Disclaimer:: Cincinnati Moms Blog received free product in exchange for this post, however opinions are 100% our own and genuine.
Recently, three members of the Cincinnati Moms Blog team were given the opportunity to sample and experience some of the Little Passports subscription boxes. Little Passports is a monthly mail subscription service focused on world exploration. First, you select your experience from three different adventure packages designed for children ages 3-12. Your introductory kit will arrive with everything your child needs to get started. Destination-specific packages then arrive every month filled with letters, souvenirs, activities & more. After that, each month, you and your children will explore and enjoy your next global adventure. (Product descriptions courtesy of littlepassports.com)
Our second review focuses on the USA Edition package, recommended for ages 7-12 years old.
I am always searching for engaging activities to spice up our homeschool days and build on my children’s interests. We all love to travel here, so Little Passports sounded right up our alley! Not to mention, I love the idea of a complete box of educational, engaging, themed activities arriving in our mailbox each month that requires little planning on my part. While they offer kits for kids as young as 3-years-old, we tried out the USA Edition, geared toward kids 7 to 12 years old. My kids are 7, 9, and 12.
Our discovery packet included an introductory letter, a USA scratch book, a disposable camera, a map of the world, and a Field Guide where we can record information about all the places our guides will be visiting. Sofia and Sam, our traveling guides/pen pals explained in our letter that we would explore two states each month with activities, stickers, postcards, and puzzles. For the first month, the Field Guide encourages kids to think about states they have already visited, identify important national landmarks, and explore their own city and the things that make it unique.
After reading the letter from Sofia and Sam, I was happy to see my two younger kids dive right in to the scratch book. They each started claiming pages that they wanted to work on, and one got busy revealing the rainbow colored and shimmering holographic images right away. Not only did the scratch book make for some easy and pretty art, it introduced the kids to the names of important landmarks, historical events, and national symbols that I imagine will be explored more in future kits.
The Field Guide was the more engaging activity for my oldest. It was definitely the most interesting and educational part of the kit as well. It asked the kids to identify states they have visited, find landmarks on the included map, answer questions about United States geography and their city, and do a photo scavenger hunt of their hometown. While we haven’t started our actual hunt yet, we did have a lot of fun brainstorming a list of Cincinnati must-sees that we will include–Skyline Chili and Graeter’s for “tasty food,” the city skyline from the Kentucky side for “the sky at night,” a Red’s hat or jersey for “sports item,” and the Great American Tower for “cool building.”
I think it’s probably a stretch to say this kit is appropriate for 12-year-olds, seeing that my 12-year-old could answer all the geography questions from memory. I think 10 is probably a better upper age limit, but my oldest was still engaged enough with the activities to say he “wouldn’t mind” trying out another kit. I think this had a lot to do with the photo scavenger hunt using an actual camera with film (the likes of which my children had never seen before!) and the personal connections to the information that the questions guided them to make–the number of states we have visited, their favorite things about Cincinnati, states where we have friends and family.
Overall, I was pretty impressed with our Little Passports kit. It could be used as an open-and-go activity for a rainy afternoon, or it could be a great jumping off point for an in-depth study of the states. Even if it is best suited for kids ages 7 to 10 (maybe not quite 12 like they suggest), I still think it’s a pretty hefty feat to find activities to keep that wide age range interested all at once. (Ever tried to find one thing a 7-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy both want to do at the same time? Don’t bother. Trust me.) If you can’t see all the states from the backseat of your car, your kids can still have fun exploring our country right from their kitchen table with Little Passports.
