Did you get a book on your destination for your child?

[Cruisin' Chick]

Did you help your child prepare for the trip by getting an age-appropriate book about your ports for your child? I just reserved some fictional books on Hawaii for my child at our local library (the Los Angeles County Library system will send books to your branch to pickup). Now I'm thinking about getting some books set in Hawaii for myself.

[where next?]

I used to try to include my kids, ages 14 and 10, in the cruise planning but because I have an "over planning mentality", I drove them nuts! They have given me their basic requirements for ships and shore excursions and want no part in my super planning - ship with freshwater pools and excursions that are fun, action packed and NO TOUR BUSES!!! Our days of travel planning family meetings are OVER!! Just a quick discussion to finalize the choices!

 

For our upcoming Panama Canal cruise, I have already read a wonderful book on the history and building of the canal. I'd have it no other way for myself and maybe someday my kids will want to know where there are going ahead. For now, they love to absorb where they are once they get there. I guess they like surprises and I know they LOVE CRUISING!! We always have a GREAT time!!

 

Maybe your kids are different and would appreciate reading ahead about where they are going. We're all different!

 

Enjoy!

[Arubalisa]

If you are a member of Netflix, they have an amazing amount of travel dvd's to choose from. We just viewed one that had appeared on A & E (?) on the construction of the Panama Canal.

[Soxfan05]

My kids are 10. I try to tie our trips into current and future curriculum. Right now they are studying early explorers and we are travelling to the eastern Caribbean. One will prepare a report on Juan Ponce del Leon, the other Christopher Columbus. The route taken by Ponce de Leon is very close to the one we will be taking on our cruise ship. We will visit sites in and around Old San Juan (including Ponce de Leon's crypt). We used guide books, text books, encyclopedias and websites to compile the information. My kids are definitely more interested in fact than fiction so I find this approach works for them.

[Cruisin' Chick]

My daughter is definitely more into nonfiction than fiction (and into books on insects the most) but I did reserve some fictional books that I need to pick up by next week.

[Chucksta63]

I like for my 12 DS to work up some basic facts about the places we are going on the internet then do a report to his mother and I so we will know what to expect. I help with this so we both learn about where we are going. Mom reads the books..

[Cruisin' Chick]

Pick up some books featuring Hawaii as a setting at the library today. Hopefully, she'll look at them when she's not snowed under with homework... Even got a murder mystery set in the Aloha State for myself.

[MrsPete]

I love to get books, etc. for my kids to prepare them for the things they'll see. I think they get more out of it if they've done some prep work.

 

When they were smaller (pre-school -- never took them on a cruise at that age, but we did take them plenty of other places), I used to make them little "homemade coloring books" to prepare them for trips and upcoming events. Example: When we went to Disney World, the book probably had a pages about packing the car, driving a long way, behaving in the backseat, checking into the hotel, using our good manners while eating out, sleeping in a strange bed, going to the theme parks . . . you know, things that kids need to know ahead of time.

 

These homemade books were great because they encompassed all of OUR plans and prepared the kids so well for what was going to happen. The books would "appear" 2 weeks before the trip, and we'd color the pages together and discuss our expectations for the trip: you'll have a drawer in the hotel room that'll be just for your toys, we'll have to be patient while we wait in lines . . .

 

The first time we took our oldest daughter to Disney World, I'd made up just such a book, but I didn't think to put anything in about riding the busses (we were in a Disney hotel with free shuttles). We don't live in the city, and she'd never seen a bus before. When that big, loud thing stopped in front of us, little miss two-years old SCREAMED. I can't help thinking that if I'd explained ahead of time that busses make big noises but they're safe, well, that ride might have been more pleasant.