Here’s the post you have all asked me to share for a while – an ultimate recap of my favorite travel-themed activities with kids. So, let´s have a look at our creative playroom with a travel twist!

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Creative Travel-themed Activities With Kids

Travel-themed Activities With Kids

About this post

Since I love sharing sneak peeks of our creative playroom on IG Highlights, I often get questions on travel-themed activities with kids. Many of my blog readers are family travelers, so bonding over those fun travel-related ideas at home makes everyone beyond excited. In this article, I will show you how I have organized a creative playroom for my girls along with some unique ideas I have discovered around the world.

How it all started

While my blog is already a full-time job, my old readers would know that it all started as a hobby. During the first few years of motherhood, I had by my side a husband with a 9 to 5 job and senior in-laws with health problems. So, it was either hiring a nanny or taking a step back from work to raise my kids the way I wanted. That perfect balance of combining motherhood and work is easy to talk about, but actually hard to achieve in real life. Not every profession comes with a schedule that allows you to return home full of energy (to invest in creative family activities). Even more so, not every woman these days has a chance to plan a long maternity leave. Therefore, I consider myself incredibly blessed for being able to fully dedicate a few years to my kids, which deep down inside has always felt like the best investment.

There may be some working moms or dads reading this post and feeling like they’ve missed out or haven’t been able to provide the same experiences for their kids – please don’t feel that way. The fact that you’re even reading this article shows that you’re trying your best, and it’s never too late to try new, fun activities with your kids. It’s not always about the amount of time you spend with them, but the quality of that time. This is where inspiring travel-themed activities with your kids can be so valuable. The fun and interesting moments you share will stay in your family’s memory box forever – and that’s what truly matters.

Additionally, in my case, the pandemic was a huge driving force for inventing new travel-themed activities with kids. Especially, here in Spain, where we were hit so hard and could not move in between the provinces for quite some time. Since I have always wanted to keep sharing my passion for globetrotting and experiencing new cultures with the kids, the lockdown has made me research & educate myself even more. Often, I feel like it’s not me trying to teach the kids through these activities, but rather them pushing me to keep learning, experimenting, and growing beyond what I already know. In the end, it enriches the entire family.

In this post, I will share with you handy links on where to get our creative essentials internationally. However, keep in mind that some of the books & games were purchased during my travels around the world and others might be sold exclusively in Spain. Nevertheless, I hope you can still find something useful to keep that family wanderlust fueling. If you have questions about certain things in the pictures – let me know in the comments below!

Learning & Experimenting with my kids

Almost everything you see in my kids’ creative playroom is either focused on another country or learned from another culture. Being fluent in 5 languages and having a few expat experiences up my sleeve helps me discover insider parenting tips & new sources of inspiration every day. So, I plan to update this post with new things I keep discovering on the go.

Plus, as I have already mentioned, I was a stay-at-home mom for a few years. So, investing lots of time in figuring out new approaches & activities for my kids felt very natural and helped me to embrace my wanderlust from home in a new way.

Books on raising kids in different cultures

Reading new books on raising children in different countries was a huge inspiration for me.

My current favorites are: “Permission to Parent: How to Raise Your Child with Love and Limits” by Robin Berman MD, “The Montessori Toddler: A Parent’s Guide to Raising a Curious and Responsible Human Being” by Simone Davies, “Kindergarten is Too Late” by Masaru Ibuka, “The Awakened Family: A Revolution in Parenting” by Shefali Tsabary, and “Bringing Up Bébé” by Pamela Druckerman.

More multicultural parenting books from different parts of the world: “Parenting Without Borders”, “The Danish Way of Parenting”, “Brave Parenting”, “A Scandinavian Mom’s Secrets”, “How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm: And Other Adventures in Parenting“, and “Hunt, Gather, Parent“.

How we bonded over travel-themed activities with kids

The biggest outcome of investing in travel-themed activities with kids is the fact that my girls still prefer board games to gadgets. Even though I do not believe in prohibiting tech stuff for the little ones (it only generates more interest – plus, when kids see their friends doing it – they feel excluded). Nevertheless, I stand for giving them better alternatives, so that they can deliberately choose to paint or do handicrafts instead of watching TV.

Another important part of the process is choosing your travel-themed activities with kids. Children mirror us more than we think, so it is important not only to entertain them, but to find interests you might have in common. I know moms and dads who do not like painting, but enjoy Lego, Model Cars, or Warhammers – these days with the internet you can give a travel twist to almost everything: build international landmarks from Lego, recreate rare model cars from Europe, make your own Warhammers and play against other fans around the world.

Yes, I always give a new activity at least one try, but I don´t push something that I hate doing myself: these days there are so many ideas out there and everyone can find something matching his/her tastes. Sometimes we even rediscover those old-forgotten passions thanks to the little ones. This way, I have initially thought of focusing on sharing with my girls an obsession for travel & books. Instead, in the process of testing new board games, I realized this one was such a huge gap throughout my childhood (we would never play board games as a family, despite my mom not working for a long while). So, it´s a new ritual I am trying to establish in my own family.

