As a camp director and all around advocate for our Tumbleweed motto - Unplug, Explore, Play More - I am often trying to bring camp and educational experience back home with me. While this is usually a seamless transition (like doing friendship bracelets or testing out a new riddle), sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge, especially when the rest of society tries to tell my kids that staring at a screen will solve their problems. And this leads us to road trips.
Let's face it, being in the car with kids, especially younger ones, can be challenging. Even my toddler thinks that life in the car would be better if he could watch movies and stare at an Ipad the whole time. And while a few camp songs can keep them entertained for a while, even I as a camp director can't listen to camp and kid songs for too long! Depending on how far you are driving, you also don't want to take the whole play room with you either. Between throwing snacks, toys, and books aimless towards yelling kids and trying to listen to whatever is on Spotify, my mind starts to melt. After a road trip up to visit family in Napa, I decided to search for some kid-focused, grownup-friendly podcasts that we could all listen to. Whether you are planning to drive during the Winter Break, or have some travel coming up when our state is in a safer place, I hope you enjoy these podcast recs!
Story Pirates: These hilarious and sometimes bizarre stories are part theater, part song, and part kid-created stories. They are semi-serialized so you can follow along to a few or jump in wherever you like. Plus, many of their stories are submitted by kids from around the country and might even inspire your campers to write in stories of their own!
Brains On: Quick, interesting and nerdy episodes that focus on science and wonder. We LOVE Brains On - it's real science for all ages. I can think of multiple occasions where we listened to Brains On and then did a deeper dive into whatever the topic was for the rest of the week.
10 News: In our search to find a kid-friendly version to Pod Save America (hello friends of the pod), we found 10 News. It's a great place to hear news of the day at an age appropriate level.
Hank the Cowdog: Landshark (aka Andy Kimmelman aka my husband) grew up with Hank the Cowdog, apparently a Dallas classic (I'm an New Englander myself). When he heard that Matthew McConaughy voiced the famous Hank the Cowdog, he had to listen. And I must say, it's pretty entertaining (especially when driving through farmland).