Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in portland, OR

Konichiwa Japan!

June 29, 2009

Having just survived a nine day trip with my daughter, all the travel I'm down for in the next few weeks involves our imagination and the internet! Just a two hour time difference continues to wreck havoc in our household even four days after our return, as my daughter continues to spring awake before six am and I'm still battling the piles of dirty laundry from our suitcases.

 My daughter shares my passion for collecting all things Hello Kitty and lately, we've been talking about making our dream of traveling to Japan come true. I've told my daughter we'll make there before she graduates high school; she's convinced she'll be packing her bags by the end of the month with all the nickels she's saved up (!) I've been planning a virtual trip, want to come along with us?

 --Check out the Little Travelers Japan DVD from your local library. This sweet movie follows the journey of two home-schooled children and their mother as they travel to various countries and immerse themselves in culture and joys of life. Join Chantel and Nakia as they explore daily life, cherry blossoms, and new foods in Japan! My daughter loves this series of films and is anxiously awaiting a new chapter of their travels. Very simple and captivating vignettes will keep even very young children interested.

 --Dream big, plan your trip and destinations online! Print out maps, chart your course, and let your children imagine all the places they will go. Send away for maps or scour thrift stores for old copies of National Geographic to find maps to pin up on the wall and use some yarn to detail your "journey". What animals live where you are going? What do people eat there? Make clothing or instruments that reflect the culture of the country you are investigating.

--Art can help take you there! We are going to make paper cranes, paint cherry blossoms, and create Hello Kitty themed paper dolls. My daughter and I are obsessed with pop culture and have fun collecting miniature sushi and other teeny tiny foods from Re-ment. Your investigations can be as simple as checking out a cd of traditional music from the library and dancing around the livingroom or as complex as recreating Roman architecture out of Model Magic! Have fun with it!

 --Sample foods you and your child may have never tried before. For Japan, we are making a trip to FuBonn for a sampler of Pocky, biscuits, noodles, and mochi. (You can also sneak in some interesting and unusual fruits and vegetables too!)

 --Learn to count to ten, or twenty in a foreign language! Check out  “Count Your Way Through Japan” or “I Live in Tokyo” for inspiration.

--Research the currency of the country you have chosen.
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Summer Day-Trip Destination: Bonneville Dam

June 08, 2009

"At Bonneville now there are ships in the locks
The waters have risen and cleared all the rocks,
Shiploads of plenty will steam past the docks,
So roll on, Columbia, roll on."

                 ---Woody Guthrie

Our family is going to be sticking close to home for the next three months and finding fun in our backyard, at the playground with school buddies, and taking advantage of the amazing low-cost classes through Portland Parks & Recreation. I know that there will come a day during summer vacation when we have to pack up and escape, even if it's just for several hours. The heat in a stuffy house can be unavoidable, the wading pool can only cut it for so long, and playdates can often dissolve into a sticky, crying mess during a heat wave. We like to pick a low-key destination and spend the day away from our house, it makes coming home so much easier.


Bonneville Dam is a super family friendly destination and is a perfect place to bring your family for a hasty escape from the Portland sun (assuming we see its return one of these days) . We like to pack up a picnic, jump in the car, and spend a good portion of the day hanging out and observing Herman the Sturgeon, feeding the fish, and enjoying the cool pockets of shade. The Bonneville Dam website features a fish cam so you can find out which fish are migrating through the fish ladders ahead of time. The Discover Your Northwest Bookstore/Gift shop has a very nice selection of educational books, stuffed animals, and rocks/minerals. There may be guided tours available, check with the visitor center for upcoming talks on fish, power generation, or historical background of the dam. Be sure to bring your video camera because the spawning fish put on quite a show (we still have a great clip of my daughter squealing as fish attempt to jump up over a very tall wall)

June 13-14  Family Day in the Gorge at Multnomah Falls: This event provides a great opportunity to take the family to Multnomah Falls and participate in all kinds of fun activities.  Bonneville Lock and Dam rangers will be there leading activities for children of all ages.

Bonneville Dam is also a cool destination for family picnics or parties. You can reserve the picnic shelter for $30/half-day or $50/full-day

The trip out to the Dam takes about 30-40 minutes from Portland, depending on traffic, just about the length of a book on tape.
"To get to Bonneville Lock and Dam, take Interstate 84 to exit 40 or Washington State Highway 14 to milepost 40. The Bridge of the Gods, located about two miles upstream of the dam, provides public access between Oregon and Washington." The Visitor's Center is open daily from 9:00am-5:00pm. Call 541-374-8820 for information. Admission is FREE.

If you plan ahead of time, you can visit Multnomah Falls also and make a full-day trip out of your excursion! Print out a fish identification booklet or activity sheet from the Bonneville Dam website, pack up some snacks and outdoor games, and get some quality fish time (while your house cools down).

Marking a historical day with collage

by Sarah Gilbert

January 20, 2009

My six-year-old comes running to me nearly every day with a newspaper or magazine in hand, shaking it excitedly. "Mama, can you cut this out for me?" he asks, jumping up and down with glee. It's a photograph of Barack Obama, (unless it's of Michael Phelps, his other hero) and now history has clicked over one more time and these photographs will be precious memories one day.
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Martin Luther King, Jr.: Rebirth of service

by Sarah Gilbert

January 19, 2009

This weekend, my husband wondered aloud if there was anything new he could learn about Martin Luther King, Jr.; we both mourned the fact that, after 30-ish years of celebrating this day, and especially on the eve of the inauguration of the first black president of the U.S., we find it hard to find a suitable (and fresh) way of honoring MLK Jr's legacy. Is it just a day off? And then I read about  Read more...

Historical time: Plans for Obama's inauguration

by Sarah Gilbert

January 14, 2009

One friend is keeping all her kids out of school for next Tuesday morning, January 20; another is planning to bring her three-year-old along for an impromptu neighborhood parade, complete with drums and American flags. We're taking our two youngest to a party where we'll eat breakfast food and watch Barack Obama be sworn in as President of the United States. Our kids were involved in the  Read more...

Essential books to kids in Portland: All our love to Beverly Cleary

by Sarah Gilbert

November 25, 2008

When I first read the books of Beverly Cleary , it was at the Belmont Library, only a few miles away from the home of the spunky heroines of her world, Ramona Quimby, Henry Huggins, and Ellen Tebbits. They hop, skip and bicycle for all eternity on the northeast Portland streets of Klickitat, Tillamook, and Knott through Cleary's uncanny books; uncanny because they so wonderfully illustrate the  Read more...