Gifts for Your Little Traveler

Every year I look for gifts that are fun, have lots of play value, and will hold up for the entire year. It's fun to try to find things that have a travel tie in too, and I always look for one or two things that help the kids expand their cultural horizons, I thought I would share some of our current favorites as well as the toys I'm considering for this year.

We've owned the Playmobil Jet Plane for almost four years now. It has (mostly) survived three kids and is still a popular toy in our house. If you don't fly frequently, this is also a great tool to help "act out" what would happen during a plane flight (and what is good airplane behavior) before each flight.

My kids love Lego, and they're fascinated by bridges. This LEGO Tower Bridge is just begging to be built by someone in my family.

In our house, everyone gets at least one book as a gift each year. My top pick for your little traveler is the The Not For Parents Travel Book. We were given a copy by the publisher a few months ago, and Everest hasn't set it down since. It's in the car with us on commutes, he falls asleep with it at night, and he's taken it with us on two plane trips. That's high praise from a 6 year old who is required to carry his own backpack! My take? this book does a nice job of blending interesting (to kids) facts with cultural information and tons of pictures.

My kids love watching the adventures of the two sisters in the Little Travelers DVD series (Japan, Bali, British Isles, Germany, and Iran) explore the world, and these are among the few kids DVDs that I actually enjoy sitting down to watch with them.

We've hung various US and World maps in Everest's room, but somehow the kids always seem to love them to death after a few months. I'd love to invest in a high quality canvas map (like this one from IKEA or this neat map decal for the whole family. As the kids grow, I know it will be a great way for us to learn about the places we're headed as well as places in the news.

When we returned from Santa Fe Everest and I made this Easy-to-Make Pueblo Village together. At 3, he needed a lot of help, but we really enjoyed having a project to do together (I'm not a particularly crafty mom, so pre-made projects are always welcome in my house) and he loved acting out some of his memories. The same company makes a variety of other travel-related kids, including a Northwest Coast Punch-Out Indian Village , Mayflower , Early New England Village, Western Frontier Town

More Lego? You bet. I'm a little obsessed with the Lego Architecture series. I'm tempted by the LEGO Rockefeller Plaza and the Lego Sears Tower (just $20) or better yet, buy some Basic Lego Bricks and try to recreate some of your favorite buildings.

My kids have a set of basic wooden blocks that they come back to over and over again. The way they play with them changes over time, but they never seem to fall out of fashion. It would be fun to familiarize the kids with other architectural shapes, and I love this Middle Eastern Blocks from Haba. The company also makes a Russian House, Antiquity Architectural Blocks, Japanese House Building Blocks and many other architecturally themed building blocks.

Wooden Sushi Set
Everest received this sushi set as a gift when Darya was born. We keep it in the car and grab it each time we enter a restaurant with the kids. Of course it's especially fun when we happen to be eating Japanese food! The set is simple, but the kids like rearranging the blocks, sticking the sushi rolls together (each piece has velcro) and cutting them apart again. Pretending to eat each piece usually takes up enough time that they don't even notice the long wait for our food & we think there's nothing cuter than watching the kids dip their real sushi in the fake soy sauce.

Balloon seller at Disneyland

Can I put in one more Passports with Purpose plug? Your $10 donation to build a library in Zambia could enter you to win a trip to Disneyland including park passes and hotel. Can't get to Disneyland this year? There are 88 other prizes that would make great holiday gifts too!

Filed Under: gift-guide

2 comments | Posted on December 7, 2011 | Save to del.icio.us

 Subscribe to our feed