Category Archives: Travel

Koffer Packen: Kids’ Packing List

Posted in Getting them to read more, Travel, Uncategorized by

Koffer Packen GitA-page-001

Last year when we went to Europe, I found some great packing lists for kids online. But of course, they were all in English! (See for example: this one from Lemon Lime Adventures; or this one from Stuffed Suitcase with images for non-readers.) They worked great for our preparations last year. But this year, I just had to make my own!

Here is what they look like:

 

 

There are three packing lists:

  • Kleidung (Clothing)
  • Toilettenartikel (Toiletries)
  • Rücksack (Backpack)

You can download all three of them here: Koffer Packen GitA (PDF)

Only the Kleidung page has images. I haven’t decided yet if I want the images on there or not 🙂  For Hippo (age 3), the images make sense. But if the goal is to get Froggy (age 6) reading as many German words as I can put in front of him, then the pictures may be doing him a disservice. We haven’t actually done the packing yet, so I’ll see how it all goes! If I think they could use some adjusting, I’ll edit the pages and repost.

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Travel Games for Germany and the Netherlands

Posted in Games, Travel, Uncategorized by

We’ll be heading back to the Netherlands and Germany this summer. We fly in and out of Frankfurt and then have about a 5-hour drive to and from the Netherlands. So in addition to packing things to keep the kiddos busy on the airplane, I have a separate stash of things to keep them busy in the car.

I just finished creating a set of cards that can be used in a variety of ways. You can play Memory, I Spy, Go Fish. Or laminate an entire sheet and mark off the things you see with a dry erase marker (did you know they make washable ones?!) or a small post-it. There are two pages of various items – one for each of the boys (that way there is no competition over who sees what first!). And there is also a one-page set of just vehicles. At the end, there is an additional sheet to help count up a few of the things you might see on a long drive.

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Items included are:

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The vehicles page includes: das Flugzeug, der Bus, der LKW, das Fahrrad, ein gelbes Auto, der Bagger, der Traktor, der Kipper, das Motorrad, der Hubschrauber, das Feuerwehrauto, & der Zug.

I’d love to hear how you use the cards!!

UPDATE- August 2016:

Froggy really enjoyed the game of looking for items on his page. Hippo lost interest after finding just a few. We went with the option of covering the found items with post-its (the 1 7/8″squares worked perfectly):

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UPDATE – July 2017:

We will be taking the scavenger hunt with us again this year! But I also found another, longer hunt – with only German words! – at another blogger’s site. Check out THIS POST for more info!

UPDATE – May 2018: 

I have made a new version of my Road Trip Scavenger Hunt! This one is adjusted more to traveling by train, but it could work well from the car, too! Check out THIS POST to get the new FREE download!