Summer’s right around the bend! Throw open the windows and put on your flip-flops! Where I’m from, folks head to the mountains or the seashore for long-awaited vacations. Wherever the highways or jet planes take you this season, plan to document the memories with artifacts and keepsakes accumulated by the whole family! Try a few of the following low-tech, kid-friendly ideas and reconnect with your imaginations and each other.

A Summer Box

Give each child a storage tote for summer keepsakes. It can be a cardboard or plastic box with a lid. Personalize them with beads and buttons, ribbon and feathers, markers, stickers, or whatever else they dream up. Something as simple as a walk in the park can inspire drawings, poems and photos to save in the Summer Box.

Pack Your Bags

I mean this literally – pack quart-sized storage bags with zippered tops for seashells, arrowheads, pebbles and other treasures of travel that your children want to save. Seashells in particular come in a great variety and can be identified and labeled for an interesting display. Please be sure not to violate any state or national park regulations. Instead, photograph items that can’t be collected.

Cameras at the Ready

The unplugged version of photography is the disposable camera. Buy a supply so you can affordably replace the ones that get dropped into a lake. Disposables have to be developed, and waiting to see the pictures is part of the fun. Document summer events with a homemade storybook for a fun record of a special day. (Feel free to “plug in” and use your phone or digital camera to save time. I won’t tell!)

Stimulate the Senses

Have children observe their surroundings. Bring binoculars to look for birds. Can you see them or just hear their songs? Crayons are great for making bark rubbings of trees. Just hold a sheet of white paper over the trunk and rub the paper with the broad side of a crayon until you have an impression of the bark’s texture and pattern. Stop and smell flowers and watch bees pollinating. Consult illustrated books to identify the flora and fauna you discover.
Four good ones are:
Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast, by Michael Wojtech >


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Trees, Leaves and Bark, by Diane L. Burns >










What’s that Flower? By DK Publishing >










National Geographic Kids’ Bird Guide of North America by, Jonathan Alderfer >

Surprise Package

Whether you’re on an extended tour or a day trip, it’s fun to collect “freebies” like brochures, maps, bookmarks, napkins, menus and ticket stubs. Assemble a package full of fun travel reminders to take out on a rainy day. If you’re on an extended trip, mail it home for a post-vacation surprise. Another exciting surprise package can be arranged in advance of travel, by writing to the appropriate tourist bureau or chamber of commerce. When the literature arrives, announce that the family is going on a trip and let the children in on the planning.

Jot it Down

Give children a small notebook to capture special moments with a few words or pictures. Describe a train ride or draw a sunset over the ocean. For children who can’t write yet, have them dictate their thoughts to you. These words and pictures can be cut out and placed in scrapbooks.

Take Flat Stanley Along

Another fun travel activity starts with reading Flat Stanley, by Jeff Brown >.




My children heard this charming story in school. Read it with yours, if they haven’t. Stanley wakes up one morning as flat as a pancake – flat enough to mail in an envelope - and the adventure begins. Have your child make a cardboard or craft foam Flat Stanley. Write to a relative in another city and enclose Stanley. Ask for a photo of Stanley at a landmark to mark his trip. See how many places and people he can visit before summer’s end. Or, take Stanley on day trips or a vacation with your own family. Photograph him at the ballpark or on a plane for an interesting back-to-school Show ‘n Tell.

Plan ahead and make memories to treasure with your children this summer!

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