My Top 8 Family Travel Essentials

The following is a guest post by the lovely Annabelle Humanes of the piri-piri lexicon.

Just like Monica and her family, we love travelling. We love discovering new places. And we love taking our children everywhere we possibly can (like The Louvre a few weeks ago).

Wherever we go, however we travel, there are few things we always take with us. We travel light. We are not ones for packing toilet paper on a trans-Atlantic flight or children's favourite toys (beyond the one item).

A few weeks ago, I shared a few of the things we have never taken away with us and got quite a few passionate pleas for those items on social media. I wanted to share, here, some of my favourite family travel essentials. From medicine to car seats, here are the eight things we take, without fail, on our travels with our two young children.

Travel guide 

I love planning my trips with Pinterest and online travel blogs. I also find using a good old paper travel guide very rewarding. I love reading about the history of the places before or sometimes after our visits. And when wifi is a miss, they come in very handy.

Sat nav (GPS) app 

Whether it is a few kilometres away or hundreds of miles away, we love Waze. It works well in most countries we have visited so far. It is free. It is community-based so information about traffic jams and roadwords tends to be very accurate. You can set your destination when leaving your accommodation (using wifi) and you are good to go for the day. The only downside is that it tends to use a lot of your battery life. Don't forget the car charger.

 

A good old map 

Even though, we use electronic devices to navigate, sometimes a good old detailed map of the area you are staying in can give you ideas for exploring and discovering new things. I love spotting a town with a funny name or a road highlighted in green (natural beauty) and just heading in that direction on a whim.

Bubble Bum booster seat 

Our favourite booster seat ever. It is inflatable, light, folds flat and is approved by the EU safety standards and many other safety agencies around the world. It is suitable from age 4 and avoids having to lug around a huge booster seat. We have been using it for a while now and never had a problem with it.

Trail Wallet 

To keep track of expenses on longer trips, I always use Trail Wallet. Again, it is free and you can enter your total budget, daily budget and any currency you are using. Call me organised if you like but I don't like to come home to a big surprise in my bank account.

Arnica 

In my first aid kit, amongst a bunch of other remedies, there is always a tube of Arnica creme and small pills. Suitable for all kinds of grazes, bruises, it is the perfect go to remedy for children falls, bumps and other minor accidents. I even carry some in my handbag: because toddler!

 A camera 

Of course, I take way too many photos of my family and our travels and not enough photos of me. I bet I am not alone. I am hoping to have solved this partly by getting our eldest her own little camera. She absolutely love it and it is fun seeing our travels through her eyes.

Baby carrier 

Our youngest is still only two years old. We use a baby carrier for him still. It is lightweight, foldable, great for airports and children can be carried on your back for a long time. I would not have been able to fly from Europe to the US alone with two kids without it. I left the stroller at home. Too cumbersome.

What about you? What would you not leave home without? 

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Former linguist. Maman to two little world citizens. Currently living in Germany (via the U.K., France, and Portugal). Annabelle blogs about life as a displaced multilingual mum at the piri-piri lexicon. You can also find her on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.

Vacation School Days

Wow. Last week just flew by! We did a quick trip to the beach that we all desperately needed and had the best time ever! Day 1 involved beach time, followed by introducing the kids to snorkling, back to shower and rest up, dinner, and finally a night of catching crabs along the beach. My son actually caught this teeny, tiny crab when we first arrived and we snuck down for a quick walk on the beach before lunch.

The rip current was fierce, though, so we didn't really let the kids swim in the ocean. (It was better the next day.) My daughter was so afraid that her little brother would be swept out to sea. So we put floaters on them just to be safe, and let them play in the surf with one of us present at all times. But honestly? They were just as pleased to look for shells and build sand castles.

Afterwards, we drove down the coast to look for a good place to snorkle. Fortunately, we found a little inlet that was surrounded on three sides and was shallow with little wave action. The kids truly loved snorkling. They found a bunch of hermit crabs and other bits that satisfied their hunger for adventure.