Somehow it’s often about listening to the kids and letting them provide me with new self-care ideas instead of inspiring them with my very own hobbies.

You can check out some of our recent travel-related activities via IG Highlight Motherhood.

Our Creative Playroom Room for Kids

Since our games collection at home kept growing, I have organized a separate creative playroom (which was initially planned as a simple storage room). Also, since I noticed that having too many games in their bedrooms was not giving the kids a chance to rest properly, I decided to move most of their toys out. Playing only one more minute is so tempting when your private space is loaded up with toys.

So, what are some of the essentials in our creative playroom?

• a wall of fame for each kid, where they expose current paintings and can even show those to relatives or visitors ( it embraces kid´s self-esteem while bringing value to their creative activities)
• Led Light Box ( brings a creative twist to all the educational activities – we use it with Translucent Pattern Blocks, Letters, Stencils, an Animal X-ray Set, a Mirror with 3 Panels, Translucent Rainbow Building Cubes, and a Transparent Tray (for Jovi Finger paint and Play Sand)
• Geography World Map Wall Sticker, World Map Puzzle, and Globe for Kids (we always talk about new countries and their locations before the upcoming trips)
• new board games, that I buy around the world (see my list of Spain Board Games)
• some other favorites: Wooden Geoboard, Wooden Tangrams, and other travel toys
• Play-Doh & Clay with lots of extra tools, especially Play-Doh Drill ‘n Fill Dentist (is a must before taking your kids to the dentist as it prepares them for the experience, so they can have a great first impression), Play-Doh Kitchen Creations Magical Oven, and this book Modeling Clay with 3 Basic Shapes
• lots of natural materials to touch & create whatever they want: rocks, woodcraft, sensory bin, wooden peg balls, pressed flowers (for eco-friendly art)

Lots of toys and activities for my kids we discovered from Montessori, an educational method involving hands-on learning and the natural interests of the little ones. Some of the first books I got here in Spain were Montessorízate (which comes with lots of printables) and 100 Actividades Montessori. Then I also read the international bestsellers – The Montessori Toddler and The Montessori Home.

Artsy Ideas with Kids

Artsy activities feel like a great way to boost creativity during the work-school week and make something exciting with the kids.

I deeply believe that our eye always has to travel, even when we technically can not set off on a new trip anytime soon. Anything that exposes us to the beauty & diversity of the world around us is an enriching experience. If we consume informational junk food daily, we end up talking & thinking about it, then it eventually becomes part of who we are.

So, we need to filter cautiously everything that surrounds us. Don´t have an artsy surrounding in your life? – Create one.

How does my family get exposed to new creative things across the globe?

• explore new cultures & landscapes via coffee table books, like Spain Coffee Table Books, Destinations of a Lifetime, or Journeys of a Lifetime (my kids also love the vintage books on Italy & its architecture)
• create collages (check out The Collage Ideas Book, The Cut Out And Collage Book, Cut Up This Book, and Collage Creativo)
• discover sticker books – I especially love these two: Famous Artists Sticker Book and The Antiquarian Sticker Book
• get a few books with ideas: for ex. How to Be a Super Awesome Artist or Paint Lab for Kids
• print a few portraits of painters + 3-4 of their artworks, then make your kids match the author with his creations (I have done it for famous architects too)
• watch together animated movies that are true works of art, like those created by Michel Ocelot, Hayao Miyazaki, or the Irish Cartoon Saloon
• learn new painting techniques together: I have recently gotten How to Draw Inky Wonderlands: Create and Color Your Own Magical Adventure by Johanna Basford and Everyday Watercolor by Jenna Rainey
• get new inspiring international illustrators for your library

Interesting Things to Try With Kids

• skip the usual A4, and get the drawing paper roll (to let the kids choose the size of their works instead of limiting them right from the start)
• use finger paint inside the bathtub (so that the kids can have a complete freedom to paint everywhere around them)
• deliberately let them break things & make a creative mess every now and then (check out this video by Neil DeGrasse)
• while the kids are sitting, set puzzle mats under their feet (so that they can experiment with the textures + it helps my kids to be more relaxed and focused for longer)

International Board Games

As I have already mentioned, the world of board games is the whole new universe my kids brought into my life. These are known for numerous benefits: increasing brain function, embracing patience & strategy skills, and simply making us spend fun quality time off screens in the company of people we love. While I often buy board games around the world and many of them do not come with English instructions, thanks to YouTube, you can learn the rules after a 3-minute-long tutorial.

Here are a few great ones to embrace travel-themed activities with kids: Alhambra, Akropolis, Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, Race Across the USA, Trekking The World, Trekking the National Parks, Castles of Burgundy, Lost Cities, and The Scattered Pharaoh.

