Saturday, August 21, 2010

Review: Curious George Travel Activity Kit

Credit: Courtesy of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
The "Curious George Travel Activity Kit" comes with a variety of things to keep your little one amused no matter which way you travel—boat, train, plane, car or magic time machine. Inside the sturdy cardboard case is an activity/coloring book that provides all sorts of activities for the older set and plenty of opportunities to color for the younger set. Speaking of which I love that this comes with 3 dual-sided crayons (three less things to keep track of). Just be mindful if traveling by car that wax melts if left out in the sun too long. (We found that one out the hard way.) Even, with a little melting there is still lots of coloring fun to be had. And, two pages of stickers to boot.

In addition to the fun solo “doing” activities above there are more relaxed activities like a classic story book and a 3-story CD complete with page turn signals. I love that these books include the “page turn” signals as it was a part of reading books (on dare I say records growing up) that I really enjoyed and it’s nice to share that with my son. Kids can follow along with the first story and listen to the second two. Great for a car CD player or to transfer on to an iPod for other forms of travel that might not have a CD player handy.

The last thing in this kit is a set of 52 Curious George cards that come along with two suggestions for play, “Go Bananas” (think Go Fish) and “Curious Monkey (think Old Maid). Although my little guy is two young for these games, we used the cards for a good old fashioned game of MEMORY and we’ve had lots of fun with it. We first started with just a few cards and added more and more as he got the hang of it.

We really enjoyed this kit (even with the whole crayon melting situation). My only suggestion for the kit would be the same thing I mentioned with the last “book with CD” that I reviewed. I wish there was a code for a download of the audio inside the cover along with the CD.

If you would like to WIN A COPY of this book/kit (I’ll even pay the shipping.) leave a comment below with a game your family played while traveling or that you play with your kids now when you are on the go. Please be sure to leave your first and last name in your comment(s). Each person may leave up to two comments. Additional entries will not be counted when selecting a winner. A winner will be chosen at random on August 27, 2010 at 11:59pm. Winner has 72 hours to claim their book. If not claimed a new winner will be selected. Tell your friends, tell your family--spread the word. Good Luck!

[Disclosure:I was provided with a copy of this book to review at no charge and was given an additional copy to give away to one lucky reader. This review is completely my own opinion and was in no way influenced by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing.]

7 comments:

  1. Love it! My family was big into the alphabet game... another fun game we would play when heading to da U.P.; the first one of us who would see the Mackinaw Bridge would get a dollar. Does that count as a travel game? ;)

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  2. Certainly counts to me! :) Remember you can leave two comments to increase your chances of winning.

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  3. It's been a while so I dont' remember exactly how the games went, but one was with trying to find words on signs that went from a to z and one was trying to make words out of the letters on license plates. ~Alisyne

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  4. Our game was seeing who could get yelled at first by mom and/or dad. Of course, I NEVER won that game :) Jodi

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  5. Love the games. Keep 'em coming and remember each of you can leave one more comment for a second chance. Tell your friends to leave their favorite games too. :)

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  6. Twenty Questions! Animal, Mineral or Vegetable?I think we were the only 5 and 7 year olds that knew what "omnivorous" and "mammal" meant. Of course, I don't think anyone ever picked the "mineral" category.
    Recently brought back an old favorite..."I see something you don't see..." Works on boat trips too!
    -Anna Kakel

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  7. We used to do the old "I'm going on a trip" game. We would go around the car in order adding something to the trip list. On your turn you would add an item and then recite from memory all the other items others had said. It'd eventually be, "I'm going on a trip and I'm bring a (new item goes here)...a toothbrush, a robe, my swimsuit, some shampoo, etc, etc, etc.Of course, the person who could remember the longest would win.

    We'd try the "who can be quiet the longest?" It never lasted very long cause someone eventually got pinched or tickled, but it usually changed the mood for the better. It worked best when there was a watch that everyone could keep track of the time on. Alison Deary

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