Year 5, Day 347

It’s been over four months since our trip to Costa Rica, and Miles is still talking about it all the time. He tosses mentions of the country into conversations as though it’s one of our primary residences, like the only two places in the world are Charlotte and Costa Rica. No surprise, then, that he often asks exactly when we’re going back. Hey kid, I’d love to go back too, but unfortunately trips like that don’t come cheap!

Fortunately, Miles’s aunt and uncle started up a subscription to Little Passports for Christmas this year. Given the explosion of subscription boxes in the last decade, and remembering full-well how exciting it was* to get mail as a kid, I have wanted to find one that would appeal to Miles’s interests. He’s enjoyed his science kits in the past, but as fixated as he’s been on our vacation lately, I wanted to make sure to take full advantage of this time to show him something I don’t think I fully grasped until I was well into my teenage years — that the world is both huge, with a broad tapestry of cultures and experiences, and yet never so big that you can’t experience much of it.

Each month, a package arrives in the mail filled with books and activities related to somewhere different and exciting. This month’s box is devoted to Paris (one of my favorite cities) and includes things like a tiny canvas and easel with some watercolor paints. Last month’s included a dumpling recipe (which I’m still waiting on Miles to prepare for us). Little Passports has also given Miles his first real exposure to chapter books, which is proving to be a real game-changer at bedtime (Miles is always eager to get to the next part of the story).

We’re always planning our next exciting family trip (April should bring with it a pretty good domestic vacation), but in the absence of a globe-hopping lifestyle, it’s great to have a way to expose Miles to the world without having to leave the house!

_{* It’s STILL exciting to get mail when it isn’t junk. As an adult, this doesn’t happen much anymore.}