Things to Do - Two Great Activities for Kids in a Hotel Room

Kaleidographs

A few weeks ago I posted about wanting a set of Kaleidograph cards. Luckily, the manufacturer somehow learned of my post and sent us two sets for free (Flora and Crystal, which sell for only $12.99 on amazon). I waited until vacation to take them out of the envelope, as they seemed like the perfect hotel room activity. And the cards did not disappoint. The girls and I can't stop layering different cards on top of one another, then twisting and rearranging them to make thousands of pattern combinations. The cards are addictive, even for adults. I also think we'd enjoy using the cards as stencils (perhaps with watercolor crayons?) but I'm waiting on that activity for a later day. On the downside, T played a little rough with the cards (he tried to rip two of them to shreds) so we created during his nap time.



Story Cubes

We won a set of Rory's Story Cubesat F's school auction (seems odd to say that we "won" something we paid for) and they've quickly become a favorite activity for all three kids. This makes me happy, as we FINALLY have a game that the whole family can play together ("game" being loosely defined).

The story cubes' magic rests in the fact that kids really love to roll dice (sort of a no brainer), and after they roll the storytelling comes naturally. My kids especially seem to enjoy the element of interpreting random information in a way that creates order and unity (i.e. making something from nothing).

T tells bare bones stories, usually something along the lines of "a bad guy came" and then [point to a picture on a dye] and then [loud laugh] WAHHHHH [throw dice in the air]"; whereas F's stories have plots and characters. P's tales fall somewhere in between. A fun way to kill some time.

For other storytelling activities, click here to read about our story stick craft and here to read about story cards.
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What about everyone else? How do you keep your kids entertained during vacation "downtime"?

Things to Make - Travel Journals (and some more vacation pictures)

At kindergarten F really enjoys writing in her daily journal. So for vacation I decided to buy all the kids primary notebooks, with large lined paper and space to draw pictures, where they could record our adventures (I purchased this model, but I'm sure you could find or make something similar).

Not surprisingly, neither P nor T showed much interest in their journals, but F wrote every afternoon. And I enjoyed seeing the world through her eyes. If only to learn that as long as we stay at a hotel with a pool nothing else really matters. Only once did she write anything indicating that we left the property. ONLY ONCE!! "Aren't you going to write about the science museum?" I asked. "Um, what would I say? besides I already wrote about trying laseena, what's that word again?" "Lasanga." Why do I even try?

And in case you're wondering. I know I'm sort of stretching the "things to make" category this week, as the journal was purchased. But some weeks are like that. Even in Cleveland.



Upon arrival, first things mentioned - the dog and the pool.



We spent the next two days at Holden Arboretum and the Science Museum. Apparently these weren't as interesting as corn on the cob and lasagna (the "something new" she tried).



The hotel pool. Yup, this is where the magic happened. Or so I've read.



FINALLY!! Our outside adventures make front page news. Finally!!

Places to Go (Vacation) - Cleveland, Part II - Great Lakes Science Center

While vacationing in Cleveland we checked out the Great Lakes Science Center (located next door to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame). We have a family membership at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore and reciprocity agreements allow us to visit affiliated museums for free (we always visit Pittsburgh's Carnegie Science Center on road trips headed west). So we've toured quite a few science museums and Great Lakes was among the best.

We all loved their temporary goosebumps exhibit, which dares you to face fears such as rats, loud noises, and falling (yup, that's my falling face above, I won't be trying that again). The museum's space/flying exhibit was impressively interactive - T flew a plane over and over again until a line formed and I had to DRAG him kicking and screaming out of the cockpit (interactive isn't always good), while F and grandma attempted to create a block tower bigger than all of the older kids' towers (they won!). Upstairs, a wonderful playroom for young kids (bring socks) sits next to a plethora of experiments involving light, sound, and everything else (we spent hours up there). In the summer you can tour a boat, but in spring we settled for a beautiful (though windy) walk on the waterfront. And to make the trip extra-special a high school orchestra performed in the atrium. F seemed amazed that kids could really "sound that good."

Regarding other adventures in Cleveland, we made it to Holden Arboretum, which was gorgeous and huge, tons of beautiful lakes and flowers everywhere, plus a kids' area with "stick houses" and teepees" (click here for some pics), but there's so much more that we wanted to see and couldn't fit in:

INDOOR PLACES
*The Children's Museum of Cleveland
*Cleveland Museum of Natural History (with a discovery center for kids)
*Greater Cleveland Aquarium
*Rock And Roll Hall of Fame (probably best for older kids)
*The Cleveland Museum of Art AND Contemporary Art museum

OUTDOOR PLACES
*Botanical Gardens
*Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
*Crown Point Ecology Center
*Lake Metroparks Farm Park
*Memphis Kiddie Park

So hopefully we'll be back one of these days. As Cleveland might be the most underrated tourist destination of all time.

HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND EVERYONE!!! I'm flying to Denver (sans kids) to visit some friends. And I can't wait for my weekend away!!

Places to Go (Vacation) - Cleveland, Part I - Cuyahoga Valley National Park

(wow, a picture of me, so rare these days)

My mom lives in the Chicago suburbs and we live 700 miles away in Arlington, so for spring break she suggested we meet in the middle. Originally, this plan did not thrill me. Even my husband, who attended to college in Cleveland, asked "is there anything to do there?" Surprisingly, there is. Quite a lot. So much that we could have stayed for two weeks and not seen all i wanted to see. I can't wait to go back.

We spent two days of our vacation touring Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which resides about 20 miles south of Cleveland. This place has it all - waterfalls, lakes, a beautiful trail system bordering the Ohio & Erie canal (similar to DC's C&O canal trails), a beaver marsh, a scenic railroad, and more. After two days of exploring, we only skimmed the surface of what the park has to offer. In the summer, the park includes Hale Village "an expansive outdoor living history museum", sounds awesome.



For our first Cuyahoga adventure, we visited the large and beautiful Brandywine Falls. Nothing like a waterfall to kick-off the kids' excitement for outdoor adventuring (though my mom's dog, Murphy, seemed a little turned off by the noise and spectacle of it all).



Then we checked out the Boston Store Visitor Center, which had a lot of displays on boats. Along with a box of REAL boat-making tools. I cannot begin to explain T's excitement; I hovered over him fearing a missing eye (yup, this is where the term "helicopter parenting" stems from).



Finally, we finished out day one with a trip to the Beaver Marsh. We didn't see any beavers, but a goose flew right next to F. She's convinced he intuited that she "really likes animals."



On our second day at the park we rode on Cuyahoga Valley's scenic train. On the upside, the scenery really was quite phenomenal, especially all the water (the tracks border the canal). On the downside, three hours on a train leads to a little (or a lot) of cabin fever. In all fairness, we could have departed at the scenic town of Peninsula, but since the Peninsula stop occurs early in the ride we feared we'd miss out on "the experience" (plus, all the kids just looked so "contained" and content, that i didn't have the energy to leave).

For parents with older kids (or people with no kids), I'd advise combining a long bike ride on the canal with a return ride on the train - a lot of other passengers did this and it looked like a lot of fun. Maybe in a few years.



It felt so wonderful to see my mom, especially when she played hangman with F while I zoned out the window.



The train provides earphone sets which document the history of the canal and the park. I found the stories and music interesting, but after awhile P grew "bored, bored, bored." Though after we departed she called the train "the best adventure ever!" What changed? I let her play with my iphone during the return trip. The rewards of lazy parenting.