Has anyone used Little Passports?

[NanceXToo]

http://www.littlepassports.com/

 

If so, thoughts on it...? Is it fun? Interesting? Educational? Would a 10 y/o likely enjoy it or does it seem younger?

[sweetfeet]

My 8 year old loves to receive mail so I bought a subscription for her birthday. We've had 8 packages so far and she really enjoys them. There is an online component that we haven't explored yet, but each package focuses on a country and includes a photo of a landmark, an item that would be associated with that country, a luggage tag with a code to access the additional info online, a letter from the two kids who are traveling and a fact sheet with some games like word finds on it.

 

Based on the kids I know I could see it being something for kids 5-12. The company has been really easy to work with and they respond quickly to emails.

[treestarfae]

Looks good! I trade postcards through www.postcrossing.com and that's fun too for international interaction.

[ErinD]

She hovers near the mailbox every month. :) It has helped her geography skills...and also (she is dyslexic) her word-scramble-solving abilitites as well, something I never thought she'd grasp.

 

It's well laid out and there's an internet component which she really likes as well.

[NanceXToo]

Thanks for the replies. It really does look like fun, I think my 10 y/o WOULD enjoy it. I just may try it out!

[lovinmomma]

I've seen these and have been interested, too. Glad to see others are using them!

[woolybear]

I think the big appeal for my boys would be the little suitcases. That, and maybe getting mail each month. I'm not sure if they would like the activities, though. And they would fight over the suitcase and I'm not buying two subscriptions, so I think it's a no for me.:tongue_smilie:

[fastforward]

Are there enough activities, stickers, etc. in each kit for 2 children? Or would 2 subscriptions need to be purchased?

[lisabees]

Looks good! I trade postcards through www.postcrossing.com and that's fun too for international interaction.

 

This is what I want to learn more about! ;)

[NanceXToo]

Are there enough activities, stickers, etc. in each kit for 2 children? Or would 2 subscriptions need to be purchased?

 

I'll have to get back to you on that! I did end up ordering one subscription in my 10 y/o daughter's name. It says it should come before Christmas so I guess it will be here soon. When it does, I'm going to look and see if there is enough there for her AND for my 5 y/o son to also participate some if he wants to.

[mo2]

I'll have to get back to you on that! I did end up ordering one subscription in my 10 y/o daughter's name. It says it should come before Christmas so I guess it will be here soon. When it does, I'm going to look and see if there is enough there for her AND for my 5 y/o son to also participate some if he wants to.

 

 

Let us know how you like it, okay? I've had my eye on this for awhile now. Just waiting for the $$ to magically appear in my budget.

[NanceXToo]

I will! :)

[delaney]

I just found a code for 15% off CMP15. not sure if the discount will hit every month or just the first month. I am on the monthly service now and can't wait to get it. I have done nothing with geography so this may be a good intro.

[Guest baberry]

Thanks so much for this post and Delaney thanks for the discount code. I just signed up and I'm so excited. Thanks again ladies!!:001_smile:

 

Yvonne

 

Homegrownmosaic blog

[NanceXToo]

Too bad I didn't know about the discount code BEFORE I ordered lol. Ah well! It seemed a reasonable price, anyway, and I think it will be fun!

[MorganClassicalPrep]

It looks like a really great program. I just wish there was some way to pick what country you get each month. We are doing GTG, if I could coordinate Little Passports with that I would definitely sign up!

[fastforward]

I'll have to get back to you on that! I did end up ordering one subscription in my 10 y/o daughter's name. It says it should come before Christmas so I guess it will be here soon. When it does, I'm going to look and see if there is enough there for her AND for my 5 y/o son to also participate some if he wants to.

 

Thanks! I look forward to your feedback on this!

 

And thank you to the person who posted the % off code.

[Scrapmom3]

It looks like a really great program. I just wish there was some way to pick what country you get each month. We are doing GTG, if I could coordinate Little Passports with that I would definitely sign up!

