My Flock of Five

Hi, there! It's a busy week and I'm here with a short post on some of the activities we've been doing around the home lately. The weather here has been pretty nice, but it's just hard to get all three kids out on week nights when I'm already tried from working all day. These are great activities for when you can't go out because of weather or when you can't go out just because you don't have the energy to.

1. Painting with Food 

Grab those fruit and veggies that aren’t quite bad but won’t taste too good either and dip them in some paint. Let your kids use them as stamps on paper and having a blast with the different textures and shapes.

2. Blanket Fort

Round up all your throw pillows and cartoon character blankies and make an amazing fort on top of kitchen chairs. Perfect for playing games, eating snacks, or watching a movie.

3. Make a Book 

Get some paper and some crayons. Write and illustrate a story with your kids and then read it together!

4. Dance Party 

Turn on you favorite dance songs and jump around with your kids. The bonus to this one is that it helps get their energy out!

5. Puppet Show 

Grab some stuffed animals and something to get behind. Take turns performing for each other and laughing away. For extra fun, video it so that they can watch it from a different perspective.

 6. How to Draw YouTube Tutorials 

These are so fun! You can find just about any subject your kids want to draw and the videos are even at varying age and skill levels.

 7. YouTube Yoga 

More YouTube! There are a lot of kid yoga videos. It stretches them out and entertains them! 

8. Baking 

Kids love to eat sweets and they love to make them, too. I measure everything out and then let them pour them in and stir. Depending on the ages of your kids, they could do more or less!

 9. Taste Testing - This was a fun one we did a few weeks back. We just bought small snacks from a couple of different stores and compared the tastes. We kept a tally to see which store had the better store-brand snacks.

10. Card Making 

What holiday is coming up? Doesn’t matter how insignificant of a holiday or how far away - your kids will love making cards for it! There are loads of designs and ideas for any holiday card on Pinterest, or you can just let them draw!

When it comes to traveling with kids, it can be really challenging. It’s more expensive and less relaxing. Depending on the age of your kids, it requires many more stops for everything from feeding the baby to diaper changes to potty breaks and “don’t-make-me-turn-this-car-around” lectures. It’s easy to just keep putting it off. It’s easy to say, “when they’re just a little bit older, we’ll go.” But I have found with my own kids that it is worth the power struggles and extra stops. And here’s why.

#3 Traveling Builds Relationships 

Traveling gives you a unique opportunity to just love on your littles. Of course, you always love them, but it’s usually alongside a busy routine. When you occasionally take them out of the ordinary, it’s incredibly special to them. They recognize that this is something different and they get to see you in a different light, too. Now maybe you’re the mom that builds a sandcastle with them on the beach or looks at dinosaur bones with them in a museum instead of just the mom that nags them to eat all their food and put their shoes on in less than 2.5 hours. When traveling, you can be making their best memories without even realizing it. We took a weekend trip to the beach when my daughter was four and she still talks about it as one of her very favorite times.

#2 Traveling Provides Unique Teaching Opportunities

Again, you’re taking them out of their element and out of their routine. This means a couple of different things. It means that it will be trying for your kids. Yes, it’s exciting for them, but it’s also exhausting and full of unknown factors. They have to cope with long days and no usual schedule, but this is good for them. I promise. As humans, we have to be able to adapt. We need to learn to handle different situations and traveling takes your kids out of their comfort zones to do just that. As I mentioned before, it will require some extra patience on your part, but it’s worth it. You can minimize the struggle by preparing your kids ahead of time. Let them know what to expect by sharing your schedule with them each day and explaining anything they might not understand. Let them ask questions and encourage them to be excited about what’s going to happen. It goes such a long way and will make your trip so much better.

#1 Traveling Expands Their Worlds 

I really think this is the number one reason to travel with kids. In our lives, we get so used to seeing just the things and people around us. Especially for children, it’s easy for those worlds to become self-centered. It’s easy to think that our lives in our homes is all there is and all that matters. Traveling reminds us that we’re not the only ones in this world. You see new places, new people, new ways of life, and new cultures, making it impossible to believe that yours is the only one there or the only one that matters. None of us would actually ever say this, but this thinking is prevalent in our society and easy to fall into if we’re not careful. I didn’t realize just how many of my thoughts and opinions and prejudices came from the fact that I’m an American until I was surrounded by people of a completely different culture in a completely different country. I didn’t realize how many of my own personal morals came from my Christian faith until I was in a country of non-Christians. I learned these things after I became an adult and I wonder how much it would’ve changed if I had learned this as a child. I travel with my children so that they will know. They have heard another language and seen another religion. They’ve seen history and customs of other cultures and they know that the U.S. isn’t the only country that matters. Their worlds are bigger because they have traveled, and to me, that’s enough reason to bring them along.


