Don't forget to label your JAR with WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE
Is it not a pain when you go somewhere and you have to buy those CRAZY souvenirs? You know the ones that cost $$$, "Mama I need this", they bring them home, play with it for a little while, probably hit each other with it (sometimes requiring stitches at the local hospital ~ HISTORY) then all they do is take up room until you have that next NEIGHBORHOOD GARAGE SALE.....
Well, I want to give you another option where the kids can be creative, be detective's as they search out their treasure and create a family memoriers on your vacation! I want to do this by telling you my story of my adventure one summer.
It was a summer when my health was at its worst and my mother was at the beach with me and my children. She was walking the beach with Whitney (Chase building sandcastles as always like his daddy), who is a beachcomber like her grandmother and I. Boy, did she find something so wonderful! She came running to the house, at this time she was only about four, yelling, "Mama, Mama I found a Sea Horse". Well... I wasn't that sick. I knew my baby could not have found a sea horse. My mother followed her, a huge smile on her face, and I knew that it was something special. Whit opened her small, precious hands..... There it was a weathered, small, gold, plastic horse. ~ Her little Sea Horse.
See... We create our own Souvenirs. We don't need to go and make all those purchases. Our children are so good at finding their own little treasures. All we have to do is be like my mother, give them the gift of imagination! Take them on their own little adventures, hunting God's treasures, telling them about the broken shells and how God takes us broken and works with us. Tell them that the broken shells are the most precious shells because they are the ones most like us! There are no perfect shells, because there are no perfect people!
We have opportunities to give our children an empty jar and let them fill it with their memories.... All we have to do is just build the foundation to encourage the imagination of the child to fill it!
So.... The next trip you take, make sure you carry a jar for each child and let him fill it with his imagination and create his own collection of souvenirs! It may be filled with all rocks, but that's ok, It's their jar and their imagination!
Tip~ You want this to be a recycling project? Use a plastic mayonnaise jar for safety purposes for children when hunting for their treasurers! Everything will be FREE!
Another Free Collection for Kids:
Rock Collection~ Collect a rock from each place you go and write on the bottom the location that you picked it up. It is amazing how different rocks look from different places!
Some of my Favorite Rocks
My children have been to Australia and have brought me back rocks from the great rivers there. Free souvenirs and I love it! Teach them they don't have to spend money to give good gifts~ Gifts come from the heart, not the wallet! It will be a great lesson on saving money too!
YES, I collect rocks too!!!
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