Electronics for traveling kids & parents: tips and resources

Up until now, I've been fairly gadget-less when I travel with my kids. They are not into hand-held games, I don't own an iPad, and I usually leave the laptop at home. I do carry a cellphone, and occasionally an mp3 music-player, but that's about it.

However, with the right kind of content, electronic gadgets can make excellent pastimes for traveling kids.

1. Apps for phones
There are a lot of choices when it comes to kid-friendly apps for your phone (as well as other electronic devices).

• iPhone apps from parenting.com.
• Tons of apps, educational and otherwise, for phones and other devices from iKidApps. 
• There are also many free book apps available.
• Best Kids Apps has a list of Best Android Apps for Kids.
• If you like the idea of being able to access audio-books for your kids,  you might be interested in Tales 2 Go. This is a subscription service that provides access to streaming content on your phone.
• Moms with apps is also a very good site to check out for kid-friendly apps. 

2. iPads & apps
I know many kids really love iPad's, especially the simplicity and intuitive control of the touch-screen. There are many sites that offer reviews and recommendations of iPad apps specifically for kids, for example:

• iPad for kids.
• Best Kids Apps.
• Techradar's 10 best iPad apps for kids.

3. Laptops
If you're bringing your laptop on-board, you can obviously access any games you have installed on it, and a lot of online content (if you have access to wi-fi: many airports do offer wireless Internet access these days). For my next trip, my laptop will probably be traveling with us on the plane, including my kids' current favorite games:

• Green Eggs and Ham.
• Dr Seuss ABC.
• Clifford's Birthday.
• Starfall.com.

4. Handheld games
A lot of kids take their hand-held games everywhere, and it can definitely be a good way for them (or you!) to spend the time on a long-haul flight. Lots of systems are available, just make sure to pick one that your child likes (I still haven't been able to find one that holds my kids' interest!), and that isn't too bulky or heavy to bring in a carry-on.

• Nintendo DS.
• LeapFrog Text and Learn.
• Leapster 2 / Leapster Explorer.
• Kid-Tough Preschool Game Player.

5. Portable DVD players
If you're going on a long trip, movies are usually a sure-fire way to keep your kids occupied. There are tons of portable players, and just like with anything else you're bringing on board an airplane: make sure it's reasonably sturdy, not too bulky, and not too heavy. Also, bring some kid-sized headphones!

6. Audio players
Audio players can also be a great way for your child to pass the time while traveling, listening to music, books or stories. There are many different players on the market, and you'll just have to decide which one you think works best for your child.

• iPods.
• Sweetpea MP3 players.
• Disney Mix Stick.

 

7. The Kindle (and other e-readers)
Many of my friends are totally sold on the Kindle, and I think e-readers can definitely be great for traveling kids, whether they can read themselves or you are still reading to them. (Because of the constant engine noise, it can be a challenge to read to a child on-board, but it can be done.) Check out kids.kindlenationdaily.com for news and tips on using a Kindle for kids.

Tips for airplane-travel with electronics 

• Electronic devices, like laptops, phones, hand-held games and the like are usually allowed on board. However, they do have to be turned off completely at take-off and landing.
  
• Laptops often have to go through the security screening separately, meaning you have to take them out of your bag and out of their carrying case. Just be ready for this and you'll save yourself a lot of time.
• The TSA's website has the latest regulations for what you can and can't bring on board, and what electronics must be screened separately.
• Small electronic devices, like iPads, audio-players, etc. can usually stay in your hand-luggage when you go through security.

• Remember to bring any wires and battery-chargers you need. Also bring adapters and converters if you're traveling to a foreign country: an electronic gadget really is no good to you or your kids unless the battery is charged!
• Make sure you check with your cell-phone provider if you can use your phone abroad and what it will cost you. The rates for making calls, texting and using the Internet can become quite astronomical if you don't watch out!

Final thoughts
If you are traveling with kids, especially if you're the only adult or if you're traveling with an infant, carefully consider what electronic devices you bring with you. Your carry-on can become quite full even without any electronic gadgets.

Also consider that if you are traveling as the only adult, you might have to lug your carry-on with you everywhere (including inside a washroom to change a diaper), if you don't want to leave your electronics unattended.

Sheep-shearing fun & farm-stay ideas

Just like last weekend, I spent this Sunday with my kids at North Vancouver's Maplewood Farm. It was the Sheep Festival today, and I have to say: it was fantastic.

We got there early, so there was lots of parking. The kids spent some time in the playground next to the parking lot until the gate opened at 10 am. By then, the farm was quite busy and we walked around looking at the donkeys and pigs, the birds and especially the rabbits.