 

We are doing both. I just do GTG in the order of Little Passports.

[NanceXToo]

Or maybe you could just backtrack if you needed to and say "Remember when we learned about X country? Well, look at this..." and then show them the Little Passports thing.

 

Or vice versa... "Oh, remember we learned about this with Little Passports? Now we're going to learn more about it..."

[cschnee]

There is also Top Secret Adventures for kids 7-12. It looks very cool too. http://shop.highlights.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=16151&catalogId=17603&categoryId=241891&productId=943928

[MorganClassicalPrep]

We are doing both. I just do GTG in the order of Little Passports.

 

Or maybe you could just backtrack if you needed to and say "Remember when we learned about X country? Well, look at this..." and then show them the Little Passports thing.

 

Or vice versa... "Oh, remember we learned about this with Little Passports? Now we're going to learn more about it..."

 

I actually considered doing both of these things. But... I need to have a plan. Our lives are too busy right now to be rearranging things.

 

And DD is just 4 (well, as she says, almost 5!), and even though she has an amazing memory, I feel like it would be a big leap to make. Maybe next year when we start SOTW we can do Little Passports as a fun supplement/reminder of what we've learned this year... :tongue_smilie:

[NanceXToo]

I wanted to update... the first package came today. This one isn't about a country but more of an introductory thing. It included a really cute travel suitcase, an introductory letter from "Sam and Sofia" and a picture of them, two stickers (one of Sam and one of Sofia), an activity sheet, a world wall map, a "travel passport," and a "boarding pass" that allows access to online games and activities.

 

My 10 y/o daughter was very excited to open the suitcase and look at everything. She put the stickers on the suitcase to decorate it. She did the activity sheet (which had like a simple code, a hidden picture type thing, and an activity that she had to do using the world map, which involved finding different countries and seeing what their capitals were and writing them down, and then the letters that were in the circles spelled out what country Sam and Sofia will be visiting next month.

 

Then, once a month over subsequent months, she'll get an adventure pack that will contain a letter from Sam and Sofia, stickers she can decorate the suitcase with, a photograph of the country they are visiting, an activity sheet, some sort of souvenir from the country they are visiting, and a "passport stamp" so she can put a stamp in the travel passport each month. She'll also get a collectible boarding pass each month that will allow access to more activities and games on the online area.

 

Of course, she really wanted to go explore the online area but I made her finish school first. In a little while, I'm going to let her check out the online stuff, and then I'll update again as to what that was like.

 

Sometime before the end of the day tomorrow I will also post about it on my livejournal site and will include pictures, I'll let you guys know when I have it up on my site. :)

[mo2]

I wanted to update... the first package came today. This one isn't about a country but more of an introductory thing. It included a really cute travel suitcase, an introductory letter from "Sam and Sofia" and a picture of them, two stickers (one of Sam and one of Sofia), an activity sheet, a world wall map, a "travel passport," and a "boarding pass" that allows access to online games and activities.

 

My 10 y/o daughter was very excited to open the suitcase and look at everything. She put the stickers on the suitcase to decorate it. She did the activity sheet (which had like a simple code, a hidden picture type thing, and an activity that she had to do using the world map, which involved finding different countries and seeing what their capitals were and writing them down, and then the letters that were in the circles spelled out what country Sam and Sofia will be visiting next month.

 

Then, once a month over subsequent months, she'll get an adventure pack that will contain a letter from Sam and Sofia, stickers she can decorate the suitcase with, a photograph of the country they are visiting, an activity sheet, some sort of souvenir from the country they are visiting, and a "passport stamp" so she can put a stamp in the travel passport each month. She'll also get a collectible boarding pass each month that will allow access to more activities and games on the online area.

 

Of course, she really wanted to go explore the online area but I made her finish school first. In a little while, I'm going to let her check out the online stuff, and then I'll update again as to what that was like.

