Little Passports - Pitstops for Kids

If you’re lucky, you may have time for one more family vacation weekend before the kids have to hit the books. Ease into fall with these back-to-school family travel ideas, and if you can’t travel, use our Little Passports promo code to keep the love of travel alive all year! Kids will begin learning before school is in session, whether or not they can enjoy one last summer trip.

Visit a local historical park or monument:

Families don’t have to travel far to find local history. Find a national historical park or monument near your home, and pack a picnic. Find a pit stop en route, so the kids can swim or hike before or after touring the park. Many historical or state parks host living history days in August, during which kids can experience a taste of life in a different era. If you can’t find a destination of historical significance, opt for your local state park!

Plan a literary weekend:

If your kids have a favorite book series, plan a short trip to the location in which the series is set, or to the author’s hometown. Some of our favorites: Lexington, Massachusetts to visit the homes of Louisa May Alcott and Nathaniel Hawthorne, New York City to take a Percy Jackson city tour, or DeSmet, South Dakota to see the land of the Ingalls family from Little House on the Prairie.

Go geocaching:

No need to go further than your own neighborhood while geocaching, one of my kids’ new favorite activities. Armed with a simple smart phone geocaching app and a pencil, kids can cruise through familiar neighborhoods on bicycle or in new parts of the city or country with parents seeking treasure. Kids learn mapping and navigational skills, get exercise, and see new things.

Don’t have time for a last-minute trip?

Stay home and keep the family travel tradition alive with educational travel materials. Encourage kids to journal about their summer travel memories (you know, the traditional ‘What I did last summer’ essay), or get them started in the hobby of scrapbooking. Better yet, treat them to a subscription to Little Passports, which will feed their inner travel bug all year long:

We’re always on the lookout for educational products that teach kids about global destinations and cultures in a fun way. When we can’t travel the globe or the US, the next best thing is to learn about new places from home! Enter Little Passports. This subscription series is a home run: it’s creative, engaging, educational, and affordable.

What is Little Passports?

Basically, it’s a subscription for your kids. For the cost of a few magazine subscriptions, your kids get a package every month with activities, workbooks, art projects, and cultural lessons centered around one country or two US states. We’ve tried other educational subscriptions, but never have I seen one with so many features. Each monthly package comes with crafts, tangible items that represent the location, postcards, photos, and (actually fun) workbooks. In initial ‘Discovery’ kit includes an excellent world or US map.There’s a storyline every time which ties all the package elements together.

What sets Little Passports apart: We love the storytelling angle of Little Passports. The first month of subscription, your kids will receive a play suitcase filled with introductory materials. They’ll ‘meet’ Sam and Sofia, the two Little Passports characters, and learn their backstory: they’ve discovered a magical scooter which can take them to any state or country. (Think Magic Treehouse.) In subsequent months, Sam and Sofia return with a letter explaining what country or state they’re writing from. We find this to be a nice theme to hold the concept together: kids can immediately relate to the materials because of the fictional characters.

1. Choose the World Edition or the USA Edition:

We tried one of each, and are not sure which we like better. Our sample World Edition package was on Japan: we received our letter from Sam and Sofia describing the country and fun activities kids do there, such as origami and sushi rolling, then the kids were able to reach into the package to find a packet of origami paper and instructions, and a sushi eraser to use with the included worksheet. They got postcards from Japan, and a sticker to put on their suitcase or in their passport. Our USA Edition package included two states: California and North Dakota. There was a paper craft for each state, plus a workbook (one half on each state). Postcards, photos, and a letter from Sam and Sofia completed the kit.

Uses for your subscription: homeschooling, road trips, air travel, rainy days, boring weekends

Age range: both my eight-year-old and 11-year-old were engaged. The USA Edition actually has harder workbook materials in it for older kids, but the crafts and activities are geared to any age. My opinion: ages 4-6 with parent help (reading and helping with projects), ages 7-12 independently.

Can kids share? Absolutely. No need to buy more than one subscription per family.

Can you choose which destinations you receive? No. Therefore, Little Passports isn’t intended for travel planning or preparation in the direct sense. Rather, it’s intended for keeping kids excited about travel even when they’re at home, and for educating them about countries and states they have not visited (and may not have the opportunity to visit).

2. Choose a subscription plan:

You can buy month-to-month for $11.95, or can choose a 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month plan. If choosing a plan, you’ll pay upfront, but save money. My suggestion: opt for the 3 month plan to try it out.

Pit Stops for Kids was given a sample of Little Passports at no cost, for the purpose of review.

Back-to-School family travel ideas