable, but globes fascinate children of all ages.
Using a globe, children can learn about countries, continents and
oceans. Globes teach children about the true sizes of landforms and help
them see the distances between points. Look for a raised relief globe,
which shows elevations of mountains and valleys.
Even
young children enjoy packing and pulling their own rolling suitcases.
Taking care of clothing and belongings gives children a sense of
responsibility and turns the tedious task of packing into an enjoyable
activity. Look for a rolling suitcase sized for your child or
grandchild; a youth-sized rolling bag will be easy for a younger,
shorter child to pull. Middle schoolers and teens will probably prefer a
larger bag with a longer pull handle. You can find rolling suitcases
and duffel bags in all shapes, colors, sizes and price ranges.
This
classic, low-tech toy can help those hours in the car pass more
quickly. Each child takes an auto bingo card, which includes pictures of
common roadside items, such as sheep, stop signs and railroad
crossings. Players slide a colored window closed when they spot an
object on their particular card. The first child to close five windows
in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal row shouts, "Bingo!" and wins the
game. Auto bingo games come in sets of four cards.
The
only thing more tedious than a long drive is a seemingly longer wait
for restaurant food to arrive. Keep your child or grandchild happy and
busy with these fun Mealtime Masterpiece paper placemats by Fred &
Friends. This stack of 40 11 by 14 inch placemats comes with six marking
pens, but you could also bring crayons or colored pencils, which are
easier to carry and less messy, for your junior artists to use at the
table. Each placemat has a painting-canvas-and-frame design, perfect for
"framing" a creative kid's art.
Card games provide hours of entertainment for children of all ages. A deck of regular playing cards can be used to play Concentration
by spreading the shuffled cardes face down on a table and having each
player take turns turning two cards over, looking for pairs. The same
deck can be used to play Solitaire, Crazy Eights, Old Maid
and many more card games. Boxed card games, such as Professor Noggin's
educational trivia games and UNO, are both colorful and easy to carry. Tip: Airplanes, trains and hotel rooms are the best places to play card games. It's very easy to lose cards in the car.
Children
of almost any age can draw or write about their travel adventures in a
blank journal or sketchbook. Preschoolers enjoy drawing pictures of
buildings, animals and even food; parents and grandparents can write the
date and a short description on each sketchbook page. Older children
can draw pictures, create cartoons or write about each day's adventures
in their journal.
Travel journals and sketchbooks come in all sizes and price ranges;
younger children will probably prefer to draw their pictures on larger
pages. Remember to provide crayons, pencils or pens; marking pens may
soak through pages.
For more information see
About.com.
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