The idea of going from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. to New York with my 5 and 7-year-old boys last month worried me. Would they freak out on the plane if there was too much turbulence (and by they, I mean me)? Was it really as easy a drive from Maryland to D.C. as my husband said? Would they be okay with the trip on the train from D.C. to New York?
After all of that worrying, everything went really well. I somewhat held it together on the plane and my kids loved all of the running around from place to place. One thing that helped the travel run smoothly was their backpacks. They were filled with books, snacks, and a few toys.
There was no time to fuss or complain because they had so much to occupy themselves. JetBlue and PBS also see the value in keeping kids occupied. They are having a summer program where children who fly on JetBlue get an activity kit that includes a book. My kids received one (after our trip) and they loved it (theirs came with a Magic Treehouse book and they love Magic Treehouse).
JetBlue is also holding a contest to allow people to nominate their favorite library to win $10,000 of books from Random House. You can find the contest at the joint venture of JetBlue and PBSKids called Soar With Reading. Parents can create a summer reading list and track how many minutes the kids are reading.
We’re halfway through the summer now and our next trip will be a camping one. Until then, we’ll be creating our reading list and hitting the library.