Travelling with kids? Cool souvenirs and collections ideas!



March break is fast approaching and if you're venturing somewhere with your family it's a good time to start or continue family traditions to create lasting memories.  Why bother?  Simply because it's fun, it can be free, and as our family has discovered: it becomes important over time.  Small objects and collections can be fantastic keepsakes and will bring back warm memories for years to come.  Each family member can have his/her own collection or it can be done together.

Here's a visual board of some souvenir ideas to collect over time and some great ways to keep them and display them (which is also important!).  What I love most about this idea is that we don't really need to travel far to record fun experiences.  It's a matter of finding what works for each person or family.  Feel free to add to the board or leave a comment here or on my FB page. 

When we travel, I love the idea of getting local traditional toys, rocks, postcards, and tiny sand bottles but there's so much more that can be done to remember a special experience and/or place!  Click on the link to see my Pinterest idea board.

Click here to view

Our family has a couple of travelling traditions, we collect one small rock (or seashell or whatever else is interesting!) during each holiday.  We then add it to our bird's nest.  This bird was a wedding gift to mon homme and I years ago, and the idea of making it a family travels'  keepsake came nicely written on a card with warm wishes of fun future adventures.  How special is that?  It has become one of our must cherished possessions, and always will be.  

Lovely steel bird by Jean-Pierre Schoss
from Dog Bite Steel. 

Another tradition for us is writing personal journals - they're kind of mandatory in our family.  A new journal for every trip.  They have also been kept and cherished.  Sometimes individual entrees are shared (road trips are perfect for that!) and I can honestly say that some of our kid's observations have become priceless memories and fantastic insights into their worlds.  I also love making photo-albums.  My rule of thumb is no more than 25 shots per holiday, ideally 15 in a big format.  The editing process can be long (from 1000 to 15?  Yap! :S) but really, there's no need to immortalize in a book tons of images (you can keep those in your computer).  In my experience shorter albums get revisited more often. 

Now... how about your family?  Any special traditions you'd like to share?  Please feel free to do so! Happy Break everyone!