Airport Code Journaling Cards

July 1, 2014 by Ann

Last year I wrote a post of 50 American experiences I want for my children as a celebration of American Independence Day.

This year, I want to give a little gift. I created these fun airport code journaling cards with the hopes that you can find equally fun uses for them. My suggestions? Use them as an impromptu personalized travel journal by printing them out and taping them to the cover of your favorite notebook. Or print on colored card stock and put it in a divided page protector for a photo album. Or printout a few of them and play a game.

Quick tips:

The cards measure 3 x 4 inches. Do not set the printer to “fit to size”.
There are 29 cards based on the 29 busiest airports in the US (via this list from Wikipedia). They are in alphabetical order according to city, then by the actual airport code.
Don’t print all of them if you want don’t want to (they print out one per page), but select the pages that correspond to the cities you want.
Chances are I’m missing your favorite airport. If you’d like me to add it, let me know in the comments and I’ll let you know when it’s done.

To download the free pdf click: Airport code Journaling cards.

Oh, and here’s my daughter playing with some I printed up, cut out, and added some details to. Possibilities – endless.

Happy fourth everyone!

(Oh, by the way, follow my board dedicated to printables I make. Everytime I post one, I pin it there. And if you use any and blog about it, I’ll pin it there too!)

Follow Ann@travelturtle’s board Travel Turtle Printables on Pinterest.ensemble de sous vetement pas cher

Filed Under: Engage, Family Travel, Printables

Favorites – a free download for trips

April 7, 2014 by Ann

Memory keeping is important to me.

Memory keeping while traveling is one of my favorite things to do.

Getting my kids to record their thoughts of our trips is almost my idea of perfection.

But it’s not easy.

When I started this blog, I created a free one-page travel journal printable that I figured would be a simple way for kids to record their memories in a fun way. I still love it, but sometimes we need something even simpler.

Before kids, I kept journals of our trips. So many journals – with insights, details, conversations, haikus, and sketches. At the end of each trip I did a summary of our favorites. I would ask my husband what his favorites were and add his answers next to my own. It’s one of my favorite (there’s that word again!) things to look at when I glimpse back at past trips. (And other than the sketches, it’s usually the only thing I look at).

So, this is my word for my day – favorite. And this is my encouragement of the day – find simple ways, other than photos, to record everyone’s thoughts while your travel. Even if it’s just by answering a few prompts.

My gift to you

To get you started, I’ve created a 4×6 printable with four “favorite” prompts. Use one per person, put several responses on each, or use one just for the general consensus. The 4×6 size means it will easily fit into most standard photo albums – you do print your photos don’t you? If not, store it separately. Perhaps an old photo box that now only houses travel favorites 4×6 cards created by yours truly. 🙂

Click on the image below to download.

Your gift to me

This post is part of the A-to-Z Challenge. I would love for you to take a moment (after downloading one of the “favorites” prompts) to visit another challenge participant, Contented Traveller. Their theme for this challenge is: a Weird and Zany World. I’ve had fun reading their posts, and I think you will, too.sous vetements sexywebsite optimization test social networks website gopro hero 3 silver edition specs

Filed Under: atozchallenge, Memory Keeping, Printables

Emergencies while traveling abroad

April 5, 2014 by Ann

Let me take a moment in this challenge to be serious.

We don’t like to think about it, but it happens. Emergencies arise while on vacation. The best thing you can do is prepare. Here are some tips on things you can do before you leave, and resources for you to bookmark.

If you have more tips, please leave them in the comments.

Purchase Travel Insurance

I can’t recommend a specific policy because ours is via my husband’s company. I am familiar with CSA Travel Insurance and World Nomads, though I haven’t used either personally. (These are not affiliate links, just links to the products for your convenience.)

Do your research for your destination

At the minimum make sure you have the 911 equivalent number for the destinations you’re traveling to. This list provided by the U.S. State Department should help.

Write down the number your country’s nearest consulate or embassy for each city you will be visiting. Note most U.S. embassy websites include contact information for English-speaking doctors in the vicinity. It will be under the section for American Citizen Services.

Read up on any necessary vaccinations, familiarize yourself with the medical process, and general safety tips via the U.S. State Department site.

If anyone in your group has allergies, keep a list of the allergies translated into the language of the country you are visiting. Even if people guarantee that all doctors will speak English where you are visiting, you never know. Trust me. I have 50/50 luck with English speaking doctors in Germany – and I’m in a big city.

Keep a copy with you

To help with this I’ve created a free downloadable pdf to keep track of this information for up to four countries. Print it out for each trip and put it in a safe place.

Now that we’re done being serious, I’d love it if you go and check out my friend Jenny’s blog A Taste of Travel. She’s also participating in the A to Z Challenge, focusing on places off the beaten path. True travel inspiration on her blog. Her selections so far have me wanting to purchase plane tickets, buy insurance, do a little research and fill out the form you hopefully just downloaded.sous vetements feminins sexy

Filed Under: atozchallenge, Encourage, Family Travel, Printables, Thoughts, Travel Advice

Travel Journal Prompts for Kids (And Adults!)

July 29, 2013 by Ann

Travel Journal Writing Prompts for kids – Free Download!

This is my 49th post!

In celebration, I want to share 49 travel journal prompts for kids to use on your vacations.