The best part of this trip? Everyone in NC is back in school by this week, so the beach was relatively empty. Well, maybe not empty, but there weren't any other school-aged children to be seen. The last few times we've been to the beach, the traffic has been horrible and it was hard to find a place on the beach to sit without practically being on top of someone else. Seriously, it was just perfect. These are the moments that I love homeschooling the most. Being able to take advantage of a flexible schedule and enjoy opportunities in a more relaxed manner.

Okay, I was wrong. The BEST part of the trip was the next day when (after spending the morning at the beach and lunch time hiking on one of the islands) we went to the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island where we spent the afternoon learning about ocean life. This was perfect because we've been studying ocean life in science for the last four weeks or so. The first thing I did was purchase two Junior Marine Biologist booklets for them to fill out as we went through the aquarium. Once they got all their answers, we turned them in at the front desk to check their answers and then each of them received their own Junior Marine Biologist badge. Talk. About. Excited. My kids were crazed.

And what I really liked about this booklet is that it was divided up into three sections by age. So my son's pages were appropriate for a six year old, and my daughter had different questions and activities that were best suited to an older child. Guess what? This counts as a School Day! *Score!* Field trips are the best.

Anyhoo, it's back to the salt mines this week for me. Juggling work and kids and home and husband. But it was sure nice to have a break. We ALL need one from time to time. I hope you've gotten a chance to have yours.

Un abrazo!

~Monica

Teacher Resource for Chocolate: The Field Museum

By far, one of my favorite resources for studying chocolate is the Field Museum website. Their current exhibit, Chocolate Around the World, will be on display through January 8th, 2012. If you happen to live in Chicago, you should definitely try to swing by there, or plan a trip for your class. They still have several weekend activities planned between now and the end of the year. In fact, this Friday and Saturday (Nov 25th & 26th), artist Rebecca Moy will be painting an original chocolate masterpiece. The following weekend on Dec 3rd, Rhonda Morkes will be creating chocolate gingerbread houses, and during the last week of December, Pastry Chef Omar Martinez, from Food for Thought, will be creating a miniature version of the Field Museum - out of chocolate!

But aside from these fun events, the museum's website is full of information. The Educators' Resources area offers six lessons on the relationship between chocolate and the environment, and another six lessons between chocolate and culture for teachers to download. You can also find Fascinating Facts, Chocolate Quotations, Recipes, and Book and Movie Lists, to name a few. In the All About Chocolate section is another page with activities Just for Kids.

In addition, the site offers three interactives. Manufacturing Chocolate takes the visitor through the process of making chocolate from growing the trees to pouring them into molds. My kids love this interactive because it lets them cut the beans with a machete, pack them into bags, start the various machines and much more.

The Chocolate Challenge takes you on a journey around the world - but only by answering questions about chocolate can you advance on your journey! Again, more fun for the kids, but mine were a little too young. Best suited for children ages 9 (10?) and up.

Cacao Farm helps you discover the connections between cacao and its environment by using your virtual binoculars or microscope to study the differences between cacao farms and rain forests.

So if you're looking for a fun - but educational - distraction for the kids this holiday weekend, this website is a great place to start!

Con mucho cariño...

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month at the Met!

I want to go to New York this weekend. Want to know why?

This coming Saturday, September 24th, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will be holding the special event, ¡Fiesta! Celebrating Hispanic and Latin American Cultures. The all-day, Museum-wide festival celebrates the richness of Hispanic and Latin American art and cultures. Take the whole family and enjoy gallery experiences, performances, art-making activities for all ages—and more! The event will run from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.

The event will begin on the front steps with a procession led by performers from the band Mariachi Real de México into the Great Hall of the Museum. From there visitors can join a number of different Family Programs taking place throughout the day, including intergenerational How Did They Do That? demonstrations focusing on both Spanish armor and Andean featherwork; Storytime in Nolen Library featuring books written in Spanish and in Spanish and English; and artist-led Drop-in Drawing workshops for all ages in the Vélez Blanco Patio, the Met's Spanish courtyard.

