Try the Magic Tree House series. They are fiction with history and science facts woven in. There was one all about the jungle that my daughter referred to regularly while trekking.

Children's books were very expensive in Southeast Asia. We found few at used book locations or book trade locations. However, I did find that classics like Heidi, The Jungle Book, etc. that have passed their copyright date were rather inexpensive to purchase. My daughter loved being able to discuss what she was reading with me (my childhood favorites).

quote:

Try the Magic Tree House series

YES! These are great books for young readers. My daughter had read the whole series a few years before we left, but I was still very sad to part with them when we took off.

I kept two of the Magic Tree books with us and I am so glad that we did. One was about a trip in time back to the Olympic games and meeting Plato too.

Even though she is well beyond that level now, she really enjoyed reading it the morning that we toured Olympia in Greece and I think it really added to her enjoyment.

It brought a kid level to the whole place.We put olive branches in her hair and she got to race her dad on the very track the ancients ran on.Books really help children connect to place:

http://www.soultravelers3.com/blog/E420B93E-FBAD-4926-A0C7-D0FD4CDE3A41.html

The other one we brought was about Pomeii and we are headed to Italy again as we speak making sure we experience that before heading home to Spain for the winter.

We were happy to find new kids classic books very cheap in Dubrovnik. I hear Florence has a good English bookstore that we will check out. Of course Paris has the fabulous Shakespeare and Company where they have tons of kids books too.

Sometimes the books we have found in Museums have been really wonderful. I always ask if they have an English version. We got a fabulous one in Athens that was made by the British Museum with lots of fun things on archeology for kids which helped with our ancient civilizations tour.

We just found a great book on the Magic Flute in Salzburg. We were seeing a lot of Mozart houses, music and operas , so it fit right in with what we were experiencing and made it richer. We found two on Mozart as well and I have listed or will list them on the blog.

Kids books...ah, love the topic!

For young kids

"Toot & Puddle" by Holly Hobbie (Scholastic)

Two little pigs are best friends. One likes to stay home while the other goes on a trip around-the-world. Despite their differences, they remain best friends.
It's very cute... The pictures are great... I love it!

Toot and Puddle are the best books about travel EVER. I regularly by them and hand them out for Christmas, birthdays, christenings, etc. And sometimes for graduations...

Buy them?
I didn't know there was more than one..
Very good then!

We just returned from camping thru parts of Europe for almost four weeks with our five children. I wanted to mention Diane Stanley books. I loved her book on Michelangelo, Leonardo DaVinci and read the Joan of Arc one after we visited Rouen France.
Here is a link to her books
http://www.dianestanley.com/Books/Biographies/Biographies.htm

Just thought I would put my latest idea on here, although I don't know too much about it or how it would work for kids.

Maybe someone else can pipe in and tell us more ( or I will when I have more info).

They will probably have this down great by the time you go Mamoo.

I am talking about e-readers.. there are a couple cool ones just coming out one by sony and one by amazon. They are expensive, but I think they will get refined and there are cheaper things on the market.

One of our problems is books, we love them and we have a ton and I want to order a ton more for next years travel.

BUt even in an RV, you only have so much room. My child is like a starving book banchie now that we are back in Spain and we have all her books out of storage.She is devouring everything in sight.

I took a ton, but it still was not enough for my compulsive reader for 7 months, so she had to do lots of repeat reading. NOt that is bad, but more variety would be better.

Thus I am trying to come up with another approach...like maybe an e-reader of some sort.

Anybody out there used something like this for kids? What are the pros and cons?

We too have a bunch of prolific readers here and it's the one thing concerning me - more than money or itinerary
We have noticed a lot of books are available online (see www.amblesideonline.org for lots of links) We haven't done it yet, but are going to see if we can download the books onto our lappy and take them that way. Of course that won't solve the problem entirely (ever seen 8 kids trying to read the same book at the same time?), but at least we'll be set for family-read-aloud sessions, which we do every day at home and expect to continue on the road. OTOH, we might be so busy writing our own book that we don't have as much time for the hours of reading we do ATM!!!

You amaze me mama-to-many!!

