Passport to Summer Fun – A Pinteresting World

Every parent's hope is to keep the kids occupied over the summer with fun things, many of which are outings.  Here's a simple and fun way to record the memories, while getting the kids involved in the planning and anticipation for the next activity (that doesn't involve electronics). 

****When it comes to Pinterest, I really have no clue. Honestly, I’ve never used the app. However, my wife has religiously, and in our house, she finds the idea and I’m normally in charge of the creative execution. This series will explore some of the creative ideas we have executed to the delight of our kids.**** 

Hopefully, you've made some fantastic summer plans. If not, we'll get into that more next week.  While some things may be fun arts and crafts at home, I'm sure there's plenty of other places you'll be "traveling" to, even if it's just down the road.  Some could be events like the Farmer's Market, Insane Inflatable 5k, or an activity at the library.  Others could be more extravagant, like that family vacation you're soooo looking forward to. As a young adult, I learned about the right of passage that is the passport.  My wife and I got ours during college, as we had a trip to Europe planned. It's something you look forward to filling up, recording all the places you've been, almost like a scrapbook of your past. You look forward to collecting each and every stamp.  Why not take the same idea for your kids for summer fun?

My wife found the unique idea on pinterest for these summer passport books for kids.  They look great in design, and are complete with the traditional info page, with space for a picture. They require a bit of assembly with paper folding and stapling, but that not hard at all.  You'll also need a stamper, or numerous different ones depending how creative you want to get.  Each time you return home, write in the box what the event was, then stamp it for completion.  If there's any souvenirs, like a Kernels ticket stub or something, you can stick that in the pocket that the paper fold makes, making this passport a mini scrapbook. Loving it yet?

The best part will be watching the kids get excited about filling up their passports, looking forward to the next outing, which they should help pick out and help you plan.  To me its a huge win when they get excited about anything that isn't Club Penguin, Lab Rats, or Sabrina the Teenage Witch, their current computer/TV show obsessions.  The next best part will come at the end of summer, when we look back as a family on all the cool things we did over the summer.  And just think how easy it'll be for them to do the annual "What I Did On My Summer Vacation" project/paper.

Get the Passport Template here.

Coming Next Week: Have You Created Your Summer Bucket List?