While talking to my friend David Vanderpoel about staying connected with the kids while traveling, David shared a great idea.
When he travels, he sometimes goes to the local library and checks out two copies of the same book: one to travel with and one to stay home with his family. I thought that was a great idea. (David has a lot of great ideas.)
As I learned while writting the books, for kids 4-8 years old "rituals and routines" are really important in establishing a sense of security. Unfortunately, business travel disrupts both. But that's the beauty of his idea. Reading the story, seeing the same pages, even the both hearing the sound of turning pages helps keep the experince connected. All that helps preserve an important ritual and routine.
Amazon if you're reading, think about a special offer for business traveling parents.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Amazon wishes they thought of this: Get two books
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4 comments:
Hey Tom - sometimes I work in Atlanta, too, but the family lives in MA. With two boys (8 and 6) I've thought of the two-book strategy myself but never actually did it. Just switched to Mac and we are trying iTalk but for some reason it seems to engender nothing but silly behavior from the kids -- better than nothing but forget asking about the homework!
Good blog - keep it up!
Great blog, Tom. Never thought of the two-book strategy, but may be using in the next few weeks for some travel I have. The side benefit I think will be having my wife also feel like I am connected at home while on the road.
Love the Mac idea as well. In fact, blogged about it in April 05!
I was gun-ho enough to carry two computers (work issue IBM; personal Apple). Here's a challenge with iSight that you might want to know about: you need a rock solid, fast connection otherwise it won't work (you'll time out of the session).
To be honest, I've cut back because (a) it didn't work all the time and (b) it was killing my back carrying all that stuff.
All that said, when it does work, it's awesome. The kids saw live video of the Bospherous Straights from my hotel in Istanbul!
A slightly lighter solution to this has been using Audible to listen to books with the kids, you can burn or download to ipod and then sahre the experience. They a tremendous range of children's fiction. We often listen together on long flights. (No Harry Potter though). www.audible.com
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