 

Sometime before the end of the day tomorrow I will also post about it on my livejournal site and will include pictures, I'll let you guys know when I have it up on my site. :)

 

 

Wow, that came fast! I'm impressed. Sounds fun!

[NanceXToo]

Well, we checked out the online activity area and frankly I found it disappointing.

 

Today, she could only access the "World Map" area (she got a world map in her introductory package). Each month, she'll get another code so she can access more areas with activities pertaining to specific countries.

 

I guess I expected that there would be a decent amount to do online, though, and today there were only three games/activities to do in the section she can access now.

 

She played all three of them, doing everything she could possibly do, and you know how long it took?

 

Less than ten minutes.

 

There was a world trivia game that consisted of 10 multiple choice questions. She mostly just guessed the first go around and only got 4 right. Then she played it again- the same ten questions, with the answers listed in a different order. That time she got 9 right. She played it a third time- the same ten questions. That time she got them all right. It took 4 minutes to play it three times.

 

Next was a "world map puzzle"- she moved big jigsaw puzzle pieces until she formed the picture of the world map. It took maybe a minute and a half tops.

 

Last was a "continent" game- it listed various countries and she had to click on the continent they belonged to. That took maybe three minutes.

 

So she spent maybe 9 minutes total on there, and then there was nothing else to do.

 

I said, "I thought there would be more to it than that."

 

She said, "Yeah... but it was still fun, though." She then shrugged and went off to do something else.

 

So if you're going to buy this, don't let the online section be a huge reason. There's not much to it. But she still enjoyed receiving the things in the mail, and I guess if we want to learn more about each country as the info comes, we can do that on our own with books, videos, music, crafts, recipes, and so on, as desired.

 

It'll be a month or so but when we are able to access one of the sections for a specific country, I'll update as to whether that's as limited as this first section was. I suspect it will be.

[NanceXToo]

I wanted to update again, especially because I just saw that Little Passports can now be purchased for 25 percent off, via homeschoolbuyersco-op!

 

We got our first "country package" (Brazil) toward the end of January. Alexa (10) was excited to get mail and excited to open it up and see what was inside.

 

It came with an adventure letter from Sam and Sophia and a photo of a monkey that they referenced in their letter. There was a Brazil sticker to put on the suitcase she'd received for the first month of our subscription. There was a Brazil passport "stamp" to put in her "passport." There was a map marker to put on the Brazil area of the map (she'd received the map in her first month's subscription as well).

 

There was an activity sheet, part of which, again, had to be done using the map, and she enjoyed doing that.

 

There was a souvenir which happened to be a chunk of amethyst, which had also been referenced in the "adventure letter," and she loved it because she's always been into things like rocks and fossils and gems and so on.

 

Lastly, she got another "boarding pass" that provided a code to access another area on the online section. Again, only three new games/activities were unlocked and they didn't take a whole lot of time to do.

 

In my last update I said I was disappointed by that- but I've changed my mind. The main idea isn't playing online. It's getting mail, seeing what's in it, doing the activity sheets, getting the souvenirs, decorating the travel suitcase and learning more on the map, and then following up in whatever way you want to in order to learn more about the country. Maybe you'd want to read books (we read a book about the rain forest for example) or practice a language or cook a recipe or do a craft or listen to the region's music or whatever!

 

Besides, after getting packages for 23 countries or whatever it is, I imagine there eventually WILL be a decent amount to do online, too.

 

You can read my review of it and see photographs of it here:

 

http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/174422.html

[krisandpaula]

I'm so excited that homeschoolbuyersco-op.com is offering this at up to 25% off! I have wanted to try it for so long and this is just the little push that I needed to go for it! I think I might get my niece a set for her birthday as well. Woohoo!

:party:

[ElizaG]

For those who have looked into both Little Passports and Highlights' Top Secret, would you mind giving your opinions and describing the differences?

