As we are quickly approaching the end of the school year (our first with the girls), we are shifting to think about fun things to do with the kids over the summer. While I grew up on over an acre in the country, anyone who has toddlers will know that kids really don’t need a massive yard to have a great time. Raising kids in the city means that we make a much more concerted effort to get the kids back into nature and Vancouver is a city that makes it very easy to do that.
This summer, while we will escape for adventures around and out of the city a few times, I wanted to think of ways to entertain the kids close to home and that’s where Little Passports comes in. If you have been reading the blog for a while, you may remember I shared the Early Explorers kit from last summer.
Little Passports provides kits for kids to help educate them about the world around us. Each month you will be sent a kit about a different country. They include photos of the countries, games, toys, information and activities for the kids to do whilst using characters to tell a story. While I fell in love with the easy to explain and ready to go activities in the kits, the kids fell in love with characters Mia and Max from the Early Explorers kit and Sam and Sofia from the World Edition kit. Xavier was so excited to open and see stuffed animal Toby the dog and has been carting him to preschool, on car rides and tucking him into bed at night ever since (so cute!).
We are very spoiled to have a backyard, while still living so close to the city and for this stage of life, it really is perfect. You can turn your backyard into anything and this time we decided to do a summer day camp with the kids and pretend we were camping. We (ok, the hubby) DIY’d the tent and the adorable campfire kit was found on Etsy. Little Passports has these delightful free printables to help make the camping experience come to life. The kids especially loved the scavenger hunt and although we didn’t spot a squirrel, we do get them running along the fence every so often. Finding an insect was Xavier’s favourite with potato bugs hidden under every plant pot!
With our twins turning 6 earlier this year, they were ready for the World Edition kit, catered to 6-8 year olds, which includes more detailed information about the countries and more difficult activities. While we were outside ‘camping’, we opened the Egypt kit and talked about where Egypt is on the map, key landmarks that were included in the Early Explorers kit and the girls started working on this pyramid dig which has so far kept them entertained and focused for over an hour!
Thanks to Little Passports for making me feel like an organized Mom who can pull off an outdoor camping shoot with my kids. The kids loved it and I feel like we could do this every week all summer, exploring different countries and talking about where they are, whether Mom and Dad have travelled there and various fun facts to enlighten them. We love the kits and the imaginative play that ensues from the kids is a lifesaver for those summer days at home. Get the summer camp activities and printables to create your own backyard campout here!
*This post has been created with Little Passports, a product that I genuinely love. All photos, words and experiences are my own.