My kids could have spent all day with the rabbits I think, getting covered in sawdust, feeding them various veggies, and petting them. The Maplewood Farm rabbits are extremely docile, and also very big. I kept wondering how one might look in a waistcoat, so obviously I've been watching Alice in Wonderland a few too many times lately with the kids!

Note to self: Next time, bring a big bag of something like dandelions, carrot tops or parsley, because that seemed to be what the rabbits really went for, more than carrots, lettuce and especially cucumber.

We also took some time to look at the very loud, unshorn sheep in the barn.

Shear fun
The sheep-shearing itself took place under a big tent, and the lady who did the honors handled a big, heavy sheep with no problem at all, electric shears in one hand, ewe in the other. That thick, heavy fleece just peeled off, until only a very un-woolly sheep remained. (My daughter was quite entertained by the idea that the sheep would eventually be nude...) The kids loved it, even though they were also a bit worried that the sheep was either sad, scared, or angry (they couldn't quite make up their minds).

We also got to see how a sheep's toe-nails are clipped, and found out that the clippings are considered a delicacy by dogs. Ewww! Or should that be "ewe"? The bad puns just keep coming to mind when you're watching the shearing of the sheep being: "shear fun", "sheeps of fun"...

Sheepdog in action.

Afterwards the kids picked up a small bag of cleaned, combed and dyed wool from one of the wool-craft tables set up at the farm. The wool was supposed to be used to make felt, but my children just wanted to bring that fluffy stuff home as is.

There were lots of wool-related activities all around the farm:

• spinners and weavers demonstrating their craft
• demonstrations of how wool is washed and carded
• yarn being dyed with natural ingredients like onion skins, and un-natural ingredients like Kool-Aid
• sheepdogs herding ducks and sheep

We had brought our own lunch, which we ate at the picnic tables while the horses had their lunch nearby (apple and hay for them; sandwiches, yogourt, crackers and cherry tomatoes for us). There was also a mobile concession stand on-site, manned by Metro Catering, and fresh-squeezed juice was available from the Juice Caboose.

It was a lot of fun, and I think we might make this an annual event to look forward to.

Farm-stays
Watching my kids get so excited by visiting Maplewood Farm and the animals there made me consider whether we should go on a farm-stay vacation with them soon. I think staying on a farm and getting to help out with the chores and the animals might be something they'd really enjoy.

Looking online for places that do these types of family vacations in British Columbia, I found several places in different parts of the province, but these three stood out to me:

• Arrowvale Campground - This one is on Vancouver Island and sounds almost ideal for my family: we love to go camping, and here's a campground (and cottages) right next to a farm. I think this place, or something like it is on top of my farm-stay list.
• Bold Point B&B Farmstay - A bit more upscale than camping, this farm is located on Quadra Island between Vancouver Island and the mainland. The photos look great, and it's close to the forest and the ocean.
• Old Tower Farm - This organic farmstay is located in the Okanagan, in Keremeos. The pictures from the farm, especially of the starry sky, are awesome.

Photographic memories: Lynn Canyon, North Vancouver, BC

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Location: Lynn Canyon, North Vancouver, about three years ago. This picture was taken near a part of the river where it's easy to get down to the water's edge: even swim, if you're so inclined. (Though the water is freezy cold, even in summer.) There are lots of nice smooth rocks to collect or throw into the swift-flowing rapids, or into the shallow, calm pools at the river's edge.

What I remember most: My daughter was so little we brought the stroller on the easy hiking trail, but she was certainly big enough to huck rocks into the water!

Why we go back: We go for hikes in Lynn Canyon at least once a month. The trails are perfect for the kids, and down by the river there are boulders and logs to sit on and enjoy a snack, and maybe cool down a bit if the weather's hot. And all of it is surrounded by huge trees and the scent of pine-trees and sap and earth.

It's just a good spot to be.

15 do-s & don't-s when flying with kids

Do...

1. ...clean your kids' hands, and your own, with soap, hand-sanitizer gel, antibacterial wipes (or all of the above!) every time you've been in the airplane or airport bathroom, and every time before you eat.
2. ... put your plastic bags with liquids where they are easy to find and reach: you will probably be asked to remove them from your bag at security checkpoints.
3. ...turn around to check if you left something behind at the check-in counter, the restaurant table, in the washroom, or anywhere else you stop and might put stuff down.
4. ...let your kids watch the same movie or cartoon or old TV-episode 50-eleven times over on the long-haul flight if that's what they want to do: variety is overrated! (It's also oddly relaxing, and almost hypnotic to see the same show play out over and over and over again: some kind of zen meditation?)
5. ...put your kids' drinks in sippy cups to avoid spills and to be able to save their drinks for later: a half-empty, regular cup of juice sitting on a tray table in front of a preschooler is just an accident that's going to happen.
6. ...get up to take your kids to the washroom, even if they just went. Sure, maybe they're just doing it because they have some odd fascination with the cramped quarters, but still: better safe than sorry! Plus, moving around reduces the risk of blood clots in your legs!
7. ... try to sleep when your kids sleep on board. Unless you haven't had the time or opportunity to eat your meal yet: in that case, do that first. Eating undisturbed is a rare occurrence when you're flying with kids, so enjoy it!