Have you traveled with your kids? How far did you go? What were some positives that came out of bringing them along?

My brothers and I shared a room until I was about 11. I technically had my own space to keep my things and change my clothes, but, every night, I would head into their room and my little brother would make room on his full sized bottom bunk.

I didn't like to sleep in my room because I didn't like to sleep alone. I was afraid of the dark and monsters and bad guys, so my little brother would always make sure the night light was on and he checked under the bed for me. (yeah, he really was that sweet!)

Because of this, I always had this picutre in my mind of my own kids sharing a room.

Lisanna and Arrow are pretty close to the same age difference as my brother and me, so it made perfect sense that they would share a room.

We had a three bedroom house when Arrow was born, and we put his crib right across from Lisanna's in a really cute room that was half pink and half blue.


We quickly realized that wouldn't work. At first, Arrow would cry and wake Lisanna up or she would cry and wake him up. Then, as they got older, they'd stay up all night talking and giggling or one would keep the other more tired child awake until they came and told. We cleared out the storage room and moved Arrow in there.

Since then, the kids have always had separate rooms.

Recently, we lost the remote for the heater in Arrow's room. In Japan, there's no central heat so you have to heat each individual room. Being that it's January, it's far too cold for Arrow to sleep in a room without a heater, so we put out a pallet and put him in Lisanna's room.

The transformation in the two kids was amazing. Fighting bedtime all but stopped, Arrow quit wetting the bed, and they woke up more rested in the morning. We had them like this for a week and then decided to make the change permanent.

Here are 3 reasons that led us to make that decision!

1. They sleep better!

This was obviously a big selling point. Ever since we switched Arrow from a crib (about a year and a half ago) we've had issues with him getting out of bed and playing with his toys. Putting him in one room with only beds and dressers fixes that problem for two reasons. Lisanna keeps him accountable (aka, she's a spy because she does NOT like to be woken up) and he doesn't have any toys to play with anyway. They're all in the playroom.

2. They're not alone.

I think just knowing that they're not alone has made a huge difference. One of the biggest bedtime fights we were constantly having with them was that they don't want to be alone. They're used to being together or being with us or being with friends. I remember the feeling. When I finally moved to my own room at 11, I was excited but a little sad that I had to sleep on my own. I remember that being the thing about marriage I was most excited about - no longer having to sleep alone! So I'm all for making the stretch of time they have to sleep without another human nearby a little shorter.

What is the longest plane ride you’ve ever been on?

I rode on a plane for the first time when I was 12 years old. I went on a mission trip to inner city Florida with my youth group, and I remember having such a terrible headache from the altitude change. The next time I flew was after I got married at 19 and I was so worried about the headache, but it didn’t even end up bothering me. Little did I know that I would one day be moving to a place that’s a 24 hour plane ride away, and we would be making the trip back annually.

The first time we came to Japan was when Arrow was around six months old. Since then, we’ve traveled back and forth from Japan and the U.S. every year. So we’ve made this plane trip four times. Each time it gets a little easier because the kids get a little older and we get a little more experienced, but now we’re going to make the trip with a baby again. As I’m racking my mind to remember all the things that helped with bringing a baby, I thought I’d share my tips for what to bring with your toddlers and kids!

First, let me mention two very important things that I’ve learned make a huge difference in how effective your carry-on items are.



1. Prepare your kids ahead of time. Going on a plane is a big deal for kids! Especially if it’s the first time, it can be very scary and overwhelming. We made sure to talk with our kids about the upcoming plane ride from the time that we booked it. We talked about what would happen, what it would sound like, and what it would feel like. We even watched a few different videos and children’s shows that showed riding on a plane. We discussed how long we would be on the plane and that we would ride it past bedtime and need to sleep while we were on it. We also discussed voice level expectations - we need to make sure we’re not yelling or talking loudly when other people are trying to sleep.

2. Make sure your kids are well rested. One year, we had the great idea that we would take the kids out sightseeing at our layover in Tokyo. We figured it would wear them out and they would just sleep for the whole plane ride. What actually happened was that they were over-tired, so there were so many tears and even a bathroom accident that would have never normally happened. We learned such an important lesson from this and now make sure our kids get a good night’s sleep and have a laid-back day before we take off.

Okay, now it’s really time for me to share the list with you! These are the things I’ve learned are absolutely necessary from spending over four days on airplanes with my kids.

1. Bring a carry-on your kid can actually carry. 

2. Bring surprises and build the anticipation. 

3. Bring snacks and drinks. 

4. Bring kid-sized headphones. 

5. Bring a change of clothes. 

6. Bring quiet toys. 

7. Bring a familiar pillow and blanket. 

8. Bring a car seat. 

That's all for me! What else would you add to this list?