Traveling

My mother gave Zachary this great map for his birthday. It is an FAO Schwartz item however she got it discounted online. It comes with velcro names of continents, oceans, some countries, and animals.  We could have just used a regular large world map to play with also.  It's fun to just put it on the floor or low on the wall and it probably would have been doable to print off animals, countries, and oceans from around the world and laminated them.  

All About Me Project

We are hoping to make a booklet all about Zachary. Adelyn can make one when she gets old enough also.  We will include where he is from, where his family is from, favorite foods, colors, books, movies, sports, games, activities, etc and also the places he has been with pictures of the states or cities. Hopefully we can include our great bluebonnet pictures too. 

Books

      A School Like Mine: Europe-  We got this one at Chick Fil A There are a few other books in the    series about other countries.

   The Earth and Sky: A First Discovery Book- we also read the one like this called Musical Instruments which has some from other parts of the world. 

   

The Armadillo from Amarillo is a great book by Lynne Cherry where an Armadillo begins travels in San Antonio, goes to Amarillo several other states and then to the moon.

the Waterhole by Graeme Base- Has animals from different countries on each page who are drinking from a water hole which are all becoming dried up. Children learn that the rain fills up the waterhole again and takes away the dryness from the land.

Home made Air Show

We are a little bit obsessed with jets in our family. All four of us are fans. When the kids and I play in the backyard in the afternoons we all stop and look up at the sky. We live close to Lackland Air Force Base so we get to see a lot of the jets fly over the house.  I love it.  Most of the time we see the C5s and the F16s.  

So we had a play time with jets. Zachary put on an air show for us.  He had an Thunderbird from the air force and a Blue Angel from the navy.  He also had a Continental jet participate.  As you can see there were many others as well. Mostly he just flew the planes around the house making jet sounds but we had fun.

Ideas for Children to Survive a Parent Being Away

Ideas for Children When a Parent Travels Away

One of my parenting magazines had some suggestions for making a parent's temporary departure easier.

1. Count Down the Days- Make a tear-away calendar or something similar so they have something to help understand when the parent is coming home.

2. Look at the Lovely- Take along a stuffed animal or toy and photograph it doing cool things like flying or sightseeing.

3. Record your voice- Use the computer or smart phone to record a message, video, or story for bedtime.

4. Video Chat- Skype or gmail!

5. Start a Virtual Diary- familydetails.com has a free website for the family to write day to day activities, upload pictures and texts.

6. Create Together- If a parent is gone for a long time create a picture together. Start out with a single line on a page and mail it back and forth, adding one line or shape until you have a piece of art.

Here is an example of number 2


Mouse traveled with Daddy on his business trip.


Mouse went to the pool.



Mouse sleeps in.