Don't...

1. ...ask your kids who gets the window seat if your traveling with more than one (competitive) child: it will only end in tears. Instead say "So, it's X's turn to have the view on this flight, Y gets the nifty aisle seat! And then you switch on the next flight!" Or, even better, throw a dice/draw straws before the flight to determine who will get to pick first.
2. ... wait until just before the flight boards or the plane lands to ask your child if they need to go to the washroom: if they say yes you might not be able to get there in time.
3. ... put a carry-on with vital items like diapers, snacks, or toys in the overhead compartment if you can help it. All that up and down and digging around for your bag gets old fast.
4. ... travel without a change of clothes for your kids and yourself: it's just tempting fate!
5. ... wear tight socks or shoes on board: once your feet swell up from the altitude you'll regret it.
6. ... wear random big metal items (belt-buckles, jewellery) because they will probably set off the metal detectors and slow you down in every single security check.
7. ... forget to bring a second soother if your child uses one.
8. ... forget to bring your own comfort items (it's sometimes easy to forget your own stuff when you're all worried about remembering everything for the kids). For me, the comfort items include a small tube of moisturizing cream that can be used on hands and face, and a chap-stick. Starting on my next flight, it will also include an inflatable neck-pillow.

Traveling with kids via Iceland: why tempt the volcano?

The recent volcanic eruption in Iceland was luckily short-lived, and did not cause the kind of mayhem last year's eruption of Eyjafjallajökull did. However, since I will be flying Iceland Air to Sweden with my children later this summer, the delays and cancelled flights did make me wonder if I'd made the right choice flying via Iceland.

Yet another Icelandic volcano.

My family did have a good experience flying with Iceland Air before. I've written previously on this blog about our Iceland layover in January 2010. Unfortunately we won't be staying in Iceland this time (or at least we don't plan to: hopefully the volcanoes will let us go...), but there were several other considerations that made me decide to go with Iceland Air rather than another airline.

Price - Flying Iceland Air from Seattle's Sea-Tac airport to Stockholm, Arlanda was significantly cheaper than flying any airline out of Vancouver International.

Flight-duration - Flying via Iceland distributes the flight time more evenly between the two flights to Stockholm, and makes for a slightly shorter combined flight time. Instead of one 9 hour flight and one 2 1/2 hour flight, we end up with one 7 hour flight and one 3 hour flight. Not a huge difference, but I found it a lot easier to take those flight times than our usual long-haul schedule.

Easier connections - Keflavik Airport is small compared to a lot of the major airports in Europe (Amsterdam and Frankfurt for example), and this makes it much easier to get from your arrival gate to your departure gate. Also, Iceland Air is a fairly small airline, but they dominate the air-traffic in and out of Iceland. In other words, they know that most of the passengers for the departing Iceland Air flights are arriving on incoming Iceland Air flights, and will wait for them if at all possible.

At the Blue Lagoon, Iceland in January 2010.

Good service - I found that the service was very good, both on the airplane and at the airport. I had to pay for my meal, but the kids' meals were free. And of course, there's the Saga Shop service (which I really like and will use again). The people were also generally friendly, low-key and helpful. Even the security screeners seemed more relaxed (even though they did go through our carry-ons by hand) than I've seen at other airports (including some much smaller airports).

I did encounter one stewardess who did not speak English, which seemed a little odd to me (especially since most Icelandic people I encountered spoke English very well), but hey, those things happen. Maybe her German or Danish or French was better than mine!

Volcanic ash goes a long way - During last year's eruption, Iceland itself was not always the place where the airports were closed. Seems odd, but there you go. The ash shoots up in the atmosphere and who knows where it will end up? (The meteorologists I guess.) If there is a volcanic eruption, traveling through another European airport might not be a better option, rather the opposite.

So, I've got my fingers crossed that no other Icleandic volcanoes will erupt in the next couple of months (*knocks on wood*), and that if they do, their ash will go fly somewhere else than Keflavik and Arlanda air space.