Check out my list of Spain Board Games for more ideas.

Storytelling & Kamishibai

Kamishibai can be literally translated as “paper theatre” from Japanese. It is a traditional form of Japanese street theatre, which combines a set of standard-size illustrated paper cards paired with a scripted performance on the back (for the narrator). Unlike children’s storybooks, the text is written on the reverse of illustrated cards so that the story can be easily read while pictures are shown.

It is a great idea to take storytelling at home to a whole new level. My current Kamishibai set is from the Spanish company SIETE LEGUAS, each story I own comes from a different country and there´s a description in 4 different languages (usually, English, Spanish, German, and French). So, it is also a handy tool for learning Spanish or any other European language with the little ones.

Other cool storytelling tools are Illustory Book Making Kit, Puppet Making Kit, and My Comic Book Making Kit.

International Cooking with Kids

Having a quick glimpse at our constant foodie experiences in Spain makes it pretty obvious that my family is into trying new recipes all the time. Cooking with kids is messy, but mine love it so much that they often talk me into it against my will.

I have recently discovered these Italian books: MAMMA, CUCINO DA SOLO, Mamma, cucino da solo per picnic e merende, and Mamma, cucino da solo per le feste. While all of them are only available in Italian (and no one in my family speaks Italian), the recipes are entirely visual and focus on kids’ solo cooking from your age. You can zoom in on a few pages of this book on Amazon to see how it is organized.

While most of these recipes of MAMMA, CUCINO DA SOLO do not entirely fit within my healthy habits routine, my girls feel so empowered after cooking without my help. With gluten-free, and sugar-free recipes it usually takes more skills to nail it: so, since we do not use it daily, my focus here is to let them experiment and have fun with preparing foods.

For older kids, you find more fun cookbooks around the world: The International Cookbook for Kids, The Complete Cookbook for Young Scientists, Cooking Class Global Feast, The World In My Kitchen, International Cooking for Kids, In the French Kitchen with Kids, Cooking Around the Calendar with Kids, Chinese dim sum cookbook for kids, The International Kid-Friendly Cookbook, Baking with Grandmas from Around the World, The Kid’s Around the World Cookbook, and American Girl: Around the World Cookbook.

Read more about traveling with kids:

• 10-day Spain Itinerary for Families from Barcelona (read it)
• Our Favorite Travel Essentials for Kids +Toys On The Go (read it)
• Where to Enjoy Snow in Spain with Kids (read it)
• Cute Spain Books for Kids You´ll Love (read it)
• Barcelona Weekend with Kids: Top things to see and do (read it)
• Valencia With Kids: Top Places Your Children Will Love (read it)
• 5 Epic Reasons to Visit the Spanish Pyrenees with Kids (read it)
• A Weekend in Mallorca with Kids (read it)
• My Favorite Cool Places to Visit in Spain with Kids (read it)
• Kids Bookish Inspiration: Favorite International Illustrators Around the World (read it)
• Visiting PortAventura with kids (read it)

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For more inspiration check my Pinterest board – Travel From Home.

• Accommodation: For short stays, I usually book via Agoda and Booking
• Tours&excursions: My favorites for guided tours are GetYourGuide and Viator
• Museums&attractions: Get mobile tickets for attractions via Tiqets (use ATC5 code for a 5% discount via this link)
• Semi-private & private tours: LivTours is my favorite place for unique & crafted experiences in Europe
• For Foodies: Eatwith is a unique platform for finding culinary experiences with locals around the world
• Audio guides: Book audio excursions & tours in 35+ countries via WeGoTrip
• Flights: Find the best deals with Skyscanner and Kiwi
• Driving in a new country? – Check out Tripiamo guides (do not miss Tripiamo Driving in Spain Guide)
• Train&bus tickets: Currently, I book via Omio (10% off with code ATC10 for first-time customers)
• Car rental: To find the best deals, I use Discover Cars
• Top E-Sim: To avoid roaming fees, I like Holafly (use ATLIFESTYLECROSSROADS for for a 5% discount)
• Shop My Level8 Suitcase: get 15% off with the code ATC15 here
• Internet Security on the road: Connect safely to public Wi-Fi and bypass censorship with NordVPN
• Transfers: For individual transfer services, I like GetTransfer and Kiwitaxi
• Suitcases&Luggage: Discover where to store your luggage on the go with Radical Storage
• Travel Insurance: Find the best trip insurance plans via VisitorsCoverage and EKTA
• Compensation for delayed/canceled flights: Check out AirHelp and Compensair
• Renting Bikes: To find motorcycles, scooters, quads, and bicycles, I use BikesBooking
• Package Tours: Head to CheapOair and Expedia
• For Bloggers: To monetize my blog, I work with Travelpayouts and Stay22
• Website Owners: For hosting services, I work with and recommend Lyrical Host (get 10% off with my code ATC10)