In addition to these activities, there will also be an Early Music Foundation Performance of 17th-century Spanish music and dance at 12:30 p.m., which will be set against the Museum's dramatic Spanish Choir Screen in the Medieval Galleries, and a Salsa Dance Workshop at 2:30 p.m. with dancers and an instructor from Ballet Hispanico. At 3:30 p.m., Mariachi Real de México will lead a second procession, this time from the Great Hall to the Museum's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium for Mexico in the Heart, a two-hour musical performance led by Jeff Nevin, featuring soprano Mónica Abrego, tenor Jose Luis Duval, The Villalobos Brothers, Mariachi Academy of New York, and Ballet Folklorico Raíces de México.

While you are there, you should stop in and see their Andean Tunic exhibit that features around 30 beautiful tunics! A great way to study South American culture and traditional costume. Make it a field trip!

Also, learn more about their programs for Spanish-speaking families. (How exciting is that?)

Now, how many of you live in the New York area?
 
Con mucho cariño....

Celebrate Museum Day With Free Admission!

Have I mentioned how much I love field trips? They are one of the best ways to get your kids excited about learning and can be a truly valuable tool for getting them to remember information.

Last month, during our first week of school, we piled in the car and drove, drove, drove, to go museum hopping. We started off at the Port O'Plymouth Museum in Eastern North Carolina, where we learned all about the Battle of Plymouth, the second largest Civil War battle fought in North Carolina. My daughter surprised me by taking copious notes and sketching many of the artifacts we saw.

Afterwards, we went on down to the God's Creation Wildlife Museum, which is a small, but beautifully kept museum featuring wildlife from the U.S. and Africa. My children were fascinated by the animals on display, and enjoyed learning about the conservation efforts that existed to protect many of the species, such as the African White Rhino shown below. This mount was actually a fiberglass replica made from an animal that the museum's owner had darted - for transport or health check, I forget which - while in Africa.

So naturally, I am pretty excited about Museum Day, which takes place on Saturday, September 24th. It is the annual celebration hosted by Smithsonian Magazine who started the event in the spirit of all the Smithsonian Museums who offer free admission daily. And I believe in the idea that all people should have access to a museum at least once, so that they may discover how truly fascinating history can be.

On Saturday, the 24th, museums all over the country will grant free access to anyone with a Museum Day Ticket, which may be downloaded here.

To find out if a museum near you is participating in the event, go here and enter your location, or simply search by state.

Don't forget to come back and share your trip with us!

Un abrazo...

The Importance of Family Vacations

Happy Fourth of July!

I promise to spend the rest of this week sharing resources for the next school year. But first, I want to catch you up about our family vacation.

As I mentioned in my last post, we decided to take a break last week for some serious family time. My favorite thing about summer is being able to relax, plan, and play. There's no schedule to keep, no school work to get done. (I might add here that my favorite thing about starting a new school year is getting back on schedule!)

After working so hard this year, I wanted to give the kids a really big treat. I want to be sure and emphasize to them that just because they have to work hard, doesn't mean they can't play hard, too.
 
And this year, my parents decided that instead of the beach, they wanted us to take the kids to - Disney World! (Yay, me!) So despite a rocky start (we lost a day due to plane cancelation - BOO, Delta!!), we had the time of our lives. Rather than try to cram everything in, we decided to just enjoy what we could, and not worry about seeing everything.
 
It was my first time to go. And although I was exhausted every evening and mis pies were barking, I loved it all. We managed to make it to Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and the Animal Kingdom. I really wish that we had had time to visit Epcot - it looks like they have some excellent exhibits on world cultures, as well as space. Maybe next time?
 
Naturally, my son's favorite part was Star Tours, the Star Wars ride at Hollywood Studios. But he also went crazy for the T-Rex Cafe where we ate dinner our last night. And, of course, the Lego Star Wars stuff...
 

  

 

 

My daughter preferred the Animal Kingdom. Especially the safari ride, the Tree of Life, and all sorts of little treasures she found along the way...

 

 

 
And my favorite part? What else? The LEGO STORE!!!
 

 

 

The only down side to the whole thing was the heat. Bluh. Next time I'm going in May. Maybe it won't be so sticky and crowded. (Yeah, right.)