You are going to need the books probably more than at home. It IS a bigger challenge than money or itinerary.

I have heard from a friend that lives in China, that one can sometimes use an International school's library. She has done that, but I have not found in successful yet ( haven't tried too hard as we do have lots of books with us).

I know about the online books, but we have not used them yet. We are thinking about getting our child her own computer as we are often busy on the other two when we have down time.

I can not even wrap my mind around a multi year RTW trip with 8 kids who are prolific readers and are homeschooling. Just dealing with one is a headache. The books and music lessons are our biggest challenges.

I do know a RTWer who had books sent to her at various locations and then sent the others back to grandma but that sounds like too much of a hassle for us. My mom sent us a ton last year which was stressful for her and now she has to deal with her husbands cancer.

I just met an expat who has a cheap one of those e-readers which keeps her in endless books.

We do lots of family reading, but my little one would be lost with out a book in her hand and it is so handy on things like long bus,train,ferry rides. I took a ton this year ( took up most of our storage in the small RV) and she went thru them all quickly so was rereading and rereading. Which is ok up to a point, she was like a hungry bear when we got back to Spain and she had a big fresh supply that we stored.

We use to get bagfuls of books every week ( sometimes twice a week) at the library and that is the one thing we really miss. When we see an English language bookstore, you would think my child had discovered the greatest thing on earth.

If you travel slow, books are really needed. I am still brainstorming this one.I would love to hear any and all ideas!

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Just dealing with one is a headache.

What I mean is dealing with the challenges. Now the trip itself is wonderful...the best thing we ever did and much of it is easier than we expected.

I think you will be doing some travel and some staying in one place for a while and that is a great way to do it with kids.

Perhaps you can have someone mail you some books for your long stay places and you can mail them back when you leave?

I flew my 13 year old daughter to Bangkok this summer. I was concerned about what she'd do on a 18 hour, non-stop flight and also concerned about entertaining once she arrived. I bought a family ebook at travel with kids. It helped quite a bit and guided me on where to take her and where not too go.

Thanks Dert, that looks like a fun link!

Mama-to-many
I have been doing more research on ebooks and audio books and i am really pleased with all that is available.

There are tons of great things available for free and even many low price options. It will be a really big help for us in coming years of travel.

It will be harder for you with all those kids and just one laptop, but it will work for those family read alouds. I am not sure what the various smaller e-reader options are or cost, but that might be something you could look into for them to share. My understanding is that you can find some good ones ( maybe second hand) for fairly cheap. Just a thought.

Thanks ST3...there really is quite a range out there, isn't there? We're still getting our head round the logistics....but worst case scenario is that our kids go read the world for a year or so!

I don't know if this has been mentioned. G.A Henty wrote some nice books on History or stories that could have happened in History with some accurate information within the story.

I know nothing about ebooks...but his books were mentioned on my homeschool board as being free on this site to download (does that make it an ebook????) I am clueless.

Just thought I would share
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/h#a1032

If you go to wikipedia I think they list his books in two ways, from the time he wrote them and also a list on when they happened in History.

We are reading our first one "The Cat of Bubastas". The writing is so rich, it leaves us with a list of words to look up and we are loving it!

I think it is above all of my children but my 9 year old, however my 4 (almost 5) and 6 (almost 7) year old are without a doubt understanding enough of it to atleast enjoy and ask some questions.

Neve

Thanks Mamoo,
I have just fallen in love with gutenberg and free online books, but it is always good to hear personal experience. I knew about this source before, but I did not look as deeply as I have to now.

We have just too many books as it is for a traveling family, so I can not buy any more books, yet I have a reader who has endless thirst.

So e-books have become our new best friends for the road! We will take as many good books that we can fit into the RV ( but it was not enough last year) and will use the free ( or other wise) e-books to supplement.


This is an amazing resource for a traveling family and we have been enjoying reading some together as we get our self use to the format.

We go in and out of internet connection on the road, so we will load up a bunch on her laptop for those occasions where we will not have internet.


We are eclectic homeschoolers, but like much about classical education, so it is great for that too. There are tons of wonderful books available for free.