 

We picked up one of the Top Secret books (Mexico) at a used book sale, and have enjoyed reading it. I looked into subscribing at the time, and it didn't seem worth it, but maybe I'm just looking at it from a jaded adult perspective. ;) My children love getting stuff in the mail.

[Satori]

We got both of these services when my daughter was 4, and that is probably too young of age to get these. :) Now that she's 6, I broke out both the Little Passports and Top Secret Adventures and now they're just perfect. Top Secret Adventures goes into more detail, with a pamphlet and puzzle, but Little Passports you always get something different and cool, along with a little story and word puzzle(s).

 

We just got a little stuffed animal tiger for one of the Little Passport countries that my daughter loves. They have neat little ideas and it's always a treat to see what comes in the mail next.

 

I stopped both services after getting about six months worth, and I'll be starting up both again now that they're more age appropriate.

 

For Little Passports, I asked if I could pay a lump sum to get all their countries at once, and they said yes. So that's a possibility for people if you don't go through the co-op.

[NanceXToo]

For Little Passports, I asked if I could pay a lump sum to get all their countries at once, and they said yes. So that's a possibility for people if you don't go through the co-op.

 

Yeah but my daughter loves anticipating the mail each month and being the one to run out and get it and having something to look forward to and so on lol.

[Wheres Toto]

For Little Passports, I asked if I could pay a lump sum to get all their countries at once, and they said yes. So that's a possibility for people if you don't go through the co-op.

 

How much was it to get all at once? This certainly is a good way to do it if you want to use them out of order. We have centralized mailboxes so my kids don't ever get to run and get the mail anyway. To them it would make no difference if I pulled it out of the mailbox or out of a closet.

[Satori]

I didn't get a quote yet, as we only need 7 countries to complete the whole set of what they have available now. I just asked for a quote for those, including shipping and will post it here when I hear back.

 

My daughter can't "run" to our mailbox, as it's a few miles away and we need a key, hehe. I would rather have all the countries here for when we need them, rather than wait up to two years. It is fun to get things in the mail, but we have enough penpals and fun subscriptions to get something almost everyday.

[Scrapmom3]

My Ds loves getting these packages in the mail! So far we have received 5 country packets and it's been fun to see what he will receive. I know in advance which country will be coming for that month, so I make sure to check out some library books in case we want to read more. We are using some of the resources in Galloping the Globe too. We also study one animal from the country. Ds is making a countries notebook.

 

Last fall, they had a sale and I signed up for the second year of countries as well.

[BatmansWife]

A few weeks ago we got our first package, the suitcase and map, etc. I got ours off of eBay. My dd is 7 and loves it. The hardest part for her is waiting a month to get the next one. We haven't had it long enough to give a review...but I will say that I am slightly disappointed by the map. If you look at Nance's link that she gives for her blog, scroll down to see the map. The oceans are a cream color, not blue. :confused: Antarctica is blue. This confuses my daughter. She was looking at Antarctica and said..."mom..look! Here's a river!" But, it was actually part of Antarctica (blue) jutting out into the ocean (creamy white). I think that was a poor decision for whoever made or approved that map. But...anyway, other than that I like it.

[Paula Miles]

How exciting!

 

I have been teaching my 1st grader some USA geography. I love this idea to expand our horizons! I just signed her up. Thank you! )

[AngelBee]

I think the big appeal for my boys would be the little suitcases. That, and maybe getting mail each month. I'm not sure if they would like the activities, though. And they would fight over the suitcase and I'm not buying two subscriptions, so I think it's a no for me.:tongue_smilie:

This is the issue for us too.

[AngelBee]

You know.....I think I am going to set up boxes myself for each of my kids.

 

I can print activities, make up characters, print suitcase labels, etc myself. And pick up country treasures at the dollar store.

 

Hmmm.....or do spy kits for the boys. Thinking....

 

Then I could put them on the front porch as though they came in the mail! :D