Category: Tips & Tricks

How to Prepare For a Traveling Curren Visit

Post author By Jess
Post date October 28, 2014
4 Comments on How to Prepare For a Traveling Curren Visit

How to Prepare for a Traveling Curren Visit

One of the things we love about traveling is spending time with friends & family we wouldn’t otherwise see. Whether we are traveling through their town, or make a specific detour, these visits are fun and exciting for all of us. We’ve stayed with or nearby our friends the Graces twice now. Once for Thanksgiving 2013 in Tampa, FL and then they moved to Puyallup, WA where we recently got to see them again in September 2014!

Being experts on having the Curren family as temporary neighbors, they volunteered to write an article for our blog on How to Prepare for a Traveling Curren Visit.

Enjoy!

How to Prepare for a Traveling Curren Visit

by Cassie Grace

First off, Breathe. This isn’t your normal visit. No one one will be stealing your hot water in the morning. You don’t need to pull out the hide-a-bed or musty bedcovers. The beauty of a Curren visit is that they bring their house with them. It turns out, they are more like a temporary neighbor than a house guest.

1. Remember this is normal life for them, but its still a special treat for you.

I am really not fit for human beings until about 1pm after my jog(plod), shower and lunch. Perfect. That meant the Curren kids could do school and Sam could get his work hours in without worrying about offending us. Then we could have fun in the afternoon and evening. Which leads me to….

2. Have books at the ready.

I love this about Rachel, Andrew and Cara. They love books. They devoured several books from my personal library in just a few days. This comes in handy when you want to chat with Jess without much noise.

3. Projects and adventures are great fun, but not every second.

Don’t get me wrong, The Curren clan loves a good museum, park or trail. Do that stuff, but let them rest and relax and enjoy your company too. Can you imagine going full steam like that for months at a time? Phew. Makes me tired just thinking about it!

4. Soak it up.

Poor Sam. I think I may have squeezed his brain dry on a project of mine. I think we ended up talking for 2 1/2 hours on my fledgling business, well into his bedtime. You know Sam. He has so many good ideas, I even took notes. And Jess, I yakked Jess’s ear off about food and cooking. Luckily, they are super cool and hung out with us as much as we all could stand for our short three days.

5. Reflect

The Currens caused Mike and me to reflect and reconsider. A lot. I mean, how outside the box do you want to get? They went from typical suburban family to full-time-homeschooling-adventuring-travelers! They make me want to reach a little further to try somethings a little differently. To get rid of some of my junk. Seriously. If Jess can live in 188 sq feet with less stuff, then I can definitely unload some crap. And go hiking. There is so much to explore in my own city, its time to get out of the house. While I’m not ready or very willing to do the same thing they are, the Currens remind me to change.

So there you have it. Our five top ways to be ready for a Curren visit!

Homeschool Tips & Tricks

My Trick For Buying Audio Books When You Can’t Get Them Through the Library

Post author By Jess
Post date October 22, 2014
3 Comments on My Trick For Buying Audio Books When You Can’t Get Them Through the Library

We love listening to audio books as we drive. We’ve worked our way through the Percy Jackson Series, the Enchanted Forest Series, and now we are on book 4 of the Heroes of Olympus. Even though we don’t drive 10 hours days (ever) listening to a book is an easy way to keep kids entertained on a 30 minute or even 3 hour drive.

Many audio books are available through library overdrive systems. We’ve checked out the Enchated Forest series and downloaded to my phone through the Android app. The Percy Jackson books are harder to come by as they are pretty popular. Sometimes we’ve had to wait weeks for the next book and then everyone gets impatient and cranky.

Of course, the audio books are available on Audible.com as well, but I just can’t justify throwing $30 at an audio book. It is just too much for me. Even with a membership, we’d still be paying $14.95 per month for one audio book. Still can’t do it, even after that first free book.

My solution to this problem turned out to be pretty simple. One day while I was browsing Amazon, I noticed the “Whispersync for Voice” little box underneath the title and prices. It states that you can switch back and forth between the Kindle book and listening to the professional Audible narration. You can even add the narration for a REDUCED PRICE once you buy the kindle book.

Genius.

Kindle Book: $7.57
Add Audio: $12.99
Total: $20.56

Audible Book Alone: $35.93

I get the Kindle book AND the audio book for less than the audio costs on Audible. Sometimes it even takes us more than month to go through a book, so with a membership we’d have them stacked up for months. My kids love to go back and read the books after we’ve listened anyway (I swear Andrew has read Sea of Monsters at least four times) so its a win-win.

When you add the audio on Amazon, the books appear in the Audible app on my phone. It is super easy to see what we’ve purchased, download to my phone and then plug into to our car stereo and listen as we drive! Super easy. As you can see in my screenshot, it’s October and we’ve only bought 4 audio books this year total. Not 10 like we’d get with a membership. Maybe that number will change as we keep traveling, but for now this systems is working great!

Do you have favorite audio books for kids? Let me know what they are! We are always looking for recommendations!

Tags audible, audio books, buying audio books through amazon, overdrive

Tips & Tricks

The Family Adventure Podcast

Post author By Sam
Post date September 18, 2014
1 Comment on The Family Adventure Podcast

familyadventurepodcast

Some of our fellow travelers have been busy, and have put together the Family Adventure Podcast. They interview families that have spent significant time traveling with their kids. Many of their travelers have been boat families, sailing around the world for extended periods. They also include RV families, and aim to include all sorts of adventuring.

Listening to these podcast episodes has helped me to realize a few things. First, our adventures are not THAT crazy when held up to a circumnavigation by sailboat over a few years. Slowly traveling by Airstream seems tame by comparison.

Second, I’ve realized that the issues, struggles, and rewards are very similar despite very different methods of travel. Relationships, problem solving, exploring together, and valuable experiences seem to be universal. Similarly, finances seem to always be a topic as families discuss the sacrifices they made and how possible it is to do something amazing without being rich.

I’ve started at the first episode and I’m working my way forward, and I’m loving it! If you are curious about family travel, have questions, or just want to hear the crazy stories, check it out!

6 Tips for Helping Kids Hike Without Whining

Post author By Jess
Post date September 3, 2014
7 Comments on 6 Tips for Helping Kids Hike Without Whining

I’m ready for my kids to be long distance hikers. I realize they are still little (8, 6, and 4 years old) but I MISS hiking. Pre-kid and even when Rachel was little and would fit in a backpack, we would take a Saturday and do 8-13 mile hikes OVER mountain passes. It was glorious. Even better will be the day when they can go backpacking, as that is definitely our favorite way to go camping.

That said, we are starting small, but I feel like its a good time to start. Lately, our hikes have been maybe 1 to 1.5 miles tops including lots of whining from the kids about how hard it was, how tired they were and everything in between. As we started prepping them for their first 5 mile hike in Great Basin National Park we decided to try a few things and luckily for us, a lot of them worked! Time will tell how these play out and maybe in the future we’ll be able to add more items to this list!

1. Prep them beforehand. This was huge. I don’t think we had ever sat our kids down and said, “We are going to do a long hike. Its going to be FUN. We LOVE hiking and are excited about it. We know you guys can do it and we expect you to without any whining”. Cara loves to hike with me, but she knows that I will get frustrated and walk away if all she does in whine. She has to be mommy’s HAPPY hiking buddy.

2. Snacks with a goal. Bring some snacks that they love. Recently I discovered a granola bar recipe that everyone can’t get enough of. We brought some with the stipulation that we got to eat them when we got to the top. We had other small fruit snacks and other things that we spaced out along the way, but that was a HUGE motivating factor for them.

3. Bribe them. We recently started a new chore system that involves the kids earning tickets and then being able to redeem them at the family store on Monday nights. They get 1 ticket per happy hiking mile. Sam and I use Endomondo or a step tracker so we know how long we have hiked, and the kids know they only get tickets if there’s no whining. Andrew, cleverly, even negotiated for 2 tickets per mile for any hike 4 miles or longer. Sneaky little guy. There have been times where the two oldest earn more tickets than Cara because she had a particularly loud tantrum in the middle of the trail.

4. Play Games. This doesn’t always work, but occasionally we get a good 30 minutes out of playing I-Spy with the kids. Someone will start and then whoever guesses what they are spying gets to go next. Since a lot of the places we hike are either Red Rocks, or trees & dirt we generally include clothing, shoes, and anything super small on anyone hoping no one will guess it.

5. Listen to Music. Maybe this totally contradicts enjoying nature, but it really works for us. We don’t listen to music the whole time, or if there’s ever anyone near us on the trail as we don’t want to ruin their experience. I pull up the Frozen soundtrack on my phone and just carry it in my hand while we walk along. All the kids sing along (okay, I was singing too) and it lasts us a good 45 minutes on some of the steeper sections. Totally helps pass the time.

6. Have a destination. This one even helps me. If we aren’t hiking TO something its a lot harder to motivate anyone up the trail. There needs to be a lake, or a glacier, or something interesting at the “top” whether the trail is a loop or an out and back. If the trail is varied enough maybe this one doesn’t matter as much, but when we are just hiking through trees it gets a little tedious. Knowing there will be something to look forward to keeps them moving.

For many people, especially kids, learning to hike long distances is a mental exercise. The biggest obstacle that we encounter is boredom. Once they are bored, the whining starts. Finding ways to occupy their minds and keep them distracted as we hike has been our greatest success! Physically I believe they are capable, but mental training tends to be a bit more difficult. We are hoping to make a lot more progress this summer as we continue to travel!

Tags Helping Kids Hike without whining, Helping Kids Hiking, Hiking with Kids, Tips for kids and hiking

Airstream Accessories Tips & Tricks

E-Bags: The Best Way to Organize Clothes for Traveling

Post author By Jess
Post date August 8, 2014
4 Comments on E-Bags: The Best Way to Organize Clothes for Traveling

Two years ago when we did a 5 week trip to California I had a lightbulb moment. We had packed all our clothes loosely into duffle bags, and about 6 days in I seriously couldn’t find anything as the clothes were jumbled, rumpled, and scattered pretty much everywhere. It was a disaster. In desperation I started looking around on Amazon for a solution to my problem and I found it: eBags Packing Cubes. These things are a lifesaver for packing clothes!

I bought two different variety packs, as I wasn’t sure which sizes we would need. After organizing a bit and seeing how many clothes really fit into the small, medium, and large bags, I made another couple orders of the small bags in different colors as those were the most conveniently sized for kid clothes.

Amazon links to: small bags, medium bags, & a 3 pc variety pack

Our new system is great. Each kid has their own set of 3 color-coordinated E-bags: Rachel is purple, Andrew is orange, and Cara is blue – turns out those are their favorite colors so everyone is happy! We typically put underwear, socks, and pajamas in one, shorts and pants in the second, and shirts in the third. Depending on how long the trip is, you can combine shirts & pants and even just take 2 bags instead of all three. The kids each know their color and its easy for them to pull out the right set of clothes rather than rifling through the whole duffle bag looking for their shirt.

For adult clothes, we tried both the medium and large and I’ve settled on medium. Large is too, well, large. Unless all you wear are jeans and then those work great in the large ones. I’m less concerned about Sam and I having our own color, so we typically mix the green with some other black ones we already owned.

How does this work in the Airstream, you ask? Easy. We still use them. Since our closet is so small, all our “other” season clothes are packed away under the beds. Each kid has their off season clothes in their own color coordinated bag and then they are all tossed into one of our large, white bins. When we have a cold spell (or hot spell in the winter), the kids can go back there and pull out their long sleeved shirts or an extra pair of long pants. I also put Cara’s Sunday skirts in a medium bag under the bed as well. They don’t wrinkle, are super difficult to hang, and kind of bulky for drawers, but they fit great under the bed and we only need them once a week anyway.

They are also useful when we do leave the Airstream for a few nights. Recently, we spent a week at Camp Noyo with family and we used our packing cubes and our duffle bag to take our clothes with us. Worked great!