Before leaving:

What do you think the place will be like?
What do you think the people will be like?
What are you looking forward to the most?
What do you know about where we’ll be visiting? (It’s history, climate, language)
What’s your itinerary?
How do you say:
- Hello
- Good-bye
- Thank you
- Please
- Excuse me
- Do you speak English?

First Impressions:

What are the popular sites that you keep hearing about?
What is the landscape like?
How is this different from home?
How is it the same as home?
What is the history of this place? Is it older or younger? How does the architecture give you the feeling of that history?
Is it crowded?

Thoughts about a specific attractions/events/sites:

Were there a lot of lines, what were they like?
What do you think makes this place special?
If your best friend was going to visit this city, would you recommend this attraction, event, site… why?
Do you have something similar to this where you live? If not, what do you think is the closest thing to this site?
What did you learn about this site?
Draw it.

Everyday things:

What was the weather like? What did you have to do to prepare for the weather?
Have you tried speaking the local language? What have you said? How do people respond?
What kind of money is used here? What’s the exchange rate?
Have you watched any television? What types of things have you seen on the commercials?
What songs do you hear a lot (whether out and about or on your own mix that you brought with you)?
Did you go to a playground? What equipment was different from back home?
What did you wear today?
Did you get any blisters?

Food:

What did you eat for breakfast?
What did you eat for lunch? How much did it cost?
What is something on the menu that you’ve never seen before?
What is something on the menu that is similar to back home?
Have you visited a grocery store or farmer’s market? What did you think about the food selections? What was in season?

Public Transportation

How do you use the public transportation here? (Where do you buy the tickets, where do you validate the tickets, do you like to look up timetables?)
Do you like the public transportation here?

Things to do while out and about:

Draw what’s in front of you right now.
Draw something you saw earlier today.
Write down street signs.
Keep a list of words you think are funny.
Count the number of people who walk past you while you are sitting at this spot for exactly one minute and write it down.
Borrow a camera for a few minutes, take a picture of: what’s above you, what’s below you, what’s in front of you, what’s behind you, what’s to the left, what’s to the right, and a self-portrait. Write down what you saw.
Circle all the places on the map that you have visited.
Send yourself a postcard.
Write a haiku about something you’re doing right – now!
Find a sticker or a small brochure and put it in your journal.

Last Impressions:

How was this place like what you expected it to be?
What things surprised you here?
What do you want to do if you return?

Questions for the whole family: (I like to do these after a trip to get everyone’s feelings and keep a record of it in my travel journal.)

What was your favorite meal and drink?
What was one of the funniest moments on the trip?
What was your favorite thing to do?

Download the list of prompts here.

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Filed Under: Family Travel, Memory Keeping, Printables, Thoughts Tagged With: familytravel

Using Project Life Products for Travel Albums (and FREE Download)

July 15, 2013 by Ann

I’m always on the lookout for ways to keep my little kids interested in traveling. I know they’re so young right now, but I want to make certain things just a natural part of their childhood. This includes creating photo-albums just for them. My kids enjoy flipping through their albums, and my son loves pointing out pictures of himself.

My son also likes looking through our regular photo album, too. I document our everyday lives using the Project Life system. For those of you unfamiliar with Project Life (PL), it takes the idea of Project 365 (a photo a day) and adds a journaling and album aspect to it. One photo and one journaling card a day in one album for a year.

So as I was thinking of ways to document our travels, Project Life seemed like a good option. Not for a photo and journaling card a day, but to use the idea of a photo with a journaling card. The PL mini album (see disclaimer at the end of this post) holds 80 4×6 photos and 80 3×4 journaling cards. Perfect for a few short trips or one long one.

Other ways to use a Project Life Album for Vacation Memories

Aside from using the albums for their intended purpose (photos and words), you can:

Give your kids the album and see how they choose to fill it up.
Include ephemera you pick up on your trip: brochures, room keys, stationary, labels from different candy bars, anything and fill the pockets with those items.
Bring your blank journaling cards with you to Disney World and have each character sign their own card. Then keep the signed card with the picture.
Use the smaller pockets for instagram photos and the larger pockets to tell more story.
Film a video on your phone, upload it to YouTube and create a QR code. Print out that code, stick it in the album, and whenever you look through your album you can scan the code with your phone and watch your video. (Confused? Watch this short video by Mercy Tiera… It’s REALLY cool and kind of makes me feel like my photo albums are in Harry Potter.)

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Project Life Free Printable Journal Cards: Kid Travel Prompts

A few weeks ago I made a one page travel journal available for download.

I’ve recently taken that format and made it Project Life-friendly. Each “prompt” will now fit in either a 4×6 or 3×4 pocket.

Free Download – Kids Travel Project Life Journal Cards

The download comes with the 6 cards pictured above and 2 4×6 cards. If you’d like to download your FREE Project Life-friendly kids travel journal cards, you can do that here.

Do you think the Project Life system could work for your travel memories? Do you use any other system?

If you like to talk about travel AND different ways to preserve your family’s vacation memories, come join the brand new Google Community I created and let’s chat!

***Disclaimer: I’ve used Project Life since 2011 and am not affiliated with the company, just a fan. However, the PL Mini album link above is an affiliate link with Amazon. I make a small commission from any purchases made after clicking on that link.les vibrimasseurs acheter a bon prixweather in tanzania Ritmix RT-100

Filed Under: Family Travel, Memory Keeping, Printables Tagged With: familytravel, project life printables