The other product The Old Schoolhouse offered to start off this season (as I embark on this year’s cruise with the TOS Homeschool Crew) was an e-book calledTravel Kits: A Simple Way to Bless Others. Given the subject matter, I didn’t expect nearly as much information as was contained in this one e-book. To start with, it was 91 pages!
When I was 9, my (single) aunt offered to take my brother and I to Walt Disney World. (This was a long time ago, back when WDW consisted of just Epcot and the Magic Kingdom!) To keep us occupied on the very long plane ride across the country, she had packed a bag of wrapped gifts for us, that she gave us every so often along the trip. They were little toys and things to fidget with, coloring activities, and things like that. This is going to be one of those times when I have to groan and tell you I remember it vividly and it was TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO! (Wow, that makes me feel old!)
What my aunt Patty did for us on that trip, is essentially the idea behind “Travel Kits.”
Donna Rees starts out the e-book with the “Who, What, Where, When, Why and How”, explaining that you can not only make kits like these for your children or family for long trips, but they can be, as the title insinuates, a great way to bless another family when they are about to embark on a journey. What parent wouldn‘t be thrilled if a friend was to offer something like this to occupy their children on a long drive?
Wanting to give this e-book my best trial and review, I ran through my mental calendar to see if I could throw something together for my own children for an upcoming trip, but initially couldn’t come up with anything planned besides a 20 minute drive to our family beach property… and I’d just given my children a sand bucket full of things to keep them occupied on our weekends out there (a tradition for the first weekend out there each year.) So they really didn’t need anything more.
Then I remembered… in a few weeks we were planning a trip that would take over 4 hours each way in the car. Perfect. So while I can’t give you the full review of how well our children were kept occupied with their kits (the review needs to be posted before we actually leave), I can give you an overview of the book and tell you what I’ve prepared for our upcoming trip.
The e-book is crammed full of ideas of gifts to purchase, how to wrap them, containers to present them in, how to distinguish which gifts are for whom in a “family kit”, and even ideas about how to decide when it’s time to open another gift (anything from every 30 minutes, to every time you see a McDonald’s sign!)
There are color photos throughout, adding interest and giving fun ideas of things to include. I especially appreciated a section on things to include for Mom or Dad. I fall into the trap far too often of planning for the children, but neglecting the fact that my husband would probably love some little surprises along the way, too - things like his favorite candy bar, or a Starbucks gift card. Who doesn’t like to open gifts?
There’s a whole chapter suggesting reading material to include, another for fun games you could add in (or even create), and the e-book closes with loads of travel tips, that include but go way beyond just the kits.
So, back to my own kits. I dug through our gift and prize bin first, to cut down on expenses, and found several items that I could include. Score. Next stop: the Dollar Tree. Intending to be as frugal as possible, I still didn’t get out of there without spending $60... which is considerably more than I intended. While Mrs. Rees mentions frugality several times in this e-book, many of the examples she gives of things to include cost upwards of $5 each. That could really add up fast! Here are a few things I included in Sam’s bag:
A small notebook and mechanical pencils, a plastic lizard, a small lego kit, several small snacks, a comic book, a flashlight, a water gun (it will be VERY hot where we are headed), a bandana, new earbuds for his ipod (in his assigned color), a punch-balloon, and more.
And here are some of Hallie’s gifts, wrapped and ready to go:
For fun, I used more than one kind of wrapping paper for each child, but to keep things straight in case the bags get dumped, each child’s items are wrapped using their own color of ribbon. I was excited to find (also for $1 each), these cute bags in each of the children’s colors. What a fun way to present their kits and keep their things together as much as possible.
I’m excited for the trip, and to give these kits to my four children. I’m confident they’ll help pass the time on an otherwise very long car ride.
Regarding the e-book itself, like I said before, the sheer amount of information contained within the pages was astounding. If you’re already the creative type (like I consider myself to be), you may find the $12.45 price tag just a little steep. I certainly picked up some fun ideas from the book, but having experienced something very similar when I was young, and already having a mind for this sort of thing, I’m not sure the new information I gleaned was enough to justify 12 dollars from our already tight budget (in addition to that $60 at the dollar store carrying out the plan!) However, if the idea is new to you, or you have a heart to bless others but really do struggle with knowing what to do, I think you’ll find this to be a valuable resource that you can refer to again and again. And truly, the act of putting all of these fun little gifts together and wrapping them is a lot of fun!
If you’re interested in similar topics, The Old Schoolhouse Store also has other e-books on topics like Travel Games to Sew, Travel Activities in a Binder, and Reading Games in a Bag, plus many more.
Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this product in exchange for my honest review. I have not been compensated in any other way.
