FivePax is a family travel website focused on responsible and educational experiences involving nature and culture. Our goal is to make the concept of being responsible global citizens as native to our kids as cell phones are to millenials.
We are everyday folks with day jobs, yet we travel fairly extensively as a family of five. See how we do it in our guide on how to travel more with kids! Check out our posts on camping and hiking, road trips, and international travel, or follow us on Instagram or Facebook to see where we are headed next!
If the amount of time you are spending getting your kids ready to head outside to play is longer than the time you actually play outside… you might be a parent in winter. We have been there, and after conquering winter in several zones of the US with our four little ones, we have several snow-tested tips and tricks to cut down on the tears and increase your time actually having outdoor winter fun!
Read more
The FivePax house is a house of book lovers. I was a teacher and later worked for an early-literacy non-profit. So naturally, our kids had an impressive home library before they were born. This is not a casual interest, friends. I am a certified ‘kid’s book nerd’! Thankfully, our kids have also fallen in love with books and adventures that come through reading. Check out their absolute favorites, all listed here!
Read more
As we began our homeschool year and combing through curriculum after curriculum for toddlers and preschoolers I was simultaneously overwhelmed and unimpressed. The websites and books I found either required an expensive list of materials, hours of adult preparation time, or assistance of technology, sometimes all three. All of the things I was trying to avoid. Toddlers learn through play and the simpler, the better! Have you ever given your toddler a cardboard box? They don’t need expensive learning gadgets!
These ideas pulled from my years working in early education and largely inspired by our own kids’ interests and ideas are minimal set-up, inexpensive, and tech-free.
Read more
If you are like most people, a family camping trip usually starts off without a camping with kids checklist. It comes with grand ambitions of leaving early in the morning, pitching the tent together, some sort of recreational activity, and then relaxing by the fire roasting marshmallows while the Instagram worthy meal heats up and the picnic table is set. What usually happens, however, is a mad scramble to pack the car that extends close to noon, you end up at McDonald’s for a late lunch, and you pitch the tent in the dark while the kids groan about being hungry. You then realize you brought hot dogs, but forgot condiments. Trust me, I’m not throwing shade, we’ve been there more often than we’d like to admit! And you have landed here so we are making a few assumptions.
Fortunately, after three kids and countless outdoor adventures, we feel pretty good about the essentials of camping with toddlers and young kids. This break-down has been curated after years of fine-tuning for a minimalist list of car camping essentials and fun activities, leaving behind the camping gear you just don’t need!
Read more
If you plan to spend a lot of time on the trails, arguably the single most important piece of equipment you can own is appropriate footwear. A lot has been written about how to choose the best hiking boots, and there is even a recent heated debate in the hiking community about whether hiking boots are even the best tool for the job, but factors that go into hiking footwear decisions for children varies wildly from those for adults. This guide aims to help simplify the options and identify the best hiking boots or shoes for kids.
Read more
There are endless toys and games for toddlers out there. We have rounded up the BEST gadgets and gear for toddlers who love camping, hiking and exploring outside. This parent and toddler-approved holiday wish list will keep everyone safe and smiling in your adventures.
Happy Holidays!
Read more
If your back-to-school plans include a shake-up of routine and a reset you are definitely not alone.
A theme in our end-of-summer parent sideline chatter has been the much-anticipated reduction of screen time that comes with school and a new routine. If you have followed our family over on @fivepax social media for a while you know, we are all about that screen-free life. For years our kids watched cartoons on weekend mornings while we prepped for adventures. And then maybe a few hours on a rare afternoon when we the parents needed to get some work done.
As the older kids have gotten bigger we have extended to 3 hours of tech each week with more hours available to be earned through chores. We have had a million things in our favor (a kiddo with screen anxiety to start). But we have also made a lot of intentional decisions as well. And we stick to them even when our kids let us know how unfair it seems. More on how below.
But let’s be real, it’s hard. Really hard to both set limits yes, but to stick to them.
Here are 5 strategies to help your family cut back on screen time that don’t feel like a dreaded punishment for everyone involved. These tips will leave you feeling confident about how to limit screen time for kids and set everyone up for a successful school year.
Read more
