How do you show your kids where they have travelled?
 

Growing up in the US, my parents bought sew-on patches from where we had travelled (normally the state patch, perhaps a specific national park). They started putting them on our backpacks, eventually putting them onto a hooded sweatshirt when the backpack was full. Now I have a family of my own and find myself doing similar, only with country flags as we live in Europe(some US city patches as well).

For now I am relatively satisfied as our kids have taken an interest in learning the different flags (and showing off where they have been). However, the backpacks are getting full now after only 5 years and I am wondering if there is another idea that would work as well. So I would like to hear what methods other FTers have come up with. Any thoughts before I follow the same route my parents once did and switch to a hoodie?

I am surprised your children are still willing to be walking advertisements for places they have visited :).

Get a big world map, hang it up on their bedroom wall, or family room, and mark where they've been with pins or stickers.

Or, sign them up on tripadvisor and let them mark their own travel maps.

GLOBE

Well, I guess we have not given them much chance;). It all started when Grandma gave them a patch and told them it should go on their backpacks. Being only 5, they still think it is great.

The big world map would be my next choice. However, we have delayed it as we will be moving to Sweden soon and want to see what we have for wall space (and so we do not damage it when moving). The only problem is that both children have not always been to the same place, so we start to need lots of pins and preferrably in 2 colors. A minor inconvenience, but maybe the next points are where I should consider...

We have a globe and would prefer not to deface it by marking where they have been. Maybe an interactive map on the computer would be good. Can anyone recommend a more user/kid-friendly (or downloadable) map? Anything with a login and password is already too much for them, and I would prefer to keep them off the internet and something I can run locally on my computer.

At least we have not gravitated towards patches/bumperstickers/useless souveniers^!

Get them each their own scrapbook. You can download country maps or purchase them, glue them on the page, and let them either fill in the cities if the maps are blank, or mark them with a pen, sticker, etc. They can add postcards, comments, etc. to the opposite page.

They'd each have their own, easily carried book.

I got our globe at a garage sale for $5

Its one of those ones with a pen type device that when you touch it it tells you where you are or when you touch two points it even gives you the distance between the two points

you could always buy a globe real cheap if you dont' want to mark up the one you have now

what is good about a globe is that they (kids) get some perspective of where they are going (have been), its location in the world and the distance

to each his own though

I kept a log book that would include maps, stamps, coins, ticket stubs , flight tickets, BP, everything that comes to mind. At first my parents did the entries and when I was old enough we did them together and later I did them on my own.

I agree that scrapbook/log book would be a good idea. At the moment we make photobooks from Shutterfly/Snapfish/(insert other company), which the kids look at from time to time. Unfortunately we did not think enough to save things to put into a scrapbook, but maybe we should do better at that.

My wife used to keep a journal, but we have gotten a bit bad at that. This is something we need to improve on.

Thanks for the input.

The globe you mention sounds great, but I cannot imagine that we will find an English speaking globe. I will have to goole this and see what comes up. I agree about the kids getting a good perspective of location and distance, and it also helps to give ideas on where to go.

We just do it through Picasa. It can automatically generate a map showing the locations of the photos.

I just have no interest in something like a scrapbook that would take significant effort on my part to maintain.

I like the globe idea also. That can be fun and give the kids some perspective on their travels.

My DD collect pins - they are small (generally quarter size) and pretty easy to find, especially in Europe. She has a special fabric folder that the pins pin into and she can add - on to.

My son collects patches - more expensive though! He also has a book on planes that he has the pilot sign for each of his flights. Some comments are funny, some are short and to the point, but he loves re-reading them and reminiscing about the flight and trip.

FWIW - DD is 10 and DS is 7.

A US map (50 states) and a world map that can be posted to the wall.

In addition, I keep track for my 4-YO son the places he has been on TripAdvisors and software program (i.e. Microsoft MapPoint, etc.).

duhhh (on me) I just noticed your location

We would need a world map, but I was not aware of MapPoint. I will check that out now. We use Tripadivor for now, but the kids do not get the idea of logins and passwords.

Yep, that complicates things a bit. I found a globe similar to what you had mentioned, and we just booked tickets to ORD for Thanksgiving. Maybe I will need to consult the TravelBuzz forum to see if I can bring a globe on as hand luggage;).

Thanks everyone for the ideas. We still do the patches for now (the kids insist), but we also are trying to keep updated on our flight data and loading things into Tripadvisor. It is a bit of work, but the kids are really taking a larger interest in travelling.

We do the patches thing, but instead of on a backpack or jacket, have put them on their own individual blanket. Plenty of room to fill up! Started with a border and now slowly